Minsk Group Hold Talks to End Nagorno-Karabakh Clashes
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Talks to end the worst violence in decades in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh kick off in Vienna on Tuesday, after 46 people were killed in three days of fighting.
The meeting will gather Russia, the United States and France in the so-called Minsk Group, spearheading attempts to end a low-key conflict that revived bloodily and dangerously last Friday.
Russia and the United States have called for the fighting to end but Turkey is standing by Azerbaijan, and predicts the territory its ally has lost will "one day" be recovered.
A landlocked mountainous region with an ethnic Armenian majority lying within Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh has been in dispute since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Separatists backed by Yerevan announced allegiance to Armenia and then declared an independent republic, a move that has not been recognized elsewhere, including by Armenia.
In the subsequent fighting, around 30,000 lives were lost and thousands of people from both ethnic groups fled their homes.
A ceasefire brokered by Russia was signed in 1994, but the two foes have never agreed on a lasting peace.
Sporadic clashes occur along the frontline, but but the latest bloodshed represents a perilous escalation, say commentators, according to AFP.
The flare-up "threatens the stability of the strategic Caucasus region which is a transit route of Caspian oil and gas to European markets that bypasses Russia, reducing Europe's dependence on Russian energy supplies," Sergi Kapanadze, a professor of international relations at the Tbilisi State University, told AFP.
Energy-rich Azerbaijan, whose military spending exceeds Armenia's entire state budget, has repeatedly threatened to take back the breakaway region by force.
It claims to have captured several strategic positions inside Karabakh since fighting erupted on Friday, in what would be the first change in the front-line since the end of the war.
Baku announced a unilateral truce on Sunday, but it failed to stop the fighting, and on Monday Armenia said a ceasefire would only be possible if both sides return to their previous positions.
The talks in Vienna were to start at 1300 GMT, but Tuesday's session was scheduled to be brief and with no announcement to the media.