Baku:

A United Nations mission arrived in Nagorno-Karabakh on Sunday, Azerbaijan said, after almost the entire ethnic-Armenian population fled since Baku recaptured the breakaway enclave.

An Azerbaijani presidency spokesman told AFP that a “UN mission arrived in Karabakh on Sunday morning” — mainly to assess humanitarian needs.

It marks the first time in about 30 years that the international body has gained access to the region.

Armenian separatists, who had controlled the region for three decades, agreed to disarm, dissolve their government and reintegrate with Baku following a one-day Azerbaijani offensive last week.

The end of Karabakh’s separatist bid dealt a heavy blow to a centuries-old dream by Armenians of reuniting what they say are their ancestral lands, divided among regional powers since the Middle Ages.

Nearly all of Karabakh’s estimated 120,000 residents fled the territory over the following days, sparking a refugee crisis.

On Sunday, Armenia observed a national day of prayer for the region.

Bells tolled in churches across the country, and the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Karekin II, lead a service in the nation’s main cathedral Echmiadzin, close to the capital Yerevan.

Clergymen in ornate robes sang ancient chants at an open-air altar outside the imposing cathedral built in a pale pink limestone.

Yerevan has accused Baku of “ethnic cleansing” — an allegation that Baku rejected — calling on Armenians not to leave their homes and reintegrate with Azerbaijan where their rights would be respected.

Armenia, a country of 2.8 million, faces a major challenge housing the sudden influx of refugees.

Authorities said 35,000 were now in temporary accommodation.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies on Friday announced an emergency appeal for 20 million Swiss Francs ($22 million) to help those fleeing.

Azerbaijan is now holding “re-integration” talks with separatist leaders while at the same time detained some senior figures from its former government and military command.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kornidzor, Anindita:

More than three quarters of the 120,000-strong population of the ethnic Armenian breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh had fled by Friday afternoon after defeat by Azerbaijan, a faster-than-expected mass exodus that looked likely to be total.

Cars, buses and tractors carrying refugees crowded the highways on the fifth day of the exodus, which brought a sudden and decisive end to one of the most intractable of the decades-old ethnic “frozen conflicts” of the former Soviet Union.

Armenia’s government said nearly 93,000 people had now crossed onto its territory, Russia’s RIA news agency reported. Earlier, a UN refugee agency official said the total could reach 120,000, matching estimates of the entire population of the enclave, part of Azerbaijan that broke away in the 1990s.

Armenia, which supported the separatists for decades but ultimately proved powerless to protect them, sent city buses from its capital Yerevan to help bring people out. Volunteers greeted the purple buses on the road at the border, pushing boxes of bread and bottles of water through the windows.

Azerbaijan says it will respect the rights of ethnic Armenians who choose to stay, but that it has destroyed the concept of a breakaway state forever.

It said on Friday it would allow a UN team to visit the region within days, a major demand of Western countries.

Refugees

The Petrosyan family – Geghetsik, 65, husband Albert, 71, and their 30-year-old son Agasi who uses a wheelchair and has severe learning difficulties – spent a night in Goris on the Armenian side of the border after abandoning their home to escape. They strapped Agasi’s wheelchair to the roof of their car as they headed out again to search for a place to live.

“We built our home so that everything would be nice for him,” said Geghetsik, through tears, speaking of the accommodations they need for their son’s disabilities. “I won’t be able to find a flat now that will be good for him.”

Azeri forces swiftly recaptured Karabakh last week, having sealed it off since the start of this year. Residents say they had suffered hunger and sickness during the effective siege.

“This is a situation where they’ve lived under nine months of blockade,” Kavita Belani, UNHCR representative in Armenia, told a UN press briefing by video link. “And when they come in, they’re full of anxiety, they’re scared, they’re frightened and they want answers.”

She said agencies were prepared to cope with 120,000 people, having had to discard plans that anticipated up to 90,000.

Nearly a third of the refugees are children, including many separated from families.

