Armenians, Azerbaijan trade blame more than breach of peace offer

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenian officers and Azerbaijan on Saturday accused each other of breaching a peace deal that ended six weeks of fierce preventing above Nagorno-Karabakh, and Azerbaijan’s leader threatened to crush Armenian forces with an “iron fist.”

The new clashes mark the 1st important breach of the peace deal brokered by Russia on Nov. 10 that observed Azerbaijan reclaim command around broad swathes of Nagorno-Karabakh and encompassing lands which were being held by Armenian forces for far more than a quarter-century.

Separatist officers in Nagorno-Karabakh stated the Azerbaijani armed forces released an attack late Friday that left a few community ethnic Armenian servicemen wounded.

Russian peacekeepers deployed to the region to keep track of the peace deal documented a violation of the cease-fire in the Gadrut region on Friday. The report issued Saturday by the Russian Protection Ministry did not assign blame.

Afterwards in the day, the Armenian Protection Ministry also charged that the Azerbaijani army mounted an attack in the south of Nagorno-Karabakh on Saturday.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev reacted on Saturday by blaming Armenia for the new clashes and threatened to “break its head with an iron fist.”

“Armenia should not check out to start it all above again,” Aliyev said during a meeting with best diplomats from the United States and France who have tried using to mediate the a long time-outdated conflict. ”It have to be really cautious and not prepare any armed service motion. This time, we will completely wipe out them. It mustn’t be a solution to any individual.”

Azerbaijan’s Protection Ministry stated in a statement late Saturday that its forces thwarted Armenian “provocations” and restored the cease-fire.

Armenian officers mentioned the fighting raged in the vicinity of the villages of Hin Tager and Khtsaberd, the only settlements in the Gadrut area that are nevertheless controlled by Armenian forces. They noted that the two villages have been totally encircled by the Azerbaijani army, which controls the only street foremost to them.

Nagorno-Karabakh lies in just Azerbaijan but was underneath the manage of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia due to the fact a separatist war there finished in 1994. That war remaining Nagorno-Karabakh alone and substantial bordering territory in Armenian fingers.

In 44 days of combating that started in late September and still left more than 5,600 men and women killed on each sides, the Azerbaijani army pushed deep into Nagorno-Karabakh, forcing Armenia to accept very last month’s peace offer that saw Azerbaijan reclaim much of the separatist location together with bordering areas. Russia deployed practically 2,000 peacekeepers for at least 5 decades to keep track of the peace deal and to facilitate the return of refugees.

Azerbaijan marked its victory with a army parade on Thursday that was attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and included additional than 3,000 troops, dozens of military services vehicles, and a flyby of fight plane.

The peace offer was a key shock for Armenians, triggering protests contacting for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikola Pashinyan, who has refused to step down. He explained the peace agreement as a bitter but needed go that prevented Azerbaijan from using around all of Nagorno-Karabakh.

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Involved Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, and Aida Sultanova in London, contributed to this report.