Azerbaijan declared the cessation of its military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh as Armenian separatist forces agreed to disarm, marking a significant development in the long-standing conflict.
Azerbaijan on Wednesday announced it had 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.
Baku and the ethnic-Armenian authorities in Karabakh said Russian peacekeepers brokered a deal to stop the fighting a day after Azerbaijan launched an “anti-terrorist operation.”
The separatists said they had committed to a “full dismantlement” of their forces and the withdrawal of Armenian army units from the region, at the centre of two wars between Armenia and Azerbaijan since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said that “all weapons and heavy armaments are to be surrendered” under the supervision of Russia’s 2,000-strong peacekeeping force on the ground.
Both sides said talks on reintegrating the breakaway territory into the rest of Azerbaijan would be held on Thursday in Yevlakh.
The stunning collapse of separatist resistance represents a significant victory for Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev in his quest to bring Armenian-majority Nagorno-Karabakh back under Baku’s control.
In a televised address, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Yerevan “did not participate in drafting” the Karabakh ceasefire deal and insisted his country’s army was not in the enclave.
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.
Baku said Tuesday it had taken control of more than 60 military positions during “localized anti-terrorist measures.”
Russian peacekeepers and separatist forces evacuated thousands of civilians from the fighting.
Pashinyan had accused Azerbaijan of engaging in “ethnic cleansing of Karabakh Armenians.”
The ceasefire announcement came after Aliyev warned the military operation would continue until the separatists laid down their weapons in the face of mounting international pressure to halt fighting.
Russia, the United Nations, and Pope Francis added to calls to stop the violence after the United States and France reached out to the leaders of both Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Miroslava Salazar, with AFP
