Nagorno-Karabakh talks planned amid Azerbaijan's offensive

Yerevan (Armenia): Azerbaijani forces pushed deeper into Nagorno-Karabakh on Friday as top diplomats from Armenia and Azerbaijan were scheduled to attend talks in Geneva intended to help broker an end to more than a month of heavy fighting over the separatist territory.

Intense clashes were going on in the south of Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia's Defense Ministry said. The Azerbaijani military reported that areas in the Terter and Gubadli regions of Azerbaijan came under Armenian shelling.

On Thursday, Nagorno-Karabakh's separatist leader said Azerbaijani troops had advanced to within 5 kilometers (about 3 miles) of a strategically located town just south of the region's capital, Stepanakert. He urged residents to mobilize all their resources to fend off the attack on Shushi, a town which sits on the main road linking Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia. The one who controls Shushi controls Nagorno-Karabakh, Arayik Harutyunyan said in a video address from the town's cathedral, which was severely damaged by Azerbaijani shelling this month. Harutyunyan's statements marked a somber acknowledgment of Azerbaijani gains in the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh that started on Sept. 27.