A senior Armenian official said late on Wednesday that a ceasefire had been agreed with Azerbaijan after two days. violence involved in a decades-long dispute between former Soviet states over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
There has been no word from Azerbaijan about a truce to stop the bloodiest exchanges between the countries since 2020.
Russia is the leading diplomatic force in the region and maintains 2,000 peacekeepers there. Moscow brokered the deal to end the 2020 fighting – known as the second Karabakh war – that left hundreds dead.
Russian news agencies quoted Armen Grigoryan, secretary of the Armenian Security Council, as telling Armenian television: “Thanks to the participation of the international community, a ceasefire has been reached.”
The announcement said the truce had been in effect for several hours. The Armenian Defense Ministry earlier said shootings in border areas had stopped.
Each side blames the other for the fresh skirmishes.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had earlier told parliament that 105 Armenian servicemen had been killed since the violence began this week.
Azerbaijan reported 50 service members killed in the first day of fighting. Reuters was unable to verify the accounts of either party.
Grigory Karasin, a senior member of Russia’s upper house of parliament, told RIA news agency that the truce was largely due to Russia’s diplomatic efforts.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to Pashinyan, he said. Putin called for calm after violence broke out and other countries called for restraint on both sides.
In his speech to parliament, Pashinyan said his country had called on the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization to help restore its territorial integrity.
“If we say that Azerbaijan has carried out an aggressive action against Armenia, it means that it has tried to establish control over some territories,” Russia’s Tass agency quoted him as saying. .
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been fighting for decades in Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region recognized as part of Azerbaijan while home to a large Armenian population.
Fighting first broke out towards the end of Soviet rule, and Armenian forces gained control of large swaths of territory in and around it in the early 1990s. Azerbaijan, supported by Turkey, which recaptured much of this territory within six weeks in 2020.
Since then, skirmishes have broken out periodically despite meetings between Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev aimed at reaching a comprehensive peaceful resolution.
Domestic discontent in Armenia over the 2020 defeat has led to many protests against Pashinyan, who has denied reports that he has signed an agreement with Baku.
In a Facebook post, he blamed the reports as “disinformation vandalism directed by unfriendly forces”.
A full-blown conflict would risk dragging in Russia and Turkey, destabilizing a vital corridor for oil and gas pipelines, and war in Ukraine disrupting supplies. energy.
Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan said the clashes could escalate into a war – a second major armed conflict in the former Soviet Union while Russian troops focus on Ukraine.
Azerbaijan accused Armenia, which is in a military alliance with Moscow and home to a Russian military base, of shelling its military units.
Baku said Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov met with US State Department Caucasus adviser Philip Reeker and told him Armenia had to withdraw from Azeri territory.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday said Russia could “stir up the pot” or use its influence to help “calm the waters”.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, in a call with her counterparts from both countries, also called for “an end to strikes against Armenian territory”.
