A temporary humanitarian truce has entered into force in the Nagorno Karabakh region between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the foreign ministries of the two countries announced that the agreement was reached on the basis of the statement of the "Minsk" group heads and in accordance with the Moscow Declaration.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said that the ceasefire does not mean the end of the fighting, and stressed that the army will continue to liberate its lands, and that the humanitarian ceasefire is nothing but a temporary measure to exchange prisoners and dead bodies.
For its part, Armenia accused - Sunday dawn - Azerbaijan of violating the "humanitarian armistice" in the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region, by firing artillery shells and missiles.
"The enemy fired artillery shells in the northern direction, and also fired missiles in the southern direction," said Armenian Defense Ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanian - on Twitter - and there was no immediate response from Azerbaijan.
Russian call
Meanwhile, the Al-Jazeera correspondent in Moscow reported that an Armenian military delegation arrived in the Russian capital, in response to an invitation from the Russian side, which was directed to Armenia and Azerbaijan to hold a meeting of military leaders who would oversee the development of ceasefire implementation mechanisms, in implementation of the Moscow agreement signed on the tenth of this month. The Azerbaijani side has not sent a delegation yet.
The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had held telephone talks with his Azerbaijani and Armenian counterparts, during which they discussed the military escalation between the two countries.
Lavrov stressed the need for strict implementation of the Moscow agreement on a ceasefire, and stressed the need to start constructive negotiations on the main principles of the "Minsk" group, to settle the conflict in the Karabakh region.
French welcome
For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed - Saturday evening - the humanitarian truce, and said that it came "after a French mediation that took place during the last days and hours in coordination with the co-presidents of the Minsk Group."
A week after the announcement of a ceasefire agreement - which was not implemented between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the Karabakh region - a new "humanitarian truce" came into effect Saturday at midnight local time between the two parties to the conflict, to put an end to the escalation.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a previous statement, "The Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan have agreed to a humanitarian truce as of October 18 at midnight local time." The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry confirmed the step in a similar statement.
The resumption of fighting three weeks ago led to hundreds of deaths, and the conflict witnessed a new escalation on Saturday following a first failed ceasefire attempt that took place a week ago under the auspices of Moscow.
Field superiority
In this context, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense announced that the operational superiority along the front with Armenia tends in favor of Azerbaijan, and confirmed in a statement that all the allegations that are being circulated about the Armenian forces' siege of Azeri soldiers are "misleading and false."
On Saturday, Azerbaijan vowed to "take revenge" for the killing of 13 civilians in night bombing targeting the city of Ganja, in a new escalation of the conflict.
On Saturday, the Ministry of Defense in Azerbaijan announced the shooting down of an Armenian drone, after announcing the shooting down of a Su-25 warplane in Karabakh province.
On October 10, a humanitarian truce was reached in Moscow between the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia, but Yerevan violated it after less than 24 hours by bombing the city of Ganja, killing and wounding civilians.