Nagorno-Karabakh conflict: Armenia and Azerbaijan meet mediators in Geneva

The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan met international mediators in Geneva on Friday in the latest round of talks to resolve conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, where hundreds have been killed in more than a month of fighting.

The ministers are meeting envoys from France, Russia and the United States, co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group created to mediate a conflict that has escalated in recent days, a diplomat in the Swiss city told Reuters.

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The foreign ministries of Armenia and Azerbaijan both confirmed that their respective ministers had flown to Geneva.

Human rights groups also called for an immediate halt to the use of banned weapons by both sides after confirming the use of cluster munitions either fired or supplied by Armenian forces in an attack this week on the Azeri city of Barda.

The worst fighting in the South Caucasus for more than 25 years has brought into sharp focus the increased influence of Turkey, an ally of Azerbaijan, in a former Soviet region considered by Russia to be within its sphere of influence.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Turkey, which has demanded a bigger role, should be among the countries involved in talks to end the fighting.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, speaking to journalists on Friday, said peacekeeping troops would enter the conflict zone only with the agreement of both Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but is populated and controlled by ethnic Armenians. About 30,000 people were killed in a 1991-94 war in the region.

Read more: Nagorno-Karabakh defense ministry says military death toll rises to 1,119

Armenia, like Azerbaijan, regards the territory as part of its historic homeland and says the population there needs its protection. Azerbaijan rejects any solution that would leave Armenians in control of the enclave.

Three ceasefires have failed to halt the latest fighting, the most recent brokered in Washington last Sunday by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Confirming its participation in talks, the US mission in Geneva said the US “continues to call on Armenia and Azerbaijan to stop targeting civilian areas and to implement their agreed-upon commitments to a ceasefire.”

Read more: Where the US stands on Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Nagorno-Karabakh

Sporadic fighting continued on Friday. Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said military positions and settlements in the Aghdere, Khojavend and Gubadli regions had come under fire overnight.

The ethnic Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh defense ministry said it had thwarted Azeri offensives and that shelling at residential areas of towns in the enclave had resumed.

Rights group Amnesty International and New York-based Human Rights Watch said they had independently confirmed the use of cluster munitions by Armenian forces in an attack on Barda on Wednesday. Azerbaijan has said 21 people were killed.

Both groups called for an immediate halt to the use of banned weapons. A separate report by Human Rights Watch on Oct. 23 found that Azerbaijan had used cluster munitions in at least four separate incidents.

Read more: Where Russia, Turkey, Iran stand in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said on Twitter the country’s troops had taken under their control nine more settlements. The regions to which he referred are in the southern part of the conflict zone, close to the border with Iran.

Azerbaijan’s military gains since fighting began on September 27 make a negotiated settlement more difficult. Aliyev has rejected any solution that would leave Armenians in control of territory
claimed by both countries as part of their historic homeland.

In comments published on the prime ministerial web site, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, responding to questions from foreign media, said he believed “the principle of ‘remedial secession’ should be applied to Nagorno-Karabakh.”

Remedial secession refers to the secession of a subgroup from its parent state as a remedy of last resort.

Three ceasefires have failed to halt the latest fighting, the most recent brokered in Washington last Sunday by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.