“The situation often involves families arriving with children so weak that they have fainted in their parents’ arms,” said International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies representative Hicham Diab.

Bodies

Carlos Morazzani, operations manager of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said it had transferred around 200 bodies out of Karabakh – victims of a huge blast at a fuel depot on the night the exodus started, as well as of recent fighting.

The Red Cross will be focusing on helping those left behind, with basic food and hygiene items, he said.

“We had been planning for the evacuation to be a longer process,” Morazzani said. “The evacuations this week have gone very fast, very high numbers of people, but as a result of that many people become stranded.”

Azerbaijan’s victory reverses a humiliating defeat it suffered as the Soviet Union crumbled. Around a million Azeris lost their homes then as Karabakh separatists captured a wide swathe of territory around their breakaway region.

Azerbaijan recaptured much of that land in a short war in 2020, but the separatists still had held onto much of Karabakh itself under a peace agreement brokered by Moscow and guaranteed by Russian peacekeepers.

Armenia has blamed Russia for failing to ensure the security of the breakaway region. Moscow rejects blame.

Western countries have denounced Azerbaijan’s lightning assault on Karabakh, while calling on Baku to fulfil promises to protect civilians.

“Azerbaijan bears the responsibility to ensure the rights and security of the Karabakh Armenians, including their right to live in their homes in dignity without intimidation and discrimination, as well as the right to return for those displaced,” a European Union spokesperson said in a statement.

“It is essential that a UN mission can access the territory within the next days.”

Azerbaijan said on Friday it had detained Levon Mnatsakanyan, a former military commander of the separatist forces from 2015-2018, at a checkpoint at the frontier.

It has also detained a former head of Karabakh’s government, Ruben Vardanyan, and charged him with financing terrorism.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The separatist government of Nagorno-Karabakh said Thursday it will dissolve itself and the unrecognized republic will cease to exist by year’s end after a three-decade bid for independence, while Armenian officials said over half of the region’s population has already fled.

The moves came after Azerbaijan carried out a lightning offensive last week to reclaim full control over the region and demanded that Armenian troops in Nagorno-Karabakh disarm and the separatist government dissolve itself.

A decree signed by the region’s separatist President Samvel Shakhramanyan cited an agreement reached Sept. 20 to end the fighting under which Azerbaijan will allow the “free, voluntary and unhindered movement” of Nagorno-Karabakh residents to Armenia.

Some of those who fled the regional capital of Stepanakert said they had no hope for the future.

“I left Stepanakert having a slight hope that maybe something will change and I will come back soon, and these hopes are ruined after reading about the dissolution of our government,” said Ani Abaghyan, a 21-year-old student, in an interview with The Associated Press.

Lawyer Anush Shahramanyan, 30, added: “We can never go back to our homes without having an independent government in Artaskh,” referring to Nagorno-Karabakh by its Armenian name.

The mass exodus of ethnic Armenians from the mountainous region inside Azerbaijan began on Sunday. By Thursday morning, over 70,000 people — more than half of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population of 120,000 — had fled to Armenia, and the influx continued with unabating intensity, according to Armenian officials.

After separatist fighting ended in 1994 following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Nagorno-Karabakh came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by the Armenia. Then, during a six-week war in 2020, Azerbaijan took back parts of the region in the south Caucasus Mountains along with surrounding territory that Armenian forces had claimed earlier.

Nagorno-Karabakh was internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan’s sovereign territory.

In December, Azerbaijan imposed blockaded the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, alleging the Armenian government was using it illicit weapons shipments to the region’s separatist forces.

Armenia alleged the closure denied basic food and fuel supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan rejected the accusation, arguing the region could receive supplies through the Azerbaijani city of Aghdam — a solution long resisted by Nagorno-Karabakh authorities, who called it a strategy for Azerbaijan to gain control of the region.

