Azerbaijan and the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh held first talks this Thursday on a reintegration of the enclave by the Azerbaijani army which has just won a lightning victory. No press conference was planned after these negotiations which took place, for about two hours, in Azerbaijan, in Yevlakh, a town 295 km west of the capital Baku. At the end of these exchanges, Azerbaijan spoke of “constructive” discussions and announced that other talks would be held “as quickly as possible”.
On the sidelines of these talks, Russian President Vladimir Putin asked, during a telephone conversation with his Azerbaijani counterpart, that “the rights and security” of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh – where they are the majority – be guaranteed by Baku .
“Decisions will be taken based on the situation and the results of the discussions,” said, according to the official Armenpress agency, the office of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, adding “not having raised the question of the evacuation” of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh “who have the right to live in their homes.”
In Geneva, Armenia, which described the Azerbaijani military operation as a “crime against humanity”, affirmed in this regard before the UN Human Rights Council that “ethnic cleansing” was ” in progress “. More than 10,000 people, including women, children and the elderly, have already been evacuated from Nagorno-Karabakh, a separatist official said Wednesday evening. Russian peacekeepers, deployed in this disputed region since the end of the last war in the fall of 2020, claimed Thursday morning to have taken care of around 5,000 of them.
When the talks began in Yevlakh, shots, the origin of which is currently unknown, were heard in Stepanakert, the capital of the Armenian separatists, by an AFP correspondent present on site. “Azerbaijani armed forces used various weapons from the surroundings of Stepanakert, violating the ceasefire agreement” that came into force on Wednesday, the secessionists accused.
Allegations immediately qualified as “disinformation” by Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov. Aroutioun Gasparian, a businessman from Stepanakert, simply spoke of a small exchange of fire outside the city. “We are sitting at home and waiting for the results of the negotiations [in Yevlakh]. Everyone in the city is sitting at home or in their gardens, waiting,” he added.
President Aliyev also presented “his apologies” to Mr. Putin on Thursday for these soldiers who fell during the Azerbaijani offensive. Cornered by the firepower of Azerbaijani units and Armenia’s decision not to come to their aid, the separatists agreed to hand over all their weapons and participate in initial talks on “reintegration” into Azerbaijan of Nagorno-Karabakh. At the same time, an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council was scheduled for this Thursday afternoon.
