BAKU, October 23. /TASS/. Azeri President Ilham Aliyev has announced Friday that the Azeri army has taken control over 13 villages in four districts of the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
"The Azeri army liberated two villages in the Khojavend District, five villages in the Jabrayil District, two villages in the Zangilan District and the Gubadlin District," he wrote on Twitter.
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.
As a result of the Russia-initiated consultations in Moscow Baku and Yerevan agreed to cease fire starting from 12:00 local time of October 10 for humanitarian purposes for exchanging prisoners of war and bodies of the dead. However, both parties to the conflict reported violations the very same day. On October 17, the two foreign ministries announced a new humanitarian ceasefire starting with 00:00 on October 18. Meanwhile, hostilities continue, while both sides accuse each other of violating the ceasefire.
The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the highland region of 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.