Weakened by the blockade, with Armenia’s leadership distancing itself from the conflict, ethnic Armenian forces in the region agreed to lay down arms less than 24 hours after Azerbaijan began its offensive last week. Talks have begun between Baku and Nagorno-Karabakh’s separatist authorities on “reintegrating” the region back into Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani authorities have pledged to respect the rights of ethnic Armenians in the region and restore supplies.

Many residents, however, have decided to leave for Armenia, fearing reprisals. The only road link to Armenia quickly filled with cars, creating a massive traffic jam on the winding mountain road.

It took Abaghyan, the student, three days to get to Armenia from Stepanakert, a distance of about 50 miles (80 kilometers).

Shahramanyan spent 30 hours on the road and still had half the journey ahead of her Thursday.

She said that for her and her family, living in Nagorno-Karabakh will be impossible under Azerbaijan rule because she believes their basic rights will be violated.

“No power in the world is willing to stop the atrocities of Azerbaijan. What can any Armenian hope for under the control of that genocidal state?” she said.(backslash)

Azerbaijan’s military last week accused Nagorno-Karabakh residents of burning down their homes in Martakert, a town in the north of the region that until the last week’s offensive remained under the control of ethnic Armenian forces. Their claims could not be independently verified. But that is something that also happened in 2020 when people fled territories taken over by Azerbaijan.

On Monday night, a fuel reservoir exploded at a gas station where people lined up for gas that was in short supply from the blockade. At least 68 people were killed and nearly 300 injured, with over 100 others still considered missing.

It isn’t immediately clear if the ethnic Armenians still living in the region will remain there. Shakhramanyan’s decree urged Nagorno-Karabakh’s population — including those who left — “to familiarize themselves with the conditions of reintegration offered by the Republic of Azerbaijan, in order to then make an individual decision about the possibility of staying in (or returning to) Nagorno-Karabakh.”

EDITORIAL | War in Caucasus: On Azerbaijan’s recapture of Nagorno-Karabah

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday also urged the Armenian population of the region “not to leave their places of residence and become part of the multinational Azerbaijan.”

Azerbaijani authorities said they are sending 30 buses to Stepanakert at the request of “the Armenian residents” for those who don’t have cars but want to go to Armenia.

In Yerevan, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that “in the coming days, there will be no Armenians left in Nagorno-Karabakh.”

“This is a direct act of an ethnic cleansing and depriving people of their motherland, exactly what we’ve telling the international community about,” he said.

In a statement, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said it “strongly” rejected Pashinyan’s accusations.

“Pashinyan knows well enough that the current departure of Armenians from Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region is their personal and individual decision and has nothing to do with forced relocation,” the ministry said. “With this alarming narrative, the Armenian prime minister is seeking to disrupt Azerbaijan’s efforts to provide humanitarian assistance and the reintegration process, and also undermines possible prospects for peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia.”

Armenia has set up two main centers in the cities of Goris and Vayk to register and assess the needs of those fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh. The government is offering accommodations to anyone who doesn’t have a place to stay, although only 13,922 of the 70,500 people who have crossed into the country — under 20% — applied for it.

“The accommodation suggested by the government is mostly in the border villages, where people face serious security issues due to the periodic shootings by Azerbaijan. Besides, finding a job is difficult,” said Tatevik Khachatrian, who arrived Thursday. She said she and her family will stay with relatives in Yerevan before trying to rent an apartment.

On Thursday, Azerbaijani authorities charged Ruben Vardanyan, the former head of Nagorno-Karabakh’s separatist government, with financing terrorism, creating illegal armed formations and illegally crossing a state border. Vardanyan, a billionaire banker, who was arrested on Wednesday, faces up to 14 years in prison if convicted, according to Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti. He was placed in pre-trial detention for at least four months, according to Azerbaijani media.

Azerbaijani officials said Vardanyan, who made his fortune in Russia, was detained as he was trying to enter Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh along with thousands of others and taken to Baku. The arrest appeared to indicate Azerbaijan’s intent to quickly enforce its grip on the region.

Vardanyan moved to Nagorno-Karabakh in 2022 and headed the regional government for several months before stepping down earlier this year.

