Azerbaijan has announced that it has halted its military operation in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh after separatist Armenian forces agreed to lay down their arms and hold reintegration talks.
The agreement was due to go into effect at 1 p.m. local time (11am CET), while talks between Azerbaijani officials and the breakaway region's ethnic Armenian authorities on its “re-integration” into Azerbaijan are scheduled to take place tomorrow,Thursday, in the Azerbaijani city of Yevlakh.
The deal was reached through negotiations with the Russian peacekeeping contingent in the region, local officials said.
The deal envisions the withdrawal of Armenian military units and equipment from Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as disarming the local defense forces, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry confirmed.
But Gerard Hovakimian, a spokesperson for Armaras, a Paris-based pressure group that promotes Armenia and fights for the rights of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh (which they call "High Karabakh" or "Artsakh"), told RFI that the Azeri "do not respect the cease-fire." His remarks could not be independently verified.
He says that there is an airlift of civilians, but it is not clear if it is used to "return the people to Armenia" or if they are "protected by the Russians" who have a contigent of "peacekeepers" in the territory.
According to Hovakimian, Stepanakert, the enclave's capital, was shelled during the night resulting in 42 dead, 250 wounded and some 7,000 displaced people.
According to a statement by Armaras, a further meeting will be held on 21 September in the city of Yevlakh, to discuss "questions about reintegration, ensuring rights and security of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as issues of ensuring the livelihoods of the population" in the region.
Stunning collapse
The stunning collapse of separatist resistance represents a major victory for Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev in his quest to bring Armenian-majority Nagorno-Karabakh back under Baku's control.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a televised address that fighting appeared to have largely subsided adding that it is "very important" that the ceasefire holds.
He repeated a denial that his country's army was in the enclave and said he expected Russia's peacekeepers to ensure Karabakh's ethnic-Armenian residents could stay "in their homes, on their land".
The latest flare-up comes three years after Azerbaijan recaptured swathes of territory in and around the region in a brief war that dealt a bitter defeat to Armenia.
Separatist war
Nagorno-Karabakh and the sizable surrounding territories had been under ethnic Armenian control since the 1994 conclusion of the separatist war, but Azerbaijan regained the territories and parts of Nagorno-Karabakh after fighting in 2020. That ended with an armistice placing Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh.
However, Azerbaijan claims that Armenia has smuggled in weapons since then. The claims led to a blockade of the road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, causing food and medicine shortages.
Thousands of protesters gathered Tuesday in central Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, blocking streets and demanding that authorities defend Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Some clashed with police, who reportedly used stun grenades. A total of 34 people — 16 policemen and 18 civilians — were injured in the clashes, Armenia’s Health Ministry said. About half of them continue to receive medical assistance, the ministry said.
(With newswires)
