A Russian-brokered ceasefire has been agreed in the disputed South Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh 24 hours after Azerbaijan began a military offensive in the region, Armenian news portal 24News reported on Wednesday,
A self-proclaimed republic that is legally part of Azerbaijan but whose largely Armenian population broke away from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s, Nagorno-Karabakh’s authorities said they had agreed to a ceasefire brokered by Russia’s peacekeeping mission in the region, describing efforts by the international community to stop the war as “insufficient”.
The Azerbaijani Defence Ministry also confirmed an agreement had been reached to suspend its “counter-terrorism activities” in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The ceasefire, which was due to enter force at 1:00 PM on Wednesday, also stipulates the complete withdrawal of “the remaining Armenian Armed Force service members” from the region and the full disarmament of the “Nagorno-Karabakh defence army”, essentially handing control of the entire region back to Azerbaijan.
The Kremlin declined to comment on the news, with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissing Armenian anger at Russia for failing to step in to avert the violence as “groundless”,
saying that Azerbaijan’s military intervention constituted “de jure actions in its own territory”.
Amid a recent nadir in Russian-Armenian relations, Azerbaijan launched its military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday, in an attempt to bring the breakaway region fully under its control.
People hiding in a basement in Nagorno-Karabakh. Photo: Gegham Stepanyan
At least 32 people were killed in fighting on Tuesday, which also left a further 200 injured.
