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Yesterday, Azerbaijani forces announced that they had entered the Lachin region, the third and last to be handed over to Armenia, near Nagorno-Karabakh, under the end-of-hostilities agreement signed on November 9 under the auspices of Russia.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said in a statement that “units of the Azerbaijani army entered the Lachin region on December 1”.
The Lachin region was the last of the three regions that Armenia promised to hand over to Azerbaijan, in compliance with the ceasefire decision.
The Lachin region, as well as the Agdam region, which surrendered on November 20, and Kalbjar, which surrendered on November 25, form a buffer zone surrounding Karabakh, the republic unilaterally declared by the Armenian majority. since the end of the first war in 1994.
Baku regained control of four other provinces playing the same role, during the six weeks of fierce battles between the two camps since late September, which left thousands of dead.
The mountainous and now snow-covered region of Lachin stretches from north to south as far as Iran along the eastern border with Armenia, and is especially known as the corridor of the same name.
This corridor is controlled by Russian peacekeepers and is currently the only highway connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia.
Shortly after the Baku announcement, a convoy of Azerbaijani military trucks accompanied by Russian forces vehicles crossed the city of Lachin (Birdzor in Armenian), a journalist from the “French Press Agency” witnessed.
Residents did not wait long to leave the region, having destroyed homes and infrastructure on the lands they abandoned.
Last weekend, the men were cutting trees and carrying firewood to warm them.
“All the residents told us that they had to leave before 6:00 pm on Monday,” said Davit Daftian, an employee of the regional administration. “This also applies to the villages of Souss and Agafno.”
But the head of the region’s administration said on Sunday that these two towns are not interested in withdrawing. He added: “As for the city of Birdzor (Lachin), two hundred people who are useful for the administration (gas, electricity, roads …) can stay there. We will give their names to the Russian soldiers (to keep the peace) and these people will get a permit “to stay.
But there are residents who stay because they have nowhere to go. These people “told us they would stay and wait for what would happen on Tuesday,” Davitian said.
“I do not know where to go”
In the town of Agafno, near Al-Mamar Road, residents both left their homes with their furniture and firewood in trucks and cars.
Araxia Gyukshakian, 60, is among those who will remain. “I don’t know where to go. I stayed here during the war. This is my home,” he said.
At the end of the first war in 1994, there was an exodus in the opposite direction, as the Azerbaijani population fled these areas which were later inhabited by Armenians.
The ceasefire agreement signed on November 9, at a time when the military situation was disastrous for Armenia, establishes the victory of Azerbaijan and gives it great advances on the ground.
It allows the preservation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region despite its reduced area and provides for the deployment of two thousand Russian peacekeepers.
The agreement signed under the auspices of Russia recalled the determined role that Moscow plays in the Caucasus and the growing influence of Turkey, the main supporter of Baku.
On the other hand, it seems that Western countries are losing influence, since neither France nor the United States, which are mediators of being members of the Minsk Group, which has been tasked since the 1990s with finding a sustainable solution to the crisis, they did not get convincing results on the record.
Turkish-Russian agreement
And the Turkish Defense Ministry announced that Turkey had signed an agreement with Russia on the establishment of a joint center whose task would be to monitor the ceasefire in the Karabakh region.
The ministry wrote on Twitter: “An agreement was signed after talks on technical arrangements for the establishment of a joint Turkish-Russian center and its operating principles.” He added: “The necessary efforts have been made to make the center operational as soon as possible.”
And Ankara and Moscow signed a memorandum on the establishment of a joint monitoring center in mid-November. Turkey confirmed at that time that this center would be established in a location chosen by Azerbaijan.
In early November, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a Russian-sponsored agreement that ended weeks of bloody fighting in Karabakh.
To ensure respect for this agreement, which enshrines Baku’s field achievements and provides for the evacuation of Armenians in some areas, Moscow began to deploy its “peacekeeping” forces.
In a proposal sent to the Turkish Parliament on November 16, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan requested approval to send soldiers to Azerbaijan with the aim of participating in the Russian-Turkish mission.
