BAKU – Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry confirmed on Wednesday that a ceasefire agreement along the contact line in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was reached through Russian mediation at a meeting of senior military officials of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Moscow.
The meeting on Tuesday was attended by the chiefs of General Staff of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Najmaddin Sadigov and Yuri Khatchaturov. “At the meeting an agreement was reached on ending military operations on the contact line of forces of Azerbaijan and Armenia,” the ministry said in a statement.
The situation along the line of contact in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone deteriorated dramatically overnight to April 2 when fierce clashes began. The parties to the conflict accused each other of violating the truce. The Armenian and Azerbaijani defense ministries announced cessation of combat operations in Nagorno-Karabakh from 11:00 a.m. (0800GMT) Moscow time on April 5.
Armenia’s Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan said earlier in the day that the agreement had been hammered out in Moscow.
The conflict between neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up but was mainly populated by Armenians, broke out in the late 1980s.
In 1991-1994, the confrontation spilled over into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and some adjacent territories. Thousands left their homes on both sides in a conflict that killed 30,000. An unofficial ceasefire was reached on May 12, 1994. Since then, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been holding negotiations mediated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) Minsk Group on the region’s disputed status.
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* Azerbaijan set to hold talks on Karabakh settlement — president, TASS, April 6, 2016
Following a meeting in Baku with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Azerbaijan president says he is committed to the negotiation process and peaceful settlement of the conflict on the basis of international law.
* Why Autonomy? The Making of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region 1918–1925, by Arsène Saparov, published in Europe-Asia Studies, Volume 64, Issue #2, February 2012, pp 281-323
Access the article online at Academia.edu, or view the article in pdf format by clicking here:
Why Autonomy, The Making of Nagorno Karabakh, Arsène Saparov
* Peacekeepers may be deployed in Karabakh only after political settlement — Russian diplomat, TASS, April 8, 2016
MOSCOW – A peacekeeping mission in the area of the Karabakh conflict may be possible only after a political settlement is achieved there, Russia’s Ambassador to OSCE Alexander Lukashevich said on Friday. “The measures of supporting trust between the parties in the region of the Karabakh conflict is a key task after the ceasefire regime comes into force,” he said.
Speaking about a peacekeeping element in the conflict area, he said the “conflict in Nagorno Karabakh is an exclusive responsibility of OSCE, and all other organisations may only favour efforts of that organization” …