Another top separatist figure, Nagorno-Karabakh’s former foreign minister and now presidential adviser David Babayan, said Thursday he will surrender to Azerbaijani authorities after they “demanded my arrival in Baku for a proper investigation.” Babayan said in a Facebook post that he will head from Stepanakert, the region’s capital, to the nearby city of Shusha, which has been under Azerbaijani control since 2020.

“My failure to appear, or worse, my escape, will cause serious harm to our long-suffering people, to many people, and I, as an honest person, hard worker, patriot and a Christian, cannot allow this,” Babayan said.

Moscow and Washington have accused each other of destabilising the South Caucuses region, as thousands of ethnic Armenians fled their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh over ethnic cleansing fears.

“We urge Washington to refrain from extremely dangerous words and actions that lead to an artificial increase in anti-Russian sentiment in Armenia,” Russia’s Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said on the Telegram messaging app on Tuesday.

Antonov’s comments follow the US State Department spokesman saying on Monday that Russia had shown it was not a reliable partner after Armenia blamed Moscow for failing to intervene in last week’s capture of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijani forces.

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Armenia had relied on a security partnership with Russia, but relations between the two countries have frayed badly since President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“I do think that Russia has shown that it is not a security partner that can be relied on,” U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

Thousands of ethnic Armenians fled the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh by Monday after their fighters were defeated by Azerbaijan in last week’s lightning military operation.

Baku has promised to protect the rights of the roughly 120,000 Armenians who call Karabakh home but many refuse to accept its assurances. Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan blamed Russia for failing to ensure Armenian security.

Washington and a number of its Western allies condemned the Azeri hostilities, which have changed the contours of the South Caucasus – a patchwork of ethnicities crisscrossed with oil and gas pipelines where Russia, the United States, Turkey and Iran vie for influence.

Moscow has said Armenia only had itself to blame for Azerbaijan’s victory over Karabakh because it flirted with the West rather than working with Moscow and Baku for peace.

On Monday, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) chief Samantha Power and U.S. State Department Acting Assistant Secretary for Europe and Eurasian Affairs Yuri, arrived in Armenia, in the first visit by senior U.S. officials since the Karabakh Armenians were forced into a ceasefire last week.

From 1988-1994 about 30,000 people were killed and more thana million people, mostly ethnic Azeris, displaced as theArmenians threw off nominal Azerbaijani control in what is nowknown as the First Karabakh War.

Azerbaijan gained back territory in and aroundNagorno-Karabakh in a second war in 2020, which ended with aMoscow-brokered peace deal and the deployment of a contingent ofRussian peacekeepers.

Turkey, who backed Azerbaijan with weaponry in the 2020conflict, said last week it supported the aims of theAzerbaijan’s latest military operation but played no part in it.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Azerbaijan regained control of its breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh in a deadly two-day military offensive and held initial talks with representatives of its ethnic Armenian population on reintegrating the area into the mainly Muslim country, Azerbaijan’s top diplomat told the UN Security Council on September 21.

Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov reaffirmed Azerbaijan’s determination to guarantee Nagorno-Karabakh residents “all rights and freedoms” in line with the country’s constitution and international human rights obligations, including safeguards for ethnic minorities. He said the talks with Nagorno-Karabakh in the Azerbaijani city of Yevlakh will continue.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev declared victory in a televised address. Mr. Bayramov said there is now “a historic opportunity” to seek better relations with Armenia after 30 years of conflict.

Nagorno-Karabakh came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by the Armenian military in separatist fighting that ended in 1994. Armenian forces also took control of substantial territory around the Azerbaijani region.

Azerbaijan regained control of the surrounding territory in a six-week war with Armenia in 2020. A Russia-brokered armistice ended the war, and a contingent of 2,000 Russian peacekeepers was sent to the region to monitor it.

