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Azerbaijan says Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire broken

Separatists violated ceasefire in breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region 119 times in past 24 hours, Azerbaijan says.

Azerbaijan clashes with separatists
A volunteer walks on a road in the Nagorno-Karabakh's village of Talish. [Reuters]
Published On 7 Apr 2016

Azerbaijan says it will stop fighting Armenian-backed separatists over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region after two days of clashes, but the other side denounced Baku’s gesture as hollow and said violence was continuing.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a mountainous enclave with a large ethnic Armenian population that lies inside the territory of Azerbaijan.

The violence was a re-awakening of a long-festering ethnic conflict between the mainly Muslim Azeris and their Christian Armenian neighbours.

Ethnic Armenian separatists backed by Yerevan seized control of the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh in an early 1990s war that claimed some 30,000 lives. The foes have never signed a peace deal despite the 1994 ceasefire.

Azerbaijan clashes with separatists
Servicemen of the 'self-defence army' of Nagorno-Karabakh rest at their positions near the village of Mataghis. [Reuters]
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Azerbaijan clashes with separatists
Local residents carry their belongings as they flee from the Nagorno-Karabakh village of Talish. [Reuters]
Azerbaijan clashes with separatists
An ethnic Armenian man walks past a destroyed house during the fighting in Martakert province in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan. [Vahan Stepanyan/PAN Photo/AP]
Azerbaijan clashes with separatists
A tank of the self-defence army of Nagorno-Karabakh moves on the road in the village of Talish. [Reuters]
Azerbaijan clashes with separatists
An Armenian volunteer is seen in the town of Askeran, near where clashes with Azeri forces are taking place, in Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is controlled by separatist Armenians. [Hrayr Badalyan/PAN Photo/Reuters]
Azerbaijan clashes with separatists
This aerial view shows destroyed houses during the fighting at Martakert province in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan. [Davit Abrahamyan/PAN Photo/AP]
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Azerbaijan clashes with separatists
Vardan Andreasyan, front, 12, and Gevorg Grigoryan, 12, who were wounded in a recent shelling during clashes between Armenian and Azeri forces in Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is controlled by separatist Armenians, receive treatment at a hospital in Nagorno Karabakh's main city of Stepanakert. [Areg Balayan/PAN Photo/Reuters]
Azerbaijan clashes with separatists
People gathered for the funeral of 12-year-old Vagharshak Grigoryan in a village in the Martuni region of the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan, on Monday. Grigoryan was one the first victims of the clashes that erupted between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces on April 2, 2016 as part of a territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. [Vahram Baghdasaryan/Phoyolure/Ap]
Azerbaijan clashes with separatists
People march with an Armenian flag during a rally in memory of those killed during recent fightings in Nagorno Karabakh's main city of Stepanakert. [Reuters]