A delegation representing Artsakh’s leadership held a meeting with Azerbaijani officials on Thursday for first talks envisaged by a Russian-brokered agreement to stop Azerbaijan’s latest military offensive in Artsakhlaunched on Tuesday.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s office described the talks held in Yevlakh, an Azerbaijani town northeast of Artsakh, as “positive” and “constructive,” saying that they focused on the “reintegration” of Artsakh’s ethnic Armenian population and its “activities within the framework of Azerbaijan’s constitution and laws.”
It said the two sides agreed on the need for quick implementation of the truce agreement reached after more than 24 hours of fighting. More such talks will be held soon, it added in a statement.
The authorities in Stepanakert said, for their part, that the Yevlakh meeting was “businesslike.” “The parties emphasized that all outstanding issues need to be discussed in a peaceful atmosphere, with readiness to continue the meetings,” they said without elaborating.
“There is no concrete agreement yet except that everything must be done in a peaceful environment and the meetings will continue,” Davit Babayan, an Artaskh official, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service from Stepanakert. “There are various thorny issues that could hardly be settled during a single meeting.”
Babayan stressed that the Artsakh government’s main objective now is to “save our people from physical destruction.”
The truce agreement commits the leadership of Artsakh to disbanding and disarming the region’s forces. It essentially paves the way for the restoration of full Azerbaijani control over the region. Few of its residents are expected to stay in Artsakh in that case.
Thousands of Artsakh Armenians were displaced by the two-day fighting that left at least 200 Artsakh soldiers and civilians dead. Many of them found shelter at the headquarters of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Artsakhlocated about 10 kilometers east of Stepanakert.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, 1,340 Artsakh civilians, including 607 children, remained there on Thursday. The peacekeepers evacuated many others from Artsakh settlements shelled by the Azerbaijani army.
Source: Azatutyun.am
