- Ethnic Armenian official: arms surrender pending
- Talks come after Azerbaijan regains control of Karabakh
- Azerbaijan agrees to send fuel and aid
- Shots can be heard in the capital Karabakh
GORIS, Armenia, Sept 21 (Portal) – Ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh need security guarantees before handing over their weapons, an adviser to their leader said on Thursday, a day after Azerbaijan said it had the breakaway region back under its control brought.
Armenian authorities in Karabakh accused Azerbaijan of violating a ceasefire agreed on Wednesday after an Azerbaijani lightning offensive forced separatists to agree to disarmament.
Baku’s Defense Ministry said the claim that its forces had violated the ceasefire was “completely false.” Two sources in the capital Karabakh told Portal they heard heavy gunfire on Thursday morning, but it was not clear who fired.
The shooting and conflicting narratives highlighted the potential for further bloodshed, despite a deal reached 24 hours earlier that restored Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over Karabakh after 35 years of conflict.
“We have an agreement to stop military actions, but we are waiting for a final agreement – talks are ongoing,” David Babayan, an adviser to Nagorno-Karabakh’s breakaway ethnic Armenian leader Samvel Shahramanyan, told Portal.
Asked whether he should give up the weapons, Babayan said his people cannot be left to die, so security guarantees are needed first.
“There are still many questions that need to be answered,” he said. “At any moment they could destroy us and commit genocide against us.”
Azerbaijan said it had agreed to a request to provide fuel and humanitarian aid to Karabakh after imposing a virtual blockade for the past nine months.
The talks took place in the Azerbaijani city of Yevlakh between Azerbaijan and representatives of the Republic of Artsakh, as Karabakh Armenians call themselves.
Azerbaijan, a predominantly Muslim country, has rejected accusations of ethnic cleansing and said it wants a smooth “reintegration” of the region’s ethnic Armenian and Christian populations.
President Ilham Aliyev said on Wednesday that Armenians would enjoy full educational, cultural and religious rights, but wrapped his message in sharp nationalist rhetoric.
All ethnic groups and faiths would be united as “one fist – for Azerbaijan, for dignity, for the fatherland,” he said on state television.
“CRIMINAL JUNTA”
Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but has enjoyed de facto independence since secession in a war in the 1990s when the Soviet Union collapsed.
Restoring control was a cherished dream for Aliyev, who launched a lightning-fast military operation on Tuesday that quickly broke through Armenian lines in Karabakh.
Karabakh authorities said at least 200 people were killed on their side. Aliyev said some Azerbaijanis died as “martyrs” and other soldiers were wounded, without specifying the number.
[1/6]A protester reacts next to police officers standing guard during a rally in front of the Government Building to demand the resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan following the surrender of Nagorno-Karabakh, in Yerevan, Armenia, September 21, 2023. Hayk Baghdasaryan/Photolure via Acquire license rights Read more
In his speech to the nation, Aliyev directed his anger at Karabakh’s leadership: “After the capitulation of the criminal junta, this source of tension, this pit of poison, is already history.”
The defeat is a bitter pill to swallow for the separatists and for Armenia, which helped its relatives in the enclave maintain their autonomy and fought two wars with Azerbaijan in 30 years.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan acknowledged that Armenians endured “countless physical and psychological suffering” in a speech marking his country’s Independence Day.
But he said his country urgently needs peace to ensure its survival.
DRAFT PEACE
Aliyev said on Wednesday that Armenia’s reluctance not to block Baku’s offensive would remove an obstacle to peace between the two Caucasus neighbors. An adviser to Aliyev said Baku had submitted a new draft peace deal to Yerevan, Russian news agency RIA reported.
Russia, which has peacekeepers stationed in the region, also did nothing to stand in the way of the Azerbaijani offensive – leading to bitter resentment among many Armenians who viewed Moscow as an ally and protector.
The Interfax news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that Moscow believes the question of who owns Karabakh has now been resolved and that this is a significant step towards a peace treaty.
In Yerevan on Wednesday evening, thousands of protesters condemned their government’s failure to protect Karabakh.
Many called for the resignation of Pashinyan, who suffered a defeat in a six-week war against Azerbaijan in 2020 that paved the way for this week’s loss of Karabakh, but still won re-election a few months later.
In Karabakh, many ethnic Armenians have fled their homes in the last three days. Some gathered at the capital’s airport, others sought refuge with Russian peacekeepers.
On the Armenian side of the border with Azerbaijan, on a remote hill near the village of Kornidzor, Armenian men stood in a column of about 20 cars, waiting for friends and family to be detained in Karabakh if they were allowed to leave.
A man who gave his name as Hayk said he spent days at the border hoping to find his father, who was in Karabakh for work when the blockade was imposed last December and has been trapped ever since.
Residents of Stepanakert, the capital of Karabakh, which Azerbaijan calls Khankendi, said there was no electricity, shops were empty and people lit fires in courtyards to cook whatever they could find.
“There are a lot of displaced people from the villages, they were just brought to the city and had nowhere to stay,” said Gayane Sargsyan, who runs a wellness business in the city.
In a voice message, she told Portal that rumors were circulating about what would happen next and that people were in “chaos and confusion.”
Reporting by Felix Light in Goris and Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow; additional reporting by Nailia Bagirova; Author: Mark Trevelyan. Editing: Gareth Jones
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