Fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh goes on despite US mediation

Rocket and artillery barrage hit residential areas in
Nagorno-Karabakh on Saturday hours after the United States hosted top diplomats
from Armenia and Azerbaijan for talks on settling their decades-long conflict
over the region.
The heavy shelling forced residents of Stepanakert,
the regional capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, into shelters, as emergency teams
rushed to extinguish fires. Local officials said the city was struck with
Azerbaijan's Smerch long-range multiple rocket systems, a devastating
Soviet-designed weapon intended to ravage wide areas with explosives and
cluster munitions.
Nagorno-Karabakh authorities said other towns in the
region were also targeted by Azerbaijani artillery fire. There was no immediate
information about casualties.
Officials in Azerbaijan claimed that the town of
Terter and areas in the Gubadli region came under Armenian shelling early
Saturday, killing a teenager. They also said 13-year-old boy died Saturday of
wounds from an earlier shelling of Ganja, Azerbaijan's second-largest city.
Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been
under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a war there
ended in 1994. The current fighting that started Sept. 27 marks the worst
escalation in the conflict since the war’s end and has killed hundreds, perhaps
even thousands, according to official reports.
After two failed attempts by Russia to broker a
truce, the U.S. waded onto the scene on Friday, with Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo hosting the Armenian and Azerbaijan foreign ministers for separate
talks.
“Both must implement a ceasefire and return to
substantive negotiations,” Pompeo said in a tweet after the negotiations.
Those words were ignored on the ground.
“Just now a bomb exploded in my garden,” Georgiy, a
resident of Stepanakert who only gave his first name amid the war jitters, said
after the overnight attack. “If this is the so-called cease-fire, let the whole
world see this cease-fire.”
Georgiy, who was born in Stepanakert, said he would
stay home despite the fighting.
“This is my motherland, I’m not going to leave it,”
he said. "All the people will stand until the last.”
Despite the fighting, residents of the town of
Shushi in Nagorno-Karabakh celebrated a wedding at the Holy Savior Cathedral,
also known as the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral and which was badly damaged during
earlier Azerbaijani shelling.
Hovhannes Hovsepyan, who serves in the region’s
military, took a two-day leave from the frontline to marry Mariam Sargsyan. The
couple planned their wedding before the latest outburst of fighting began.
“I wish the war ends and everyone comes back and
joins ceremonies like this one,” Hovsepyan said. “Glory to heroes that are
alive, and I wish new heroes are born and they don’t see wars.”
According to Nagorno-Karabakh officials, 963 of
their troops have been killed, and 37 civilians also have died. Azerbaijan
hasn’t disclosed its military losses, but said that 65 civilians were killed
and about 300 were wounded in the four weeks of fighting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that
according to Moscow’s information, the death toll from the fighting was
significantly higher than officially reported by the warring parties, nearing
5,000.
Russia, the United States and France have co-chaired
the so-called Minsk Group set up by the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe to mediate in the conflict, but they haven't scored any
progress after nearly three decades.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that to
end hostilities Armenian forces must withdraw from Nagorno-Karabakh. He has
insisted that Azerbaijan has the right to reclaim its territory by force since
international mediators have failed.
Turkey has thrown its weight behind Azerbaijan,
vowing to support its ally “on the battlefield or the negotiating table.” It
has trained Azerbaijani military and provided it with strike drones and
long-range rocket systems that gave Azerbaijan a strong military edge on the
battlefield.
Armenian officials say Turkey is directly involved
in the conflict and is sending Syrian mercenaries in to fight on Azerbaijan’s
side.
Turkey has denied deploying combatants to the
region, but a Syrian war monitor and Syria-based opposition activists have
confirmed that Turkey has sent hundreds of Syrian opposition fighters to fight
in Nagorno-Karabakh.