Nagorno-Karabakh News

Russia brokered a ceasefire on Tuesday that secured territorial advances for Azerbaijan around the ethnic Armenian region.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan first announced the signing on social media in the early hours of Tuesday. Nagorno-Karabakh has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a 1994 truce ended a separatist war in which an estimated 30,000 people died.

After six weeks of heavy fighting, Azerbaijan said on Sunday it had captured Shusha, Nagorno-Karabakh`s biggest city. Azeri defence ministry video posted online showed Azerbaijan`s national flag flying over deserted streets in what it said was Shusha. Armenia has denied the extent of Azerbaijan`s territorial gains.

President Ilham Aliyev said that Azerbaijani forces have taken control of the strategically key city of Shushi in Nagorno-Karabakh were fighting with Armenia has raged for more than a month.  

Azeris celebrated on the streets of Baku after President Ilham Aliyev said on Sunday his country`s forces had taken Shusha, the second-largest city in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. "This day will become a great day in the history of Azerbaijan," Aliyev said, announcing that Baku`s troops had taken Shusha/Shushi. Shusha, which Armenians call Shushi, is of cultural and strategic importance to both sides and is located 15 km (9 miles) south of the enclave`s largest city Stepanakert.

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said on Sunday his troops would "go to the end" should negotiations fail to result in an agreement by ethnic Armenian forces. Aliyev also said Armenia had "no basis" to request Russian military assistance in the conflict. Further shelling was reported by Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces in and around Nagorno-Karabakh on Sunday.

An Armenian defence ministry official has said many from the diaspora applied to volunteer without giving a precise number. Hundreds from as far afield as Argentina and the US have rushed back to Armenia for combat training. The fighting has prompted mass mobilisation across Armenia.

The United States on Sunday said a new humanitarian ceasefire will take effect on Monday in the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh as fresh fighting erupted between the two sides.

Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other on Sunday of violating a new humanitarian ceasefire in fighting over the mountain enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, hours after it was agreed. The truce agreed on Saturday came into force at midnight (2000 GMT) after a Russian-brokered ceasefire failed to halt the worst fighting in the South Caucasus since the 1990s. The Armenian defence ministry said the Azeri army had fired twice during the night and used artillery.

The fighting has surged to its worst level since the 1990s, when some 30,000 people were killed.

Hopes of ceasefire ending fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh sank as the death toll mounted and Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of launching new attacks. Azerbaijan`s president said his country`s armed forces would take control of all regions surrounding the breakaway mountain territory if Armenia continued to "act negatively".

Azerbaijan accused Armenia on Wednesday of trying to attack its gas and oil pipelines and warned of a "severe" response. Armenia denied the claim and said Azeri forces were trying to seize control of the tiny territory, which is governed by ethnic Armenians. Russia tried to silence the angry rhetoric and appealed to both sides to observe the ceasefire it brokered over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Russia which shares good relations with both Armenia and Azerbaijan said on Thursday that it was in talks with both the countries to organise a possible meeting in Moscow.

life in the mid of war between two countries. WATCH VIDEO

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the actions of Turkey and Azerbaijan amounted to a "terroristic attack" over Nagorno-Karabakh that formed part of the continuation of Armenian genocide. The Armenian genocide refers to the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War One.

WATCH here the unseen pictures of the destruction from Battle Field.

The clashes are the worst since the 1990s, when some 30,000 people were killed and are spreading beyond the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. They have raised international concern about stability in the South Caucasus, where pipelines carry Azeri oil and gas to world markets. The conflict threatens to drag in other regional powers as Azerbaijan is supported by Turkey, while Armenia has a defence pact with Russia. Hundreds of people have been killed in the past week of fighting between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces, including more than 40 civilians.

The fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces continued on Sunday over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, with Azerbaijan's second-largest city coming under attack.

Armenia denied that it had directed fire "of any kind" towards Azerbaijan, but the leader of Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan, said his forces had destroyed a military airbase in Ganja. The escalation carries the risk of a full-scale war between the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia that could drag in other powers. Azerbaijan is supported by Turkey, while Armenia has a defence pact with Russia. Fighting that broke out one week ago between Azeri and ethnic Armenian forces has intensified in the past two days and spread way beyond the breakaway Karabakh region. "Delivering fire on the territory of Azerbaijan from the territory of Armenia is clearly provocative and expands the zone of hostilities," Azeri Defence Minister Zakir Hasanov said.

The war started on September 27 in some of the worst to afflict Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas since the end in 1994 of a war that left the region in Azerbaijan under the control of local ethnic Armenian forces. Armenian Defense Ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanian said intensive fighting was taking place along the entire front line on Saturday and that Armenian forces had shot down three planes. Nagorno-Karabakh officials have said more than 150 servicemen on their side have been killed so far. Azerbaijani authorities haven't given details on their military casualties but said 19 civilians were killed and 55 more wounded.