After the collapse of the third truce in Karabakh, Azerbaijan warns...

Azerbaijan has warned Armenia of running out of negotiation opportunities after the collapse of the third humanitarian truce, and affirmed its determination to resolve the conflict in the Nagorno Karabakh region, whether by political or military means, while battles and mutual bombing between the forces of the two countries continue.

Shortly after the failure of the humanitarian truce sponsored by Washington – which was supposed to take effect at 8:00 a.m. Monday morning Baku and Yerevan time (GMT +4 hours) – Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced that Azerbaijan had accepted the humanitarian truce to exchange prisoners and bodies, but Armenia violated it minutes later. From its inception.

In statements carried by the official Azerbaijani media, Aliyev said that those calling for a humanitarian truce send weapons to Armenia, and that he has a list of their names.

The President of Azerbaijan stressed that his country wants to resolve the conflict over the Karabakh region by political and military means as well, and he had stressed before that that his country would not wait another 30 years to liberate its occupied territories by Armenia.

On Sunday, Aliyev announced his rejection of an unconditional ceasefire, and stressed the need for the withdrawal of Armenian forces from the territories they occupy in the Karabakh region and its surroundings, warning of Russia’s military intervention in the conflict.

For his part, Ilychen Amirbayov – Assistant First Vice President of Azerbaijan – said that after the two previous truces between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which were violated by Armenia, there is no hope of her commitment to the agreement.

In statements to Al-Jazeera today, Amirbayov added that if Armenia continues to fight, it will lose the opportunity to negotiate.

On Sunday evening, the US State Department announced – in a joint statement between the United States, Azerbaijan and Armenia – the humanitarian armistice that Russia had previously mediated twice, but it was not actually implemented.

Reciprocal accusations
In a statement today, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry held Armenia fully responsible for the violation of the armistice, and said that the Yerevan government has shown its lack of sincerity in its intention to solve the crisis peacefully, and called on it to respect international treaties and mediation.

On the other hand, Armenia said it adheres to the truce, but accused Azerbaijan of violating it from the first hours of its entry into force.

Armenia renewed its call for the approval of an international mechanism to verify the violation of the ceasefire, which the Minsk Group, led by the United States, Russia and France, hoped would pave the way for an end to the fighting that broke out in the Nagorno Karabakh region a month ago.

Regarding the details of the collapse of the truce, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said that the Armenian army violated the armistice by targeting Azeri military units, and bombing civilians in the city of Tartar, and several sites on the front line, including Tovuz, Keda Bey, Tash Ksen, Fozuli and Lachin regions.

On the other hand, the Armenian Ministry of Defense said – in a statement – that Azerbaijan was the one who violated the armistice an hour after it took effect.

The Ministry of Defense in the Karabakh region denied that the armistice had been violated, and said that the Azerbaijani forces launched a missile attack on Armenian military sites on the northeastern side of the contact line.

The failure of the third attempt to establish a humanitarian truce between the two parties comes at a time when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed his country’s opposition to the military solution in Karabakh.

Russia – which has a joint defense agreement with Armenia – had previously offered to deploy military observers on the front lines in the region, but Azerbaijan did not show enthusiasm for this proposal.

Continuous battles
In the field, fighting continued on several axes between the Azerbaijani and Armenian forces, after the previous day witnessed violent clashes in several areas, amid mutual accusations between Baku and Yerevan of targeting civilians.

Yesterday, the President of Azerbaijan announced the liberation of new villages belonging to the cities of “Zanglan”, “Gabriel” and “Qubadli”, which he described as the Armenian occupation, stressing that his forces had taken control of 100 regions and villages during the past four weeks.

Concurrently, the Azerbaijani army announced the liberation of the center of the city of “Qubadli”, which was under Armenian control.

During previous battles, the Azerbaijani army was able to control the cities of Gabriel, Fuzuli and Zanglan, 3 towns, more than 130 villages, and a number of strategic heights.

Armenia has so far acknowledged the killing of about a thousand of its soldiers, while Azerbaijan has not announced the losses in the ranks of its army, but on the other hand, it confirmed the killing of 65 civilians, including 18 women and children, as a result of the Armenian bombing of cities bordering Armenia, such as Ganja and Tatar.