Ceasefire Regime Entered into Force in Nagorny Karabakh

The ceasefire agreement reached during hours-long talks in Moscow between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan began to operate last night in the zone of the Karabakh conflict. In the conflict zone in Nagorny Karabakh, where the military confrontation between Armenia and Azerbaijan has escalated, a ceasefire has come into force. At 11 o'clock Moscow time on Saturday, October 10, the agreement that the day before adopted the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Jeyhun Bayramov came into effect following the results of negotiations that lasted more than 10 hours in Moscow. The ceasefire was announced "for humanitarian purposes for the exchange of prisoners of war and other detained persons and bodies of the dead," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a briefing after the talks. The ceasefire is being introduced through the International Committee of the Red Cross mediation, its terms will be additionally agreed, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. In addition, Yerevan and Baku, with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs mediation will proceed to "substantive negotiations," the Russian Foreign Ministry added. Meanwhile, both sides of the conflict again reported on fierce fighting in the Karabakh conflict zone with the use of a large number of drones and artillery weapons on Saturday morning. Karabakh conflict escalation The situation in Nagorny Karabakh escalated sharply on September 27 after Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military operation to regain control of this region, inhabited mainly by ethnic Armenians. Both sides accuse each other of shelling civilian targets. In the early 1990s, as a result of the armed conflict with Armenia and the Armenian population of Nagorny Karabakh, Azerbaijan lost control over this territory. The ceasefire between Armenia and the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, on the one hand and Azerbaijan on the other, was established in May 1994. Until now, the negotiation process aimed at finding ways to peacefully resolve the conflict was mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group that includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland and Turkey. Russia, France and the United States are co-chairing. Azerbaijan does not consider the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic a party to the conflict and refuses to negotiate with.