Tbilisi, Oct 17 (AFP/APP):Three weeks of indiscriminate shelling, hate-filled rhetoric and sluggish diplomacy over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh province have yielded no decisive breakthroughs and instead fuelled fears of a gruelling fight of attrition. Azerbaijan and the Armenian separatists who control its Karabakh region have been locked in a bitter impasse over the fate of the mountainous province since a war in the 1990s that left 30,000 people dead. Their long-simmering conflict erupted again three weeks ago in fierce clashes that have sparked allegations of war crimes, left hundreds of people dead and raised alarms over the failure of a decades-long international mediation. But with neither side making decisive gains — and a smokescreen of claims and counter-claims of victory blurring events on the frontline — there is no telling when the fighting will end. “Azerbaijan did achieve some military success, but not anything dramatic,” said Gela Vasadze, an analyst with Tbilisi-based think tank the Georgian Strategic Analysis Centre. “We can’t say Baku is close to taking control of Karabakh.” A pact to halt fighting agreed in Moscow on October 10 was left in tatters by fresh shelling and leaders in Azerbaijan and Armenia now double down on their promises to … Continue reading Failed talks, battlefield impasse: Karabakh faces long war