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US calls on Azerbaijan to safeguard Armenians as thousands flee Karabakh

US calls on Azerbaijan to safeguard Armenians as thousands flee Karabakh

HUNGRY and exhausted Armenian families jammed roads to flee homes in the defeated breakaway enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, while the United States called on Azerbaijan to protect civilians and let in aid. The Armenians of Karabakh - part of Azerbaijan beyond Baku's control since the dissolution of the Soviet Union - began fleeing this week after their forces were routed in a lightning military operation by Azerbaijan's military. At least 13,550 of the 120,000 ethnic Armenians who call Nagorno-Karabakh home arrived in Armenia on the first day of the exodus, with hundreds of cars and buses crammed with belongings snaking down the mountain…
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Uprooted by war, Armenians face bleak winter in schools and sanatorium

Uprooted by war, Armenians face bleak winter in schools and sanatorium

UMBERTO BACCHI SHELTERING in chilly school buildings and mountain sanatoriums, thousands of Armenians are bracing for a harsh winter after being driven from their homes by six weeks of fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. About 90,000 ethnic Armenians fled the mountainous enclave with the little they could take during the short war with Azerbaijan that ended with a Russian-brokered peace deal earlier this month, according to the United Nations. As temperatures fall, some people want to return to the area, but widespread damage and unexploded ordnance means many could be stuck for months in temporary accommodation - either with relatives…
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New clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh after Washington talks

New clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh after Washington talks

NAILA BARIGOVA and VLADIMIR SOLDATKIN NEW clashes broke out between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces over Nagorno-Karabakh a day after talks in Washington to try to end the deadliest fighting in the mountain enclave in more than a quarter of a century. Azerbaijan's defence ministry reported fighting in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, a part of Azerbaijan populated and controlled by ethnic Armenians. Local officials accused Azerbaijan's forces of shelling buildings in Stepanakert, the largest city in the region, which Baku denied. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met separately with the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia on Friday in a…
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Humanitarian crisis feared as Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire buckles

Humanitarian crisis feared as Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire buckles

NVARD HOVHANNISYAN and NAILIA BAGIROVA ARMENIA  and Azerbaijan accused each other on Tuesday of violating a ceasefire agreed three days ago to quell fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, drawing warnings from international groups of a humanitarian crisis. The Russia-brokered truce is buckling despite mounting calls from world powers to halt the fighting, with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo among those urging greater commitment to the ceasefire terms. Turkey and Armenia exchanged recriminations, each blaming the other for exacerbating the crisis around Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but governed and populated by ethnic Armenians. Earlier on…
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Azeris and ethnic Armenians fight as Russia, U.S. and France seek ceasefire

Azeris and ethnic Armenians fight as Russia, U.S. and France seek ceasefire

NVARD HOVHANNISYAN, NAILIA BAGIROVA and STEPHANIE NEBEHAY AZERBAIJAN and ethnic Armenians have fought with artillery and heavy guns as the United States, France and Russia stepped up efforts to secure a ceasefire and avert a wider war in the South Caucasus. Azerbaijan said the city of Ganja had come under fire, deep inside its territory. Ethnic Armenians who control the mountain enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh inside Azerbaijan said Stepanakert, its main city, had been shelled by Azeri forces. In a sign of growing alarm in the region, the head of a six-country military alliance led by Russia and including Armenia warned…
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France, U.S. and Russia to meet on Nagorno-Karabakh amid fears of regional war

France, U.S. and Russia to meet on Nagorno-Karabakh amid fears of regional war

NAILIA BAGIROVA, NVARD HOVHANNISYAN AND JOHN IRISH FRANCE, the United States and Russia will step up efforts to end fighting between Azeri and ethnic Armenian forces in the South Caucasus by holding talks in Geneva on Thursday, as fears of a regional war grow. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Russian, French and U.S. representatives would also meet in Moscow on Monday to look at ways to persuade the warring sides to negotiate a ceasefire. "We want everyone to understand that it's in their interest to immediately stop hostilities without conditions and that we start a negotiation," he told…
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Russia warns that Nagorno-Karabakh could become Islamist militant stronghold

Russia warns that Nagorno-Karabakh could become Islamist militant stronghold

NVARD HOVHANNISYAN and NALIA BAGIROVA  THE Kremlin issued a new appeal for an end to hostilities in and around Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday after Moscow's foreign intelligence chief said the mountain enclave could become a launchpad for Islamist militants to enter Russia. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan Moscow expressed alarm after the deadliest fighting in more than 25 years between ethnic Armenian and Azeri forces entered the 10th day, though the French news agency AFP later said Armenia had offered concessions only if Azerbaijan was ready to do so. AFP gave no details of the offer it said had been made by…
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Azerbaijan’s leader says no end to fighting until Armenia sets pullout timetable

Azerbaijan’s leader says no end to fighting until Armenia sets pullout timetable

NAILIA BAGIVORA and NVARD HOVHANNISYAN AZERBAIJAN’S President Ilham Aliyev has demanded that Armenia set a timetable for withdrawing from the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding Azeri territories, and said Azerbaijan would not cease military action until that happened. In a televised address to the nation, Aliyev said Azeri forces were advancing in a week-long offensive to retake lands that they lost to ethnic Armenians in the 1990s. "The Azeri soldier is chasing them like a dog, the Azeri soldier is standing at their posts, we have taken their weaponry, we are carrying out the mission of liberation," he declared. The…
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Turkey rejects ‘superficial’ Caucasus ceasefire calls

Turkey rejects ‘superficial’ Caucasus ceasefire calls

TURKEY has rejected "superficial" demands for a ceasefire in the South Caucasus, where it backs Azerbaijan, after a week of fierce fighting with ethnic Armenian forces in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. While Russia, the United States and France have called for an end to hostilities, regional power Turkey has staunchly supported the Azeris and has repeated that what it called Armenian "occupiers" must withdraw. Armenia said on Friday it would work with the three big powers toward a ceasefire. But Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said they should have no role in peacemaking and on Saturday said Ankara backs the…
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Russia and France seek end to fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh

Russia and France seek end to fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh

NALIA BAGIROVA  andNVARD HOVHANNISYAN RUSSIA and France stepped up calls for a ceasefire between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces on Thursday as the death toll rose in the heaviest clashes around the Nagorno-Karabakh region since the 1990s. The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron had discussed steps that the Organization for Security and Co-operation's (OSCE) Minsk group, which mediates in the conflict, could take to end the fighting. Russia has also offered to host the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan for talks on the flare-up of their decades-old conflict in the volatile South Caucasus region.…
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