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GORIS, Armenia, Sept 21 (Reuters) – Azerbaijan began talks with ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh on Thursday after the breakaway region was forced into a surrender that stoked calls for the resignation in Armenia of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Photographs sent to Reuters showed officials from both sides seated at a small round table in the Azerbaijani city of Yevlakh.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Wednesday said his “iron fist” had consigned the idea of a separate ethnic Armenian Karabakh to history.

Karabakh Armenians said they had no choice but to accept Azerbaijan’s terms after Aliyev’s army broke through their lines in a 24-hour offensive.

The ethnic Armenian authorities in Karabakh’s main city, which Armenians call Stepanakert and Azeris call Khankendi, said there had been gunfire in the city on Thursday, and sources told Reuters they had heard shots.

The Karabakh authorities accused Azerbaijani forces of violating the ceasefire and advised residents to stay indoors.

Baku’s defence ministry said the report that its forces had attacked Khankendi was “completely false and has the purpose of disinformation”.

Under the ceasefire agreement, as outlined by Azerbaijan, breakaway Armenian forces must disband and disarm, and the region of 120,000 people will be fully integrated into Azerbaijan.

Baku said it was represented at the talks in Yevlakh by a member of parliament, Ramin Mammadov. Spokespeople for the Karabakh Armenians did not answer repeated phone calls.

Azerbaijan’s rapid victory represented the culmination of decades of struggle to regain control of Karabakh, whose ethnic Armenian population broke away in a major war in the 1990s that coincided with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

“After the surrender of the criminal junta, this source of tension, this den of poison, has already been consigned to history,” Aliyev said in an address to the nation on Wednesday night, focusing his anger on Karabakh’s leadership.

“The Armenian population of Karabakh can finally breathe a sigh of relief. I said this before, and I want to repeat it: the Armenian population of Karabakh are our citizens.”

Aliyev said “war criminals” had tried to poison the minds of Karabakh’s Armenians, who, he said, would now have their religious and cultural rights respected.

But thousands nevertheless massed at Stepanakert’s airport, while others took shelter with Russian peacekeepers.

REGION HAS TURBULENT HISTORY

Azerbaijan’s victory is yet another twist to the tumultuous history of mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh, which over the centuries has come under the sway of Persians, Turks, Russians, Ottomans and Soviets, and where Armenians and Azeris have been in conflict for more than a century.

It could also change the delicate balance of power in the South Caucasus region, a patchwork of nations and ethnicities where Russia, the United States, Turkey and Iran are jostling for influence.

Known as Artsakh by Armenians, the territory is internationally recognised as part of mainly Muslim Azerbaijan, but its ethnic Armenian inhabitants are Christians.

The ceasefire that Azerbaijan said Karabakh Armenians had agreed to would amount to the collapse of the Armenian fight to etch out a separate entity within Azerbaijan, though it was not immediately clear how much support the deal had in Karabakh.

Azerbaijan and Armenia both claimed the territory after the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917 and since the Soviet Union crumbled they have fought two wars over it.

In 2020, after decades of skirmishes, Azerbaijan – buoyed by revenues from its oil and gas exports and backed by Turkey – began a military operation that became the Second Karabakh War.

It won a resounding victory in 44 days, taking back parts of Karabakh and areas around it. Since then, it has tightened its grip.

In the Armenian capital Yerevan, thousands of protesters gathered on Wednesday to denounce their government’s failure to protect Karabakh.

Many demanded the resignation of Pashinyan, who presided over defeat to Azerbaijan in 2020 but nevertheless won re-election several months later.

Samvel Sargsyan, 21, a student at the Theatre and Cinema University in Yerevan, who was born in Stepanakert, said: “We need Armenia to join up with Artsakh and fight.”

“Armenians can’t accept another country, another religion. Why should we? Why should Armenia give a part of itself to another nation?”

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Published: 10:05 BST, 20 September 2023 | Updated: 14:21 BST, 20 September 2023

Ramin Mammadov, responsible for contacts with Armenian residents living in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, participates in negotiations with representatives of the Armenian minority of Karabakh in Yevlakh, according to Azerbaijan in Focus, reporting Trend.

The Armenian residents of Karabakh are represented at the talks by David Melkumyan and Sergey Martirosyan.

Representatives of the Armenian residents of Karabakh accompanied by the Russian peacekeeping contingent arrived in Yevlakh earlier this morning.

Ramin Mammadov was appointed responsible for contacts with Armenian residents living in the Karabakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan. On March 1, in the city of Khojaly, at the headquarters of the peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation temporarily stationed on the territory of Azerbaijan, the parliamentarian met with representatives of Armenians living in the Karabakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Following the meeting held on March 1 in the city of Khojaly, and the invitation presented on March 13, as proposed by the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan once again, the meeting with the representatives of the Armenian residents living in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan to discuss the reintegration issues, based on the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan and its laws, is being held on September 21, 2023, in Yevlakh.

