Azerbaijani Leader Warns Nagorno-Karabakh Truce 'Fragile'

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (left) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel attend a press conference following their meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin on June 7.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said he wants a peaceful resolution to the conflict over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

"Recent developments in the region on the line of conflict show the cease-fire is not stable, it is fragile," Aliyev told a press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on June 7. "The status quo is not acceptable."

In early April, a truce halted four days of fierce fighting in and around Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia-backed separatists and Azerbaijan's military -- the worst fighting seen in the region since a fragile cease-fire deal was reached in the early 1990s.

The Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents renewed last month their commitment to a cease-fire and to a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

Baku and Yerevan have been locked in conflict over Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh for decades.

Armenian-backed separatists seized the mainly Armenian-populated region from Azerbaijan during a war in the early 1990s that killed some 30,000 people.

Diplomatic efforts to reach a permanent settlement have brought little progress.

Based on reporting by Reuters and Interfax