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Armenia Says Situation 'Unchanged' As Truce With Azerbaijan Appears To Hold [1]

["Rfe Rl'S Armenian Service", "Rfe Rl'S Azerbaijani Service"]

Date: 2022-09

The Armenian Defense Ministry on September 16 said a truce with Azerbaijan appeared to be holding and the "situation was unchanged" at the border following a deadly flare-up in fighting linked to a decades-old dispute between the Caucasus neighbors over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

"As of [9 a.m.] on September 16, no change in the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border has been recorded, said the ministry's press secretary, Aram Torosian.

The clashes that had erupted on September 13 -- the worst since the two sides fought a war in 2020 -- ended "thanks to the international involvement" overnight on September 15, Armenia's Security Council said, after earlier failed attempts by Russia to broker a truce.

Azerbaijan has not officially confirmed the cease-fire, which was initially announced by Armenia's Security Council.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on September 16 announced an updated death toll from this week's clashes with Azerbaijan, saying the number of the dead had risen from 105 to at least 135.



"For the moment, the number of dead is 135," Pashinian told a cabinet meeting.

"Unfortunately it is not the final figure. There are also many wounded."

Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said on September 15 that a total of 71 of its servicemen had been killed during clashes this week on the border with Armenia, updating a previous death toll of 50.



Azerbaijan has said it is ready to hand over the bodies of up to 100 Armenian troops to the other side.

The United States and the United Nations on September 15 welcomed the cease-fire.

"We welcome the cessation of hostilities between Azerbaijan and Armenia and will continue to work with the parties to seek to cement it," tweeted U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.



In a later tweet, Blinken said that he discussed the situation in a phone call with Pashinian. "I offered my condolences for the loss of life in the recent fighting," Blinken wrote.

A senior U.S. State Department official said late on September 15 that the cease-fire "appears to be holding."

"But the events of the last week demonstrate the critical need for real progress on a comprehensive peace process that addresses the underlying issues fueling this conflict," the unnamed official added.

UN Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenca said "the international community must remain fully committed to a peaceful settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan and spare no effort to de-escalate the current tensions, bring the parties back to the negotiation table and help them achieve peace and stability in the region."

Both sides have blamed each other for starting the recent hostilities, with Armenia accusing Azerbaijan of an unprovoked attack that reached into Armenian territory and Baku saying it was responding to shelling by Armenian forces.

Before the cease-fire was announced, Pashinian said Azerbaijani forces had struck and seized several Armenian settlements along their shared border and in territory beyond Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku said it was responding to "provocations" by the Armenian side.

Russia said it was seeking to reverse any shift in the military balance of the region that had occurred as a result of this week's fighting.

"We are in close contact with both countries so as to arrive at a sustainable cease-fire and the return of Azerbaijani and Armenian military to their positions of origin," Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya told the 15-member Security Council on September 15.



Baku and Yerevan have been locked in a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh for years. Armenian-backed separatists seized the mainly Armenian-populated region from Azerbaijan during a war in the early 1990s that killed some 30,000 people.

The two sides fought another war that lasted six weeks in late 2020 and killed an estimated 6,000 people before a Russia-brokered cease-fire, resulting in Armenia losing control over parts of the region and seven adjacent districts.

Under the cease-fire Moscow deployed about 2,000 troops to the region to serve as peacekeepers. Russia moved quickly to negotiate an end to the latest hostilities, but a renewal of the cease-fire has failed to hold.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to hold a meeting on September 16 with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, where they both are attending a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a security grouping dominated by Russia and China.

Putin will also meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, which is Azerbaijan's main ally.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, dpa, and AFP

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[1] Url: https://www.rferl.org/a/armenia-azerbaijan-cease-fire-appears-to-hold/32036376.html

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