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Azerbaijani troops said on Friday they had entered Agdam, one of three districts that Armenia returned under a Russian-brokered peace agreement that ended fighting in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
“Units of the Azerbaijani army entered Agdam on November 20,” the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said, referring to an area controlled by Armenian separatists for nearly three decades.
Armenians living in Agda collected grenades and persimmons from the trees around their houses and loaded the vans on furniture, rushing to leave the area before the official deadline to deliver it to Azerbaijan, AFP reporters reported.
“We wanted to install a sauna, a kitchen. But now he had to dismantle everything. When I leave, I will burn down the house with everything in it, ”said Gagik Grigorian, a 40-year-old electrician.
At the end of the deadline for leaving the region, columns of tanks and armored carriers with Armenian soldiers moved from Agdam in thick fog.
On November 25, Armenia will also hand over to Azerbaijan the Kelbecher district, which is located between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, and on December 1, the Lachin district.
Opposing neighbors Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh last week after six weeks of heavy fighting.
The agreement stipulates that both parties to the conflict can retain the territories they currently control. For Armenia, this means significant territorial losses.
Nagorno-Karabakh unilaterally declared its independence during the collapse of the Soviet Union. Then a war broke out in the 1990s that claimed 30,000 lives. Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan in terms of international law. However, Armenians live the longest here. At the end of September the battles in the region resumed.
More than 2,300 Armenian soldiers have died in the clashes, the Armenian Ministry of Health said on Saturday. Azerbaijan has not yet provided data on how many troops have been lost from its side. Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke a few days ago about a total of 4,000 deaths.
The EU welcomes the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh and calls for an investigation into war crimes
In a statement issued on behalf of the European Union on Thursday, European Union diplomat Josep Borrell welcomed the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh and called for an investigation into war crimes.
“The European Union welcomes the suspension of hostilities in and around Nagorno-Karabakh following the Russian-brokered ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan on November 9,” the statement said in Brussels.
The EU called on all parties to continue to adhere strictly to the ceasefire regime in order to eliminate human victims and for all actors in the region to refrain from any action or rhetoric that could endanger the ceasefire. The Community also called for the immediate withdrawal of all foreign fighters from the region.
“Any war crimes that may have been committed must be investigated,” the document says.
The EU intends to closely monitor the implementation of the ceasefire conditions, in particular as regards its monitoring mechanism.
The Community considers that the cessation of hostilities is only a first step towards the resolution of the protracted Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The declaration mentions the need to “renew efforts for a coordinated, comprehensive and sustainable solution to the conflict, including the status of Nagorno-Karabakh.”
The EU therefore reiterates its full support for the international format of the Minsk Group of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) … to this end. The EU is ready to make an effective contribution to a comprehensive and sustainable solution to the conflict, including, as far as possible, supporting stabilization measures, post-conflict reconstruction and confidence-building, “the document says.
The EU recalled its strong opposition to the use of force, including cluster munitions and incendiary weapons, as a means of resolving disputes. The statement noted that international humanitarian law must be respected and called on the parties to the conflict to implement the agreements reached in Geneva on October 30 on the exchange of prisoners of war and the return of remains.
The bloc emphasized the potential for humanitarian assistance and the best possible conditions for the voluntary, safe, dignified and credible return of displaced persons to Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding areas.
The importance of preserving and restoring the cultural and religious heritage of Nagorno-Karabakh is also highlighted.
“The European Union and its member states are already providing significant humanitarian assistance to meet the basic needs of the civilian population affected by the conflict and are ready to continue providing assistance,” Brussels said.
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