Armenia Welcomes Yeltsin’s Offer to Mediate
Armenia welcomed an offer by Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin to mediate an effort to end its five-year war with Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, heavy fighting flared Saturday in the enclave at the heart of the conflict.
Yeltsin’s offer Friday “will facilitate the establishment of a truce and active peacemaking process,” said Aram Abramian, a spokesman for Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, in a telephone interview from the Armenian capital, Yerevan.
There was no immediate word on whether Azerbaijan supported the offer.
The two nations’ conflict, which has claimed more than 3,000 lives, started over Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly Christian Armenian enclave in Muslim Azerbaijan. An Armenian offensive has pushed the fighting further into Azerbaijan, and Armenia is believed to be trying to cut off Nakhichevan, a part of Azerbaijan sandwiched between Armenia and Iran.
The press center of the Nagorno-Karabakh legislature said Azerbaijan had shelled Armenian border areas from the city of Fizuli until early Saturday.
Fizuli is located in southwestern Azerbaijan about nine miles from the border with Nagorno-Karabakh and about 15 miles from its border with Iran.
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