Putin describes the crisis as a "tragedy" and calls for a ceasefire

Half of the inhabitants of Karabakh are displaced, and Stepanakert is turning into a ghost town

The effects of the bombing on the city of Stepanakert.

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Half of the population of the Nagorno Karabakh region was displaced due to the battles between the separatist region, of which the Armenians make up the majority, and Azerbaijan. Stepanakert, the main city in the region, has turned into a ghost town, while the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, called for a halt to what he described as the "ongoing tragedy", Calling for a ceasefire.

The fighting erupted in one of the most frozen and explosive conflicts since the fall of the Soviet Union, on September 27, and the conflict gained an international dimension that worried the West, with Turkey's support for Azerbaijan, while Armenia hopes to gain the support of Russia, which has so far remained on the sidelines.

In an interview with Russian state television broadcast by the Kremlin, Putin said of the crisis: "It is a tremendous tragedy. There are people dying. We hope that this conflict will stop as soon as possible."

He continued, "If it is not possible to stop this conflict permanently, because we are far from that, then we call at least, and I stress that, for a ceasefire," stressing that "this should be achieved as soon as possible."

Stepanakert, the main city in Karabakh, has turned into a ghost town full of unexploded ordnance and shell pits as a result of the bombing carried out by the Azerbaijani forces. Presse: “According to our initial estimates, about half of the population has fled the city, and their number is estimated between 70 and 75 thousand people.”

He stressed that the residents who were displaced by the fighting went to other locations in the same region, or to Armenia and elsewhere.

The sirens sounded to warn of air strikes throughout the night, which witnessed several explosions in the city plunging into darkness. An AFP correspondent said that new strikes targeted the city yesterday morning.

The International Committee of the Red Cross denounced "indiscriminate shelling and other unlawful attacks," saying that dozens of civilians had already died.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a decades-long conflict for control of the Armenian-dominated region, and broke away from Baku during a war that broke out in the early 1990s, which killed about 30,000 people.

The Nagorno Karabakh region, which is inhabited by about 140 thousand people, most of them Armenians, declared its independence, but no party, not even Armenia, has recognized the independence of the region.

Several confrontations erupted between the two sides during the past decades, the largest of which was in April 2016, and resulted in the killing of 110 people, but analysts say that the element that changed the rules of the game this time is support for Turkey, which several parties accused of sending Syrian fighters loyal to Ankara to support Azerbaijan.

In an interview with Agence France-Presse, the Armenian Prime Minister considered that the renewed fighting in the Nagorno Karabakh region was caused by the full Turkish support for Azerbaijan, accusing Ankara of sending foreign fighters, which means that, in his view, the war has become an anti-terrorist operation "carried out by the Armenian forces."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Turkey sent 1,200 fighters to the region, noting that at least 64 Syrian militants loyal to Ankara were killed in the confrontations.

Yesterday, France confirmed that Turkey is intervening militarily in the conflict in the Nagorno Karabakh region along with Azerbaijan, and renewed its fears of the "internationalization" of the conflict.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that talks will be held in Geneva today, and in Moscow next Monday, in an attempt to persuade the warring parties to agree to negotiate a ceasefire, and clarified that France, Russia and the United States will hold these talks to start a dialogue without preconditions. .

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A fighter sent by Turkey to the region, according to the "Syrian Observatory".

France confirms that Turkey is interfering militarily in the conflict, and renews its fears of internationalizing the conflict.

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