Yerevan, Armenia, Oct 18 (UNI) Hours after announcing humanitarian ceasefire, Armenia accused Azerbaijan of violating it in the troubled Nagorno-Karabakh region.
"Once again violating the humanitarian ceasefire, the enemy fired artillery shells in the northern direction from 00:04 to 02:45 [from 20:04 to 22:45 GMT on Saturday], and fired rockets in the southern direction from 02:20 to 02:45," Armenian Defense Ministry's spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan tweeted in the early hours of Sunday.
Azerbaijan has not responded to the allegations.
On Saturday, the Armenian Foreign Ministry informed that Armenia and Azerbaijan had agreed to declare a ceasefire from Sunday midnight.
"The Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan have agreed to a humanitarian truce as of October 18th, 00h00 local time, Armenia's Foreign Ministry had said in a statement.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry had also confirmed the "humanitarian truce" shortly after Armenia's announcement in a mirror statement.
The announcement came after top Russian diplomat Sergey Lavrov held telephonic conversations with Armenia and Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministers, respectively, and insisted the need to strictly follow the ceasefire deal reached last week in Russia's capital Moscow. The Armenia and Azerbaijan blamed each other for 'breaching the deal'.
"During the talks, the need to strictly adhere to the provisions of the Moscow Statement of the Foreign Ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia of October 10 of this year, providing for a ceasefire for humanitarian purposes, was emphasized," Sputnik quoted the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying, citing its statement.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underlined the need to begin substantive negotiations on peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute in line with the principles of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs, the statement added.
Russia, France and the US are part of the Minsk Group.
Fighting between the two sides began in late September over the long-disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
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