The Azerbaijani army is cooperating with Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh, disarming Armenian separatist fighters, the representative of the Azerbaijani army announced on Saturday.
The Azerbaijani army is cooperating with Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh, disarming Armenian separatist fighters, the representative of the Azerbaijani army announced on Saturday.
“During demilitarization, we closely cooperate with Russian peacekeepers,” Anar Eivazov told reporters in Shusha, adding that the separatists have already handed over weapons and ammunition.
However, he admitted that the laying down of arms may take time, as some separatist fighters are in remote mountainous areas.
“The priority is demining and demilitarization,” Eyvazov emphasized.
Armenian separatists reportedly agreed to lay down their arms on Wednesday under a ceasefire deal brokered by Russia after 24 hours of fighting.
Azerbaijani authorities also showed journalists weapons seized from the separatists, including sniper rifles, several hundred Kalashnikov assault rifles, grenade launchers and four tanks.
Lieutenant General Mais Barhudarov, the commander of the 2nd Corps of Azerbaijan, said that there were even more weapons in the forest, which it was not possible to bring to Shusha.
Nagorno-Karabakh, which was part of the Azerbaijan SSR during the Soviet era, has been a “de facto” independent Armenian republic since the early 1990s. Although Azerbaijan has not controlled Nagorno-Karabakh since the collapse of the USSR, it considers the Armenian-populated region as its territory. The international community also considers Nagorno-Karabakh a part of Azerbaijan, and no country has recognized the independence of this region.
In 2020, the six-week war between Armenia and Azerbaijan ended with a ceasefire brokered by Russia.
According to the agreement at the time, which many in Armenia consider a betrayal, the Armenians lost part of the core territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as all the districts of the so-called security buffer zone, which had been under Armenian control since the 1990s.
At the same time, according to the agreement, the so-called Russian peacekeepers were deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Meanwhile, the first Red Cross convoy with 70 tons of humanitarian aid reached the enclave via the Lachin Corridor, the only land route connecting Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia.
It is the first humanitarian aid shipment to reach Nagorno-Karabakh since Azerbaijan regained control of it in a lightning military operation this week.
Azerbaijan blocked the Lachin Corridor for nine months before the start of the military operation, and as a result, the enclave’s residents have been suffering from a long-term shortage of food, medicine and other basic necessities. Electricity and water supply were also disrupted.
