Armenia and Azerbaijan confirm participation in urgent peace talks in Russia

Russia said Friday that Armenia and Azerbaijan had agreed to meet in Moscow for negotiations on ending the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, after President Vladimir Putin called for talks.

"Baku and Yerevan have confirmed their participation in the consultations in Moscow," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told AFP.

"Active preparations are underway," she said, with the talks expected to take place later on Friday and involve the two countries' foreign ministers.

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The foreign ministershadbeen invited early Friday morning to take part in talks in Moscow. “The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia are being invited to Moscow on October 9,” Russia President Vladimir Putin said in a statement released by the Kremlin.

Putin’s invitation came as there appeared to be no end in sight for nearly two weeks of fighting between Azerbaijan and ethic Armenian separatists that has claimed hundreds of lives.

"Following a series of telephone discussions between the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, the President of Russia calls for a halt to military actions in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," the statement added.

“The President of Russia is issuing a call to halt the fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh on humanitarian grounds in order to exchange dead bodies and prisoners,” the Kremlin added.

Yerevan had ruled out any talks between the two countries’ top diplomats as long as clashes are ongoing until this morning.

Armenia on Thursday accused Azerbaijan of shelling a historic cathedral in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia said several journalists were injured in strikes on the cathedral after an initial bombardment left rubble strewn across the floor, pews knocked over and a layer of dust coating the interior from parts of the building’s limestone walls that had been hit.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in bitter fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, an Azerbaijani region controlled by Armenians who declared an unrecognised breakaway statelet after the fall of the USSR and emerged victorious from the war that followed.

Hundreds including civilians have been killed in the current fighting, the worst since a 1994 ceasefire, with both sides doubling down on entrenched positions over who should control the region.

Defence officials in Azerbaijan and Armenia said fighting continued into Thursday, with both sides claiming to have inflicted heavy losses and accusing the other of shelling civilian areas.

International leaders have repeatedly called for an immediate halt to the fighting but there are no signs yet of the conflict abating.

Turkey’s strong backing for Azerbaijan has sown fears in the West that the conflict could spiral into a full-blown war embroiling Ankara with Moscow, which has a military treaty with Armenia.

Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron are among the world leaders to denounce the reported deployment of pro-Turkish fighters from Syria and Libya to Karabakh. Iran on Wednesday warned of “terrorists” who had joined the conflict from abroad.

Azerbaijan announced Thursday that it was recalling its ambassador to Athens following reports that Greek citizens were joining Armenian forces in Karabakh.

(with inputs from agencies)