On Saturday, Armenian and Azerbaijani armed forces engaged in heavy fighting over the conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, according to officials in both countries.
The two armies appear to have ignored calls from the United States, France and Russia for an immediate ceasefire in the region. The Armenian-concentrated region is located within Azerbaijan, and they are demanding secession.
Armenian Defense Ministry officials say that their armed forces repelled a massive Azerbaijani offensive on the front line and shot down three aircraft.
For its part, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry denied that any aircraft were shot down and said that Armenian personnel shelled civilian areas. Azerbaijani President Aliyev said his forces took control of the strategically important village of Madaziz on Saturday.
The two countries said at least 150 people have been killed in this South Caucasus region since fighting began on Sept. 27.
The Azerbaijani president has demanded that the fighting stop only if Armenian forces withdraw from the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Both sides had previously rejected a ceasefire in the disputed region. In recent days, the fighting there has escalated to levels similar to those of the 1990s.
Armenian separatists seized the Nagorno-Karabakh region from Azerbaijan at that time in a bloody war. More than 30,000 people died as a result of the fighting.
Negotiations to settle the conflict have been stalled since the 1994 ceasefire agreement between Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Peace efforts brokered by the Minsk Group, consisting of the United States, France, and Russia, failed in 2010.
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