Ethnic Armenian separatist leaders in Nagorno-Karabakh said on September 23 that they would implement the terms of a ceasefire agreement reached three days earlier with Azerbaijani officials, including evacuating injured civilians to Armenia with the help of Russian peacekeepers and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC ).
The separatists said that under the September 20 agreement, aid was to be delivered from Armenia to Stepanakert – the de facto capital of the breakaway region under ethnic Armenian control – via the Lachin corridor, which for decades was the main link between Karabakh and Armenian.
As part of the deal, separatists said, there would also be talks on the “political future” of the region, which is home to an estimated 120,000 people, many of whom are currently suffering from food, fuel and electricity shortages.
The separatists’ statement also said that work was underway to restore power in the region, with a target of September 24.
Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh reported that Karabakh separatists had started in the area populated by ethnic Armenians give up their weapons as part of an agreement negotiated with Baku following Azerbaijan’s lightning offensive this week.
Russian peacekeepers said more than 800 firearms, grenades, mortars, anti-tank missiles and anti-tank missile systems had been handed over and the process would continue over the weekend.
The agreement was drawn up during a meeting between representatives of the ethnic Armenian populations of Karabakh and Azerbaijan on September 22 in the western Azerbaijani city of Yevlax.
The separatists had previously stated that they were holding talks with Baku under Russian mediation to organize the withdrawal of their troops.
Ethnic Armenians meet at the airport as “reintegration” talks take place in Nagorno-Karabakh
A witness told Portal that an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) aid convoy was seen at the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan early on September 23 for the first time since Baku captured the region.
The Red Cross said it delivered fuel, blankets and 28,000 diapers to the area in initial shipments.
AFP journalists and ICRC officials at the border confirmed on September 23 that Red Cross aid had entered the region along the Lachin Corridor.
The aid group’s vehicles “passed through the Lachin corridor to deliver around 70 tonnes of mainly humanitarian aid and food to the community,” ICRC spokeswoman Zara Amatuni told AFP, speaking in Kornidzor at the final checkpoint on the Armenian side of the Border .
As AFP reported, Armenian civilians gathered at the Kornidzor checkpoint in the hope of receiving news of relatives in Karabakh.
Democratic U.S. Senator Gary Peters, who leads a Congressional delegation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, called for international observers to monitor the situation and said the people of Karabakh were “very afraid.”
“I am definitely very concerned about what is happening in Nagorno-Karabakh. I think there needs to be some visibility,” Peters said told reporters.
Peters had previously condemned the Azerbaijani government’s “military aggression and violence against the Armenian people.”
“The Azerbaijani government has made it clear that its goal is to erase the historical presence of Armenians in this region.” he said during his visit to the region.
Azerbaijan claimed the 24-hour offensive from September 19-20, which it described as an “anti-terror operation”, had brought the breakaway region back under its control.
The offensive was halted on September 20 after Karabakh’s Armenian leadership accepted a proposal from the Russian peacekeeping mission, although sporadic fighting was reported.
Baku has said it is providing an amnesty for Armenian Karabakh fighters who turn in their weapons and is seeking to reintegrate the territory’s ethnic Armenian population. Some separatist fighters have vowed to continue resisting Azerbaijani control.
“I would like to reiterate that Azerbaijan is determined to reintegrate the ethnic Armenian residents of Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region as equal citizens,” Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Ceyhun Bayramov said in a speech to the UN General Assembly on September 23.
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Yerevan’s response to the Azerbaijani offensive has sparked protests in the Armenian capital. Opposition leaders are calling for the ouster of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and accusing the government of insufficient support for Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population.
Pashinian expressed hope that Karabakh Armenians would be allowed to return to their homes, but said Yerevan would accept an influx of ethnic Armenians if they left the area.
Anti-government Demonstrations Yerevan and at least two other cities have seen the detention of scores of people over the past two days as they expressed anger that Pashinyan’s government had not done more to prevent Azerbaijani forces from pursuing their quick victory in the war to conquer the Karabakh region.
According to authorities, more than 80 people were charged with disobeying police orders in the capital on September 22, and at least another 20 people were reportedly arrested on September 23.
Armenian protests continue after Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh offensive
Armenian opposition groups, led by a so-called national committee, claimed more than 350 supporters had been arrested. The group called on Pashinyan to resign from his position.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken Pashinian said in a phone call on September 23 that Washington continued to support Armenia’s “sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity” and that it had “deep concern for the ethnic Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Spokesman Matthew Miller said Blinken “underscored that the United States calls on Azerbaijan to protect civilians and fulfill its obligations, respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the residents of Nagorno-Karabakh, and ensure that its forces comply with international humanitarian law.”
Pashinian and many Armenians blame Russia – which has traditionally served as the Caucasus state’s protector in the region – for not deploying its peacekeepers to protect ethnic Armenians in Karabakh.
During a special session of the U.N. Security Council this week, council members including the United States and Russia called for peace while Armenian and Azerbaijani officials traded contradictions.
Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as Azerbaijan, but has had de facto independence since secession in a war in the 1990s.
During a brief but bloody war in 2020, Azerbaijan, with support from Yerevan, recaptured much of the territory as well as seven surrounding districts that had been controlled by ethnic Armenians since the 1990s.
With Azerbaijan service reports from RFE/RL, AP, Portal and AFP