Azerbaijan, Armenia Agree To Nagorno-Karabakh Ceasefire

Azerbaijani and Armenian forces reached a ceasefire agreement on Wednesday to end two days of fighting in the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region, which has been a flashpoint for decades, according to officials on both sides, as reported by Avet Demourian for the Associated Press (AP).

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Niкol Pashinyan during a meeting on the sidelines at Davos. I Photo: President.az

An hour after the truce was announced, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that the intensity of hostilities in the region "has decreased drastically."

Azerbaijani authorities said they had halted the military operation launched a day earlier once separatist officials announced they were laying down their arms. However, it wasn't immediately clear if some fighting continued.

On Tuesday, Azerbaijan unleashed heavy artillery fire on Armenian positions in Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region that is part of Azerbaijan but came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces during a separatist war in the 1990s.

Scores of people were reportedly killed and wounded in the latest fighting. The hostilities also exacerbated an already grim humanitarian situation for residents who have suffered food shortages for months.

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