Armenian PM Pashinyan: no real ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh
YEREVAN. Oct 12 (Interfax) - The situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone is close to a humanitarian disaster, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.
"In the Karabakh conflict zone, we are close to a humanitarian catastrophe, if not to say that we are already on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. The only way to avert this catastrophe is to recognize the right of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh to self-determination, all the way to recognizing their independence," Pashinyan said at a meeting with the heads of foreign diplomatic missions and organizations accredited in Armenia.
"The situation in the southern sector of the frontline is tense. There is no real ceasefire there," he said.
The ceasefire agreement reached in Moscow was violated by Azerbaijan "when Azerbaijan tried to seize the city of Hadrut immediately after the ceasefire took effect," Pashinyan said.
Fighting is under way near Hadrut, and Nagorno-Karabakh's Defense Army is carrying out an operation to neutralize enemy sabotage groups, he said.
As a result of many hours of talks held in Moscow, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed in the early hours of Saturday to cease fire at noon on October 10. Later that day, the defense ministries of Armenia and Azerbaijan began trading accusations of ceasefire violations and strikes in the Karabakh conflict zone.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with the Turkish television channel Haber Global on October 12 that the city of Hadrut and its suburbs are under the control of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, but "whether to enter it or not is another question."
