YEREVAN (Sputnik) — On Saturday, Armenia and Azerbaijan noted a sharp escalation of the situation in the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh area, with both sides accusing each other of violating the ceasefire that has been in place since 1994.
"The president instructed the foreign minister to work out a text with the foreign ministry of NKR, and after it has been written, signed and submitted to parliament, we are ready — in accordance with a preliminary agreement between all fractions and independent parliament members — to consider it the very same day," Sharmazanov said.
The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh began in 1988, when the Armenian-dominated autonomous region sought to secede from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, before proclaiming independence after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. In September 2015, the conflict escalated, with the sides blaming each other for violating the truce.
