Ajit Karn
Armenia Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan described the agreement as “extremely painful for both myself and our people.”
It follows six weeks of violence between ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijan.
Internationally recognized as Azerbaijani, the region has been governed by Armenians since 1994.
At the conclusion of the war in the early 1990s, a truce brokered by the Russians was signed, but there was no peace agreement.
Despite the fact that both parties took measures to reduce tensions last year, fighting broke out at the end of September and several attempts to end the conflict were unsuccessful.
The new ceasefire agreement infuriated Armenians, who rushed the parliament, assaulted the speaker, and reportedly looted the office of the prime minister.
What was settled upon?
The ceasefire agreement, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and Armenia’s prime minister, went into effect at 01:00 local time on Tuesday. (21:00 GMT Monday).
Azerbaijan will retain control over portions of Nagorno-Karabakh it captured during the conflict. In the coming weeks, Armenia has also agreed to withdraw from several other neighboring regions.
According to journalist Orla Guerin in Baku, the agreement should be interpreted as a victory for Azerbaijan and a loss for Armenia.
President Putin stated in a televised online address that Russian peacekeepers would be deployed to patrol the front line.
According to reports, planes carrying peacekeepers and armored personnel carriers departed an airbase in Ulyanovsk on Tuesday and flew to Karabakh. The Russian defense ministry affirmed the deployment of 1,960 personnel. The Lachin corridor, which connects Stepanakert, the capital of Karabakh, to Armenia, will be one of their responsibilities.
Turkey will also participate in the peacekeeping procedure, according to the Azerbaijani president, who was present during Putin’s address.
Front-line Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh
There is a strong sense that a decisive victory has been won after a very lengthy battle. Individuals are chanting and reciting the national anthem.
Baku witnesses street celebrations following the signing of an agreement to terminate the military conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
There were street celebrations in Baku as a result of the truce agreement.
Two young students are brandishing a homemade sign that reads, “Tell the world that we are returning home.” It is a residence they have never visited. Their parents were expelled from Nagorno-Karabakh nearly thirty years ago, but they now plan to relocate there to start a new existence.
When asked if they could envision living alongside Armenians, one respondent estimated that this would take decades. “Our children may be exposed to this,” she informed me.
President Aliyev stated that the agreement was of “historical significance” and represented Armenia’s “capitulation.”
A still image obtained from video footage published on the official website of the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry on 20 October 2020 allegedly depicts Azerbaijani artillery units firing during military conflict with Nagorno-Karabakh forces.
Since the outbreak of hostilities, Armenian separatist forces have progressively lost territory to Azerbaijan.
The prime minister of Armenia stated that his decision was based on “in-depth analyses of the combat situation and consultations with the best experts in the field.”
Mr. Pashinyan stated, “This is not a victory, but there is no defeat until you consider yourself defeated.”
10 November 2020, people assault the government headquarters in Yerevan
Large crowds invaded the government headquarters in Yerevan in opposition to the agreement.
Arayik Harutyunyan, the Armenian commander in Nagorno-Karabakh, stated that a ceasefire was inevitable following the fall of Karabakh’s second largest city, Shusha. (known as Shushi in Armenian).
If the conflict had persisted, he said on Facebook, the entire country of Karabakh would have been destroyed. “Our losses would be much greater,” he said.
According to local media, a significant crowd gathered in the Armenian capital of Yerevan to protest the agreement. They broke into government and legislative buildings while chanting, “We will not give up!”
Mr. Pashinyan stated that protesters ransacked the official residence of the prime minister and seized a computer, a clock, perfume, and a driver’s license, among other items.
It was a night of turmoil and unrest in the capital of Armenia, where demonstrators stormed government buildings and the parliament.
Tuesday morning, however, the fury appeared to have subsided.
With the exception of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, leading politicians are in negotiations to find a way out of this severe crisis. And this is a crisis: the Nagorno-Karabakh defeat is devastating.
The government was accused of betrayal by the demonstrators who camped out here overnight. They believed the conflict should have continued to its conclusion and were confident of victory.
But in Nagorno-Karabakh itself, optimism was absent. The enclave’s leadership previously acknowledged that had the fighting persisted, the capital city of Stepanakert would have been destroyed within days.
The Armenians gradually lost territory, and over the weekend, Azerbaijani forces seized control of Shusha.
Azerbaijan also acknowledged that it accidentally shot down a Russian military helicopter over Armenia, killing two and injuring a third crew member.
People attend the funeral of Aysu Iskenderova, 7, who was allegedly slain by Armenian shelling on October 27, 2020, in the village of Garayusifli near Barda, Azerbaijan, on October 28. The territorial conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh territory along the contact line of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic erupted in violence on September 27, 2020.
Both parties have been accused of shelling civilian areas by the other.
It is unclear how many people have perished. Each faction denies targeting civilians, while accusing the other side of doing so.
Nearly 1,200 members of Nagorno-Karabakh’s defense forces, as well as civilians, have perished in the conflict, according to the region’s government.
Azerbaijan has not disclosed the number of its military casualties, but it has reported that more than eighty civilians were slain in the fighting, including 21 in a missile strike on the town of Barda last month.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia stated last month that nearly 5,000 people had been slain in the conflict.
Presentational grey line
What connections does Russia have with each side?
Russia has a military base in Armenia, and both nations are members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which is headed by Russia.
The treaty provides for Russia’s military support if Armenia is assaulted, but it excludes Nagorno-Karabakh and the other Azerbaijani regions seized by Armenian forces in the region’s vicinity.
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In addition, Moscow has strong ties to Azerbaijan, which is overtly supported by the NATO member Turkey. Russia has been supplying both Armenia and Azerbaijan with arms.
