Armenia and Azerbaijan agree to end fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh region

ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN have announced an agreement to stop the fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan under a pact signed with Russia that calls for the deployment of Russian peacekeepers and territorial concessions.

Nagorno-Karabakh has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a 1994 truce ended a separatist war in which some 30,000 people died.

Since then there have been sporadic clashes and large-scale clashes began on 27 September.

Several ceasefires had been called, but they were violated almost immediately. However, the deal announced earlier today seemed more likely to take hold because Azerbaijan has made significant progress, including taking control of the strategically key city of Shushi on Sunday.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Facebook that calling for an end to the fighting was “extremely painful for me personally and for our people.”

Shortly after the announcement, thousands of people flocked to the main square of the Armenian capital Yerevan to protest the agreement, and many shouted: “We will not give up our land.”

Some of them broke into the main government building, saying they were looking for Pashinian, who had apparently already left.

The agreement calls for the Armenian forces to hand over control of some areas they held outside the Nagorno-Karabakh borders, including the eastern district of Agdam.

That area carries great symbolic weight for Azerbaijan because its main city, also called Agdam, was completely looted, and the only building that remains intact is the city’s mosque.

The Armenians will also hand over the Lachin region, which has the main highway from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.

The agreement calls for the road, the so-called Lachin Corridor, to remain open and be protected by Russian peacekeepers.

In total, 1,960 Russian peacekeepers will be deployed to the region for a five-year term.