Meanwhile, in order to ensure the provisions of the Trilateral Statement, to stop large-scale provocations in the Karabakh economic region, to disarm and withdraw formations of the Armenian armed forces from the territories of Azerbaijan, to neutralize their military infrastructure, to ensure the safety of the peaceful population returning to the territories liberated from occupation, civil servants involved in construction and reconstruction works, and our military personnel, as well as to restore the constitutional order of the Republic of Azerbaijan, anti-terrorist measures have been launched in the region.

Taking into account the appeal of the representatives of the Armenian population of Karabakh through the Russian peacekeeping contingent, on September 20, 2023, at 13:00 (GMT+4), an agreement was reached on the cessation of local anti-terrorist activities under the following conditions: Armenian armed forces formations, illegal Armenian armed formations located in Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region, lay down their weapons, leave their combat positions and military posts, and completely disarm, Armenian armed forces formations leave the territory of Azerbaijan, illegal Armenian armed formations are disbanded.

Baku:

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said Wednesday his country had regained control over breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh, after separatist Armenian fighters agreed to lay down their arms in the  face of a military operation.

The stunning collapse of separatist resistance represents a major victory for Aliyev in his quest to bring Armenian-majority Nagorno-Karabakh back under Baku’s control.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars over the mountainous region since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

A day after Azerbaijan launched a military operation in the region, Baku and the ethnic Armenian authorities in Karabakh announced a ceasefire deal had been brokered by Russian peacekeepers to stop the fighting.

“Azerbaijan restored its sovereignty as a result of successful anti-terrorist measures in Karabakh,” Aliyev said in a televised address.

Aliyev claimed that most of the Armenian forces in the region had been destroyed and said the withdrawal of separatist troops had already begun.

Under the truce deal, the separatists said they had agreed to fully dismantle their army and that Armenia would pull out any forces it had in the region.

Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said that “all weapons and heavy armaments are to be surrendered” under the supervision of Russia’s 2,000-strong peacekeeping force on the ground.

Both sides said talks on reintegrating the breakaway territory into the rest of Azerbaijan would be held on Thursday in the city of Yevlakh.

Russian peacekeepers said Wednesday evening that the ceasefire was holding and there were no violations recorded.

Baku’s operation marked the latest spasm of violence over the rugged territory.

After the Soviet Union fell apart, Armenian separatists seized the region — internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan — in the early 1990s and it is home to some 120,000 ethnic Armenians.

The war left 30,000 people dead and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.

In a six-week war in 2020, Azerbaijan recaptured swathes of territory in and around the region.

The years of conflict have been marked by ethnic cleansing and abuses on both sides, and there are concerns of a fresh refugee crisis as Karabakh’s Armenian population fears being forced out.

Azerbaijani presidential foreign policy advisor Hikmet Hajiyev promised safe passage for the separatists who surrendered and said Baku sought the “peaceful reintegration” of Karabakh Armenians.

Charles Michel, president of the EU’s Council of Europe, urged Baku to ensure the safety of the local population.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he hoped for a “peaceful” resolution, adding that Moscow has been in contact with all sides in the conflict.

Putin held talks with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan Wednesday evening, but the Kremlin insisted the crisis was “Azerbaijan’s internal affair”.

– ‘War is over’ –

Jubilant residents in Azerbaijan’s capital expressed hope the deal heralded a definitive victory in — and the end of — the decades-long conflict.

“I was very happy with this news. Finally, the war is over,” 67-year-old pensioner Rana Ahmedova, told AFP.

Armenia said at least 32 people were killed and more than 200 wounded by the shelling in Karabakh, as the latest onslaught from Azerbaijan saw artillery, aircraft and drone strikes rock the region.

Moscow said several of its peacekeepers in Karabakh were killed when the car they were travelling in came under fire.

In Yerevan, Pashinyan said it was “very important” the ceasefire hold.

Again denying his country’s army was in the enclave, he said he expected Russia’s peacekeepers to ensure Karabakh’s ethnic-Armenian residents could stay “in their homes, on their land”.

The loss in Karabakh ratchets up domestic pressure on Pashinyan, who has faced stinging criticism at home for making concessions to Azerbaijan since the 2020 defeat.  

The Armenian leader insisted that his government had not been involved in drafting the latest ceasefire deal.

Thousands of protesters waving the separatist region’s flag blocked a main road in Armenia’s capital Yerevan as riot police protected official buildings.

“We are losing our homeland, we are losing our people,” said Sargis Hayats, a 20-year-old musician.

Pashinyan “must leave, time has shown that he cannot rule. No one gave him a mandate for Karabakh to capitulate,” he said.

– International pressure –

The ceasefire announcement came after Aliyev warned the military operation would continue until the separatists laid down their weapons, despite international pressure to halt fighting.

The outburst of fighting came as Moscow, the traditional power broker in the region, is bogged down and distracted by its war on Ukraine, which has left it isolated by the West.

But its peacekeepers there appeared to have played a key role in helping to negotiate the ceasefire and will now oversee its implementation.

Turkey, a historic ally of predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan that views mostly Christian Armenia as one of its main regional rivals, had called the operation “justified”.

The EU and United States have been mediating talks between Baku and Yerevan in recent months aimed at securing a lasting peace deal between the two foes.

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