Armenia-Azerbaijan bloodletting threatens Karabakh ceasefire

Locals sigh with relief as their Armenian village of Movses, close to the border with Azerbaijan, disappears in the lilac mist rolling down from the Kardash mountain, where Azeri snipers have fortified positions.
      
"The mist is our salvation. When visibility is zero, we know the Azeris won't be shooting," said Khanum, an elderly Armenian woman who, like other Movses residents, lives in constant fear of Azeri snipers.
      
But just across the frontline, on the Azeri side, the fear is no less intense.
      
"The streets are deserted during the daytime," said Ismail Nabiyev, who lives in Alibeyli, an Azeri village. "We can't hold wedding parties or funerals. The Armenians shoot at us when they see people gathering."       

The bloody Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict over the Nagorny Karabakh region formally became a frozen one over two decades ago. In reality the war has never stopped for Azeri and Armenian villagers living along their countries' border.
      
The villages of Movses and Alibeyli lie around 200 kilometres from Nagorny Karabakh itself.        

But violence has spread far beyond the epicenter of the conflict, with Azeri and Armenian sharpshooters along their border threatening the shaky peace as tit-for-tat bloodletting annually claims dozens of lives.
      
Sparking fears of a new all-out war between the countries, last year saw an unprecedented spiral of violence with more than 70 people from both sides killed.
      
At least for those living in these rural border areas, war has already returned.
      
"Our houses are under constant fire from Armenia," said Khatira Aliyeva, a young mother of two who was wounded in the arm in February when her house in Alibeyli came...