Armenia faces 'decisive moment' as Karabakh fighting intensifies

Armenian and Azerbaijani forces were engaged in fierce clashes on Saturday as fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region intensified, with Armenia reporting heavy losses and its leader saying it was facing a historic threat.

Yerevan's Defence Ministry said separatist forces in Karabakh repelled a major attack by Azerbaijan, seven days after fighting erupted again in the decades-old dispute over the ethnic-Armenian breakaway province.

Armenia also announced the deaths of 51 more separatist fighters, taking fatalities on both sides to more than 240.

Azerbaijan's Defence Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces "captured new footholds" and President Ilham Aliyev claimed his forces took the village of Madagiz, a hamlet within firing range of an important northern road.

On Saturday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called on the country to unite.

"We are facing possibly the most decisive moment in our millennia-old history," Mr Pashinyan said.

"We all must dedicate ourselves to a singular goal: victory."

The clashes took place after the regional capital Stepanakert came under artillery and rocket fire on Saturday, with local defence officials reporting further explosions later in the day.

The fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh threatens to draw in powerful players such as Russia and Turkey.

Armenia is in a military alliance of former Soviet countries led by Moscow, which maintains a military base there, while Nato member Turkey signalled its full support for Azerbaijan's military operations.

Both sides have been accused of hitting civilian areas and Azerbaijan said on Saturday that Armenian artillery shelled 19 of its settlements overnight.

Azerbaijan's foreign ministry said one civilian had been killed and four wounded in an Armenian rocket attack on Azerbaijan's second city of Ganja.

Armenia denied attacking its neighbour but the leader of Nagorno-Karabakh said it had targeted Ganja. He later said it had stopped firing on the city to avoid civilian casualties

Turkey on Sunday condemned what it said were attacks on civilians by Armenian forces on the Azerbaijani city of Ganja.

"Armenia's attacks today targeting civilians in Azerbaijan's second largest city Ganja are a new indicator of its stance that does not recognise law. We condemn those attacks," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

On Saturday in Stepanakert, residents cleared wreckage and swept up glass from the shattered windows of their homes and shops.

"This is a great sorrow for our community, for our people," Nelson Adamyan, 65, an electrician, told AFP outside his damaged residential building.

"But we will stand for our freedom, we will always be free."

Others, however, decided to flee.

AFP journalists saw families gathering in the border town of Goris as a first step to reaching Yerevan, 350 kilometres to the north-west.

Dropped off in front of a grey Soviet-style hotel, they waited for public buses to be sent by authorities or lifts from volunteers providing a taxi service.

"We must come to their aid. We help our country as we can," said Ani, who had driven from Yerevan to help families leave.

The latest fighting erupted on September 27 and international calls for a halt to hostilities have gone unanswered.

The leader of Nagorno-Karabakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, said he was going to join "intensive fighting" on the front line.

Armenia has reported 209 military deaths and 14 civilian fatalities. Azerbaijan has reported 19 civilian deaths but has not confirmed any fatalities among its troops.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights registered the deaths of least 36 militants from Syria fighting alongside Azerbaijan's forces in the past 48 hours, bringing their reported deaths to 64.

The war monitor said 1,200 combatants from pro-Ankara Syrian factions were dispatched to the conflict.

Russia, the US and France – whose leaders head a mediation group that has failed to bring about a political resolution to the conflict – called for an immediate ceasefire.

On Friday, Armenia said it was "ready to engage" with mediators but Azerbaijan, which considers Nagorno-Karabakh under Armenian occupation, said Armenian forces must fully withdraw from the area before a ceasefire can be brokered.

The region's declaration of independence from Azerbaijan during the collapse of the Soviet Union sparked a war in the early 1990s that claimed about 30,000 lives.

Talks to resolve the conflict have made little progress since a 1994 ceasefire agreement.

The breakaway province is not acknowledged as independent by any country – including Armenia – and its foreign ministry said on Saturday that international recognition was "the only way towards peace and security in the region".

Yerevan accused Turkey of dispatching mercenaries from Syria and Libya to the fighting. Russia and France condemned the Turkish move.

On Saturday, Mr Aliyev informed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of civilian casualties and thanked Turkey for its support.