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Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement not fully adhered to, says Lavrov

The minister expressed hope that Russia’s contacts with Armenia and Azerbaijan would facilitate full adherence to the agreements on Nagorno-Karabakh regulation approved in the early hours of Saturday in Moscow after trilateral talks

MOSCOW, October 12. /TASS/. The Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement reached in Moscow is not fully adhered to, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday, starting the talks with his Armenian colleague Zohrab Mnatsakanyan.

"We spent last Friday and Saturday, at least part of Saturday, here, in this building, with our Azerbaijani colleague. An important agreement was reached on President Putin’s initiative. We see that this agreement is not adhered to fully so far, and that military activity continues," Lavrov said.

The minister expressed hope that Russia’s contacts with Armenia and Azerbaijan would facilitate full adherence to the agreements on Nagorno-Karabakh regulation approved in the early hours of Saturday in Moscow after trilateral talks.

At the talks held at Russia’s initiative in Moscow, Baku and Yerevan agreed a ceasefire, which came into effect at 12:00 local time on October 10 for humanitarian reasons in order to exchange detainees and the bodies of those killed in the fighting. Shortly after noon the sides traded blame for violating the ceasefire agreement.

Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The area experienced flare-ups of violence in the summer of 2014, in April 2016 and this past July. Azerbaijan and Armenia have imposed martial law and launched mobilization efforts. Both parties to the conflict have reported casualties, among them civilians.

The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them. Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been ongoing since 1992 under the OSCE Minsk Group, led by its three co-chairs - Russia, France and the United States.