Armenian separatists have begun laying down their weapons, as the primary convoy of humanitarian assist entered Nagorno-Karabakh days after a Russian-brokered ceasefire deal ended Azerbaijan’s offensive this week.
“We’re in shut cooperation with the Russian peacekeepers, conducting the demilitarisation” of the separatists, Azerbaijan Ministry of Defence spokesman Anar Eyvazov informed reporters in Shusha on Saturday, a district on the sting of the insurgent stronghold of Stepanakert.
“We have now already seized weapons and ammunition,” Eyvazov stated, including that its troopers together with Russian peacekeepers are working collectively to disarm separatist fighters within the Nagorno-Karabakh area – house to greater than 100,000 ethnic Armenians. Karabakh is recognised internationally as a part of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan launched a lightning offensive on Tuesday on ethnic Armenian insurgent positions in what it known as an “anti-terrorist operation“. It demanded they lay down their arms and the separatist authorities disband.
With Armenians struggling critical shortages of meals and gas after a months-long de facto Azerbaijani blockade, an assist convoy of the Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross (ICRC) headed into Karabakh on Saturday, the primary since Azerbaijan’s army operation.
The ICRC stated in a later assertion that the convoy had transported practically 70 tonnes of humanitarian provides, together with wheat flour, salt and sunflower oil, alongside the Lachin hall, the one freeway connecting Armenia and the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh area.
An ICRC workforce additionally carried out the medical evacuation of 17 folks wounded in the course of the preventing, it stated.
Individually, Russia stated it had delivered greater than 50 tonnes of meals and different assist to Karabakh.
Greater than 20 different assist vans, bearing Armenian quantity plates, have been lined up alongside a close-by roadside since July. Azerbaijan stated on the time that this convoy amounted to a “provocation” and an assault on its territorial integrity.
The ethnic Armenian management stated that the phrases of their ceasefire with Azerbaijan had been being applied, with work continuing on the supply of humanitarian assist and evacuation of the wounded.
Work was underneath strategy to restore the electrical energy provide by September 24, it stated in a press release.
Armenians as ‘equal residents’
Russia’s defence ministry stated that, underneath the phrases of the ceasefire, the Armenian separatists had begun handing over their weapons to Azerbaijan, together with greater than 800 weapons and 6 armoured automobiles. Moscow has 2,000 peacekeepers within the space.
Russia deployed a number of thousand peacekeepers to the area within the wake of a quick however brutal 2020 struggle wherein Azerbaijan reclaimed giant components of the territory and its environment from the separatists.
Azerbaijan intends to combine the long-contested area, however ethnic Armenians have stated they feared they are going to be persecuted and have accused the world of abandoning them.
However Azerbaijan’s international minister in his UN Basic Meeting deal with on Saturday stated his nation desires to combine ethnic Armenians as “equal residents”.
“I want to reiterate that Azerbaijan is decided to reintegrate ethnic Armenian residents of the Karabakh area of Azerbaijan as equal residents,” Jeyhun Bayramov stated.
He added that Azerbaijan and Armenia have a “historic alternative” to determine good neighbourly relations and co-exist aspect by aspect in peace. It’s excessive time to grab this chance.”
Backing the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh, Russia’s Overseas Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that point was ripe for trust-building measures between Armenia and Azerbaijan, including that Moscow’s troops would assist that.
In his deal with on the UN, Lavrov accused the West of making an attempt to pressure themselves as mediators between the 2 nations, which he stated was not wanted.
US delegation in Armenia
In the meantime, a US congressional delegation was in Armenia to fulfill Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and travelled as much as the closed border to examine the blockade with the top of Armenia’s Syunik area.
Senator Gary Peters of Michigan used binoculars to look throughout the border in the direction of Russian peacekeeper positions, as Azerbaijani vans might be seen transporting materials for a brand new freeway being constructed as the federal government secures the area.
“Actually, individuals are very frightened of what might be occurring in there, and I feel the world must know precisely what’s taking place,” Peters informed reporters on the border.
“We’ve heard from the Azerbaijani authorities that there’s nothing to see, nothing to fret about. If that’s the case, we should always enable worldwide observers in to see for themselves,” he argued.
Anna Ohanyan, a professor at Stonehill School in Massachusetts, noticed the go to by the US delegation in “a number of respects”.
“The scenario could be very dire within the area and the implications of the huge humanitarian disaster and the militarised ending for this battle goes to reverberate in South Caucasus,” she stated.
“I see the go to by the US delegation as a method for the US to attempt to reclaim some capability to form the area.”