Azerbaijan takes over Kalbajar region in Karabakh under truce deal

Azerbaijan’s military forces have entered another region in Nagarno-Karabakh that was handed over to Baku under a Russian-brokered ceasefire that ended weeks of fierce fighting in the disputed Caucasus region.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that army units had entered the Kalbajar District.

“Engineering work has been completed to ensure the movement of our units in this direction; the difficult mountain roads along the route of the troops’ movement are being cleared of mines and prepared for use,” it added.

The deployment came after an additional ten-day deadline came to an end for Armenia to pull out its forces and civilians from the region, according to Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev.

Karabakh war is over; Armenia agrees to withdraw forces from occupied lands

Yerevan has signed a Russia-brokered deal to end its conflict with Baku over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, committing itself to withdrawing all its forces from the occupied territories in a move that has outraged Armenians who consider it as “concession of defeat”.

Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but it has been held by ethnic Armenian separatists backed by Armenia since 1992, when they broke from Azerbaijan in a war that killed some 30,000 people.

This year’s fighting, the worst in decades, started in late September and came to an end earlier this month after Moscow brokered the ceasefire, which leaves Baku largely in control of the territory.

Under the truce deal, Russia and Turkey, which is an ally of Azerbaijan, agreed to establish a joint center in Karabakh and deploy peacekeeping forces to monitor the ceasefire in the mountainous region.

Russia will be sending 1,960 peacekeepers as well as armored personnel carriers and other military equipment to monitor the truce deal. The Russian deployment has already started.

Ankara also said earlier this week that preparations for its troops to be dispatched to Azerbaijan had been completed.

The center, according to the agreement, is located on Azerbaijani territory.

Turkey, Russia discuss ceasefire control

The leaders of Russia and Turkey discussed the peacekeeping effort in a phone conversation on Tuesday, according to the Kremlin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “stressed the importance of all-round implementation of agreements geared to ensure stability and normalize life in the region,” the Kremlin said.

Erdogan “expressed hope that a joint center… will start operations within the shortest possible timeframe… [to] ensure stability in the region on a permanent basis,” his office said in a statement.

The Turkish president said that, “the Armenian side should not be allowed to make the lasting solution difficult and avoid its responsibilities under the [ceasefire] deal.”

Erdogan also reiterated Azerbaijan’s call for the return of all of its territory.

Leaders of the self-declared republic of Nagorno-Karabakh continue to demand independence, though. Upon leaving occupied territories over the past weeks, ethnic Armenians set their houses on fire, cut down trees and took everything away in order not to leave them for Azerbaijan to take over.

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