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After the arrival of the Russian peacekeeping forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia called for international negotiations on the future state of the conflict region in the South Caucasus. There is an urgent need to determine status, Armenian President Armen Sarkissyan said in Yerevan on Friday. The mandate for these negotiations rests with Russia, France and the United States as co-chairs of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Sarkissyan said.
Armenia had agreed to a ceasefire for Nagorno-Karabakh on Monday night with Azerbaijan and Russia. The agreement does not define the status of the region in conflict. However, it stipulates that both conflicting parties may retain the areas in which they currently have control.
For Armenia this means huge losses of territory. After the signing of the ceasefire, hundreds of protesters stormed the government headquarters in Pashinyan and the parliament in Yerevan, and the speaker of the parliament was beaten. Many Armenians see the agreement as a surrender.
Under the agreement, 2,000 peacekeepers will be deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh to maintain the ceasefire. Most of them have already taken positions, including in the Armenian-controlled capital Stepanakert and in the city of Shusha, which was retaken from Azerbaijan. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced.
Russia had emphasized that the situation in the region should be clarified after the return of the refugees from Armenia and Azerbaijan to Karabakh. It’s also about ethnic and denominational issues, he said. According to media reports, more and more Azerbaijanis came to Shusha. For the first time in 28 years, Muslims held a Friday prayer at the mosque.
Reports on the flight of the Armenians from Karabakh
Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin said on Friday that tens of thousands of refugees would return. He hopes that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will soon be history. He also led the establishment of an inter-agency humanitarian aid center to deal with the return of Azerbaijanis and Armenians. Representatives of the Russian civil, defense and foreign ministries and border guards would work there.
Many of the Christian Armenians in Karabakh refused to live with the Azerbaijani Muslims. There have been numerous reports from Karabakh of refugees from those areas who, according to the agreement, will be handed over to Azerbaijan. Videos and photos showed how Armenians in Karabakh set fire to their houses and shops.
Nagorno-Karabakh leader Araik Arutjunjan defended the initiative to end the war. He had asked the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, to avoid the loss of human life and even larger areas. Karabakh authorities estimated the number of soldiers killed on Friday in 1383. Dozens of civilians also lost their lives. Regarding censorship under martial law, the Azerbaijani army does not provide any information on the losses in its own ranks.
Azerbaijan lost control of the mountainous area with around 145,000 inhabitants in a war after the collapse of the Soviet Union some 30 years ago. Since 1994 there has been a fragile ceasefire. In the new war, Azerbaijan regained much of the area. The country relied on international law and had the support of its “sister state” Turkey. Armenia, in turn, trusts Russia as a protective power.
According to Russian sources, representatives of the International Red Cross also returned to Stepanakert to deal with the humanitarian situation in the region. France also wants to provide humanitarian aid, the Elysee Palace said after President Emmanuel Macron made a phone call to Pashinyan. Details on this remained open. Macron assured friendly solidarity with Armenia and welcomed the end of the fighting.