The agreement left the region’s capital, Stepanakert, connected to Armenia only by the Lachin Corridor, along which Russian peacekeepers were supposed to ensure free movement. But a blockade by Azerbaijan deprived Nagorno-Karabakh of basic supplies for the last 10 months, until Monday, when the International Committee of the Red Cross was able to make a delivery through another route.

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, who called for the emergency meeting of the Security Council along with France, accused Azerbaijan of an “unprovoked and well-planned military attack,” launched to coincide with this week’s annual meeting of world leaders at the UN General Assembly.

“Literally the whole territory of Nagorno-Karabakh,” including Stepanakert and other cities and settlements, came under attack from intense and indiscriminate shelling, missiles, heavy artillery, banned cluster munitions, combat drones and other aircraft,” he said.

Mr. Mirzoyan said the offensive targeted critical infrastructure such as electricity stations, telephone cables and internet equipment, killed more than 200 people and wounded 400 others, including women and children. “More than 10,000 people fled their homes to escape the offensive,” he said.

“Electricity and phone services were knocked out, leaving people unable to contact each other, and “Azerbaijani troops control main roads in Nagorno-Karabakh, which makes it impossible to visit and get information on the ground,” he said.

“The Azerbaijani social media is full of calls to find the missing children and women, to rape them, dismember them and feed them to dogs,” Mr. Mirzoyan told the council.

He said the “barbarity” of Azerbaijan’s aggression and deliberate targeting of the civilian population “was the final act of this tragedy aimed at the forced exodus of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.” What Armenia has seen, Mr. Mirzoyan said, “is not an intent anymore but clear and irrefutable evidence of a policy of ethnic cleansing and mass atrocities.” Mr. Bayramov strongly denied the allegations of ethnic cleansing. He said representatives from Nagorno-Karabakh asked during Thursday’s talks for humanitarian aid, including food and fuel for schools, hospitals and other facilities that government agencies will provide soon.

Russia’s Deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, told the council: “We need to develop a gradual roadmap to integrate the population of Nagorno-Karabakh into the constitutional order of Azerbaijan, with clear guarantees over their rights and security,” “Russia’s peacekeepers will support these efforts,” he said, adding that “the security and rights of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians are of key importance.” The quick capitulation by Nagorno-Karabakh separatists reflected their weakness from the blockade.

“The local forces, they were never strong. The Azerbaijani Army is much better prepared, much better equipped. … So it was quite obvious, you know, that any military action that was to take place in that area, it would lead to the defeat of the local Armenian side,” Olesya Vartanyan, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, told The Associated Press.

Mr. Bayramov said Armenia kept more than 10,000 “armed formations” and heavy military equipment in Nagorno-Karabakh after the 2020 agreement. “During the operation that started on Tuesday, more than 90 of their outposts were taken, along with substantial military equipment,” he said. He held up photos of equipment he claimed was seized.

Mr. Mirzoyan urged the Security Council to demand protection for civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh; to immediately deploy a UN mission to monitor the human rights, humanitarian and security situation; to seek return of prisoners of war; and to consider deploying a UN peacekeeping force to the region.

Azerbaijan’s move to reclaim control over Nagorno-Karabakh raised concerns that a full-scale war in the region could resume. The 2020 war killed over 6,700 people.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. was “deeply concerned” about Azerbaijan’s military actions and was closely watching the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.

In a phone call on Thursday with Mr. Aliyev, Russian President Vladimir Putin also urged that the rights and security of the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh should be guaranteed, according to the Tass news agency.

“Mr. Aliyev apologised to Mr. Putin during the call for the deaths of Russian peacekeepers in the region on Wednesday,” the Kremlin said. Azerbaijan’s prosecutor-general’s office later said five Russian peacekeepers were shot and killed on Wednesday by Azerbaijani troops who mistook them amid fog and rain for Armenian forces. One other Russian was killed by Armenian fighters.

Meanwhile, protesters rallied in the Armenian capital of Yerevan for a third day on Thursday, demanding that authorities defend Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh and calling for the resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. “At least 46 people were arrested in a large protest outside the main government building in the city centre,” police said.

