Nagorno-Karabakh: Azerbaijan and Armenia agree to a ‘humanitarian ceasefire, Trump congratulated Pashinyan and Aliyev

The US State Department announced that Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to again declare a “humanitarian ceasefire” in Nagorno-Karabakh, where fighting has been ongoing since 08:00 local time on Monday morning. US President Donald Trump congratulated Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev after the statement.

The US State Department announced that representatives of the Minsk Group co-chairs and the foreign ministers of the two countries, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Ceyhun Bayramov, will meet again in Geneva on Thursday.

In the statement made, it was stated at the meeting that the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia “will try to take all necessary measures to find a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem.”

The Secretary of State of the United States, Mike Pompeo, stressed that an agreement was reached after “intense negotiation” between the foreign ministers of the two countries, in a statement he made on his Twitter account.

Pompeo met separately with Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Ceyhun Bayramov on Friday and called on the two ministers to “end the violence and protect civilians.”

In his statement on his Twitter account, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, congratulated the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, and the Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliyev, on the ceasefire decision.

“Many lives will be saved,” Trump said, adding that he is proud of their contributions to the ceasefire agreement with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, US Under Secretary of State Steve Biegun and the National Security Council.

After the fighting that started in Nagorno-Karabakh on September 27, Azerbaijan and Armenia had previously decided on a humanitarian ceasefire, but before long they accused each other of violating the ceasefire.

The two countries also accuse each other of attacking civilians.

On Saturday, US Under Secretary of State Stephen Biegun met with the two ministers and representatives of the Minsk Group co-chairs.

The Minsk Group was formed within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to find a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The group’s co-chairs are the United States, Russia and France.

Nagorno-Karabakh is recognized as part of Azerbaijan by the United Nations (UN) and the international community. However, Nagorno-Karabakh and its surroundings, which make up about 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory, have been under Armenian occupation since the early 1990s.

No country, including Armenia, had recognized the “Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh”, declared in the region in 1991.