Azerbaijan claims full control of Nagorno-Karabakkh
Baku: Representatives from Nagorno-Karabakh and the Azerbaijan government met for talks on Thursday to discuss the future of the breakaway region that Azerbaijan claims to fully control following a military offensive this week.
Azerbaijan’s state news agency said the talks had ended but provided no details on whether an agreement was reached.
Nagorno-Karabakh authorities and the news agency earlier said the talks between regional leaders and Azerbaijan’s government would focus on Nagorno-Karabakh’s “reintegration” into Azerbaijan.
The talks in the Azerbaijani city of Yevlakh came after local Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh agreed to lay down their weapons following an outbreak of fighting this week in the decades-long separatist conflict.
Authorities in the ethnic Armenian region that has run its affairs without international recognition since fighting broke out in the early 1990s declared Wednesday that local self-defence forces will disarm and disband under a Russia-mediated cease-fire.
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev trumpeted victory in a televised address to the nation, saying his country’s military had restored its sovereignty in Nagorno-Karabakh.
On Tuesday, the Azerbaijan army unleashed an artillery barrage and drone attacks against outnumbered and undersupplied pro-Armenian forces, which have been weakened by a blockade of the region in the
southern Caucasus Mountains that is recognised internationally as being part of Azerbaijan.
Nagorno-Karabakh human rights ombudsman Gegham Stepanyan said at least 200 people, including
10 civilians, were killed and more than 400 others were wounded in the fighting. The figures could not immediately be independently verified.
Azerbaijan’s move to reclaim control over Nagorno-Karabakh raised concerns that a full-scale war in the region could resume between it and Armenia, which have been locked in a struggle over Nagorno-Karabakh since a separatist war there ended in 1994.
The hostilities worsened an already grim humanitarian situation for residents who have endured
shortages of food and medicine for months as Azerbaijan enforced a blockade of the road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to
Armenia.
