Armenia, Azerbaijan trade accusations of breaching Karabakh deal

STEPANAKERT/TERTER: Armenia and Azerbaijan traded accusations of new attacks on Saturday in breach of a ceasefire deal to end nearly two weeks of heavy fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The two sides agreed to implement the ceasefire from noon (0800 GMT) on Saturday, after 11 hours of talks in Moscow, but it took only minutes after the deadline for their forces to claim new attacks.

An ethnic Armenian enclave of Azerbaijan, Karabakh broke from the country's control in a war in the 1990s that killed some 30,000 people. Its separatist government is strongly backed by Armenia, which like Azerbaijan gained independence with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, and Baku accuses Yerevan of occupying the region.

The heaviest clashes since the war erupted on September 27, with more than 450 people reported dead, thousands forced to flee their homes and fears the fighting could escalate into a devastating all-out conflict.

Armenian defence ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan said that “in disregard of the previously declared humanitarian ceasefire” Azerbaijani forces had launched an attack on the frontline at 12:05pm.

Azerbaijan's defence ministry said Armenian forces had also carried out attacks on the frontline and were shelling two populated areas. “Armenia is blatantly violating the ceasefire regime,” the ministry said in a statement.

The two sides also accused each other of attacks just before the ceasefire deadline.

Karabakh's ombudsman Artak Beglaryan said missiles had been fired at the region's main city Stepanakert while Azerbaijan said at least five populated districts were under heavy shelling.

An AFP journalist in Stepanakert reported hearing blasts in the city before the ceasefire took effect, but it was calmer after noon, with isolated explosions in the distance. Some residents were venturing out of their homes after days of taking shelter from shelling, rocket fire and drone attacks, but there was little hope the ceasefire would take hold for long.

In Barda, an Azerbaijani town about 40 kilometres from the conflict zone, many residents who spoke to AFP were against the ceasefire and in favour of Baku pressing on with its campaign to restore its control of Karabakh.

“We don't want a ceasefire. They should leave our lands,” said Zemfira Mammadova, a 71-year-old retiree. “They should get out, and let our people live a normal life. We have nothing to do with them and they should stay away from us.”

The ceasefire deal had been announced after talks between the two countries' top diplomats mediated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. He said the truce had been agreed “on humanitarian grounds” and would allow for exchanges of prisoners and bodies.

Meanwhile, Sakhib Khashimov was in no mood to talk about peace as he picked through the wreckage of his shelled-out apartment on the Azerbaijani side of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Ethnic Armenian separatists had shelled the frontline town of Terter -- home to around 1,000 families displaced by decades of fighting -- for days before Saturday´s ceasefire was announced.

Khashimov and dozens of others used the lull to return and pack up what remained of their belongings before finding yet another place to call home. The last thing the 40-year-old wanted was for this war to end just as Azerbaijani forces claim to be making meaningful gains.

"This operation is our best chance," Khashimov told AFP about an hour after the pause in two weeks of fighting came into force. "If they don´t give us back our land during the ceasefire -- with a clear timeline for when they do, like our president says -- then continuing this operation is our best chance. We will not have another."

The latest escalation in the bitter dispute between Christian Armenians and Muslim Azerbaijanis over a prized patch of the Caucasus mountains is known to have killed more than 450 people.

Locals said it claimed the lives of just two brothers in Terter.

But the skeletal remains of the town´s rows of five-floor buildings built for those displaced by the dispute show signs of real warfare that required people to shelter for days in basements.

Most houses stood with gaping holes instead of apartment windows or had balconies sheared off by artillery and rocket grenade fire.

Khatire Zhalilova said she was watching the latest news from the safety of a more distant village when she saw a journalist report from the ravaged remains of her very own home. "I told myself, this could not be our house. But, unfortunately, it is," she said while walking around in disbelief in her destroyed kitchen.

Piles of wooden debris and concrete rubble intermixed with toys and slippers are strewn across the simple apartment´s floor. "I think the operation should go on. We want our land back."