The conflict has long drawn powerful regional players, including Russia and Turkiye. While Russia took on a mediating role, Turkiye threw its weight behind long-time ally Azerbaijan.

Russia has been Armenia’s main economic partner and ally since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and has a military base in the country.

Mr. Pashinyan, however, has been increasingly critical of Moscow’s role, emphasising its failure to protect Nagorno-Karabakh and arguing that Armenia needs to turn to the West to ensure its security. Moscow, in turn, has expressed dismay about Mr. Pashinyan’s pro-Western tilt.

While many in Armenia blamed Russia for the defeat of the separatists, Moscow pointed to Mr. Pashinyan’s own recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan.

“Undoubtedly, Karabakh is Azerbaijan’s internal business,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. “Azerbaijan is acting on its own territory, which was recognised by the leadership of Armenia.” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna condemned Azerbaijan’s offensive and said it is essential that the ceasefire announced on Wednesday is respected.

What is at stake, Ms. Colonna said, is whether the ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh can continue living there with their rights and culture respected by Azerbaijan. “Today, they have the responsibility for the fate of the population,” she said.

If Azerbaijan wants a peaceful and negotiated solution, Ms. Colonna said, “it must here and now provide tangible guarantees” and commit to discussions and to not using or threatening the use of force.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also condemned Azerbaijan’s military assault, which she said was launched despite the government’s assurances to refrain from the use of force.

She called for a complete cessation of violence and lasting peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan that “can only be achieved at the negotiating table.” Ms. Baerbock urged both countries to return to European Union-mediated talks.

New Delhi:

Azerbaijan on Wednesday claimed victory in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and reclaimed the breakaway region after Armenian separatists agreed to a ceasefire. The conflict between the two nations has reportedly resulted in 200 deaths.

What is Nagorno-Karabakh?

Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, is a mountainous region in the southern Caucasus Mountains. It is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, but its population is predominantly ethnic Armenian. The region has its own government, which is close to Armenia but not officially recognised by the United Nations or any other country.

Armenians, who are Christian, and Azerbaijanis, who are mostly Turkic Muslims, both claim deep historical ties to the region. The conflict between the two peoples dates back more than a century.

History of Conflict 

Armenia and Azerbaijan became constituent republics of the Soviet Union in 1922. As the Soviet Union dissolved towards the end of the 20th century, war erupted between Armenians and Azerbaijanis over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The conflict lasted from 1988 to 1994 and resulted in the deaths of around 30,000 people and the forced displacement of over a million more.

In 2020, Azerbaijan launched a military offensive, sparking the Second Karabakh War. Azerbaijan rapidly overwhelmed Armenian forces and secured a decisive victory in 44 days, regaining control of the seven surrounding districts and about one-third of Nagorno-Karabakh. An estimated 6,500 people were killed in the conflict. 

Peace finally prevailed in the region through a Russia-brokered ceasefire agreement. Russia deployed 1,960 peacekeepers to the Lachin Corridor, a vital road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, which was no longer under Armenian control.

2023 Escalation 

On September 19 this year, Azerbaijan launched a major military operation in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Claiming to be responding to a terrorist threat, the Azerbaijani defence ministry alleged that Armenian land mines had killed two Azerbaijani civilians and four police officers — an allegation disputed by the Armenian government.

Azerbaijan and the ethnic Armenian authorities agreed to a ceasefire brokered by Russian peacekeepers, one day after Azerbaijan launched its military operation.

“Azerbaijan restored its sovereignty as a result of successful anti-terrorist measures in Karabakh,” Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said, as quoted by news agency AFP.

Peace Talks 

Azerbaijan will hold peace talks with Armenian separatists today. The peace talks will take place in Yevlakh, more than 200 kilometres west of Azerbaijan capital Baku. The peace talks come against the backdrop of the UN Security Council calling for an emergency session over the conflict today. 

Russian peacekeepers to mediate Azerbaijan-Armenia peace talks, Russian President Vladiir Putin said.