New truce between Azerbaijan, Armenia enters into force

BAKU, Azerbaijan

A new temporary humanitarian cease-fire reached between Azerbaijan and Armenia entered into force as of midnight Sunday local time (2000 GMT).

A statement by Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry earlier said that the decision was taken “following the statement of the Presidents of the French Republic, the Russian Federation and the United States of America, representing the co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group of 1 October 2020, the Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group of 5 October, and in line with Moscow Statement of 10 October 2020.”

The cease-fire was also mentioned during a phone talk between Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov, according to Azerbaijani authorities. Cavusoglu was informed about the truce upon the instruction by Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev.

On Oct. 10, Baku and Yerevan agreed to a cease-fire starting on midday to allow an exchange of prisoners and the recovery of dead bodies in Nagorno-Karabakh, an internationally recognized Azerbaijani territory under Armenia's occupation.

Before 24 hours passed over the agreement, the Armenian army carried out missile attack on Ganja, Azerbaijan, killing 10 people, injuring 35 others.

On Oct. 15, it also targeted civilians during a funeral ceremony at a cemetery in the western city of Terter. Four people were killed and four others were injured in the attack.

Earlier Saturday, at least 13 civilians were killed, including four women and three minors, and nearly 50 others injured, when Armenian missiles once again struck Ganja.

*Writing by Sena Guler