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Representatives of Azerbaijan and the ethnic Armenian leadership of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh are gathering in western Azerbaijan on September 21 for “reintegration” talks as Baku seeks to consolidate gains from a 24-hour military offensive that dramatically shifted political calculations in the Caucasus.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev told his oil- and gas-rich nation of 10 million after a Russian-brokered cease-fire halted intense fighting on September 20 that he had “restored its sovereignty.”
He praised the lightning operation to dislodge the territory’s de facto leadership nearly three years after another offensive retook many areas controlled for decades by ethnic Armenians with Yerevan’s support, saying, “In just one day, Azerbaijan fulfilled all the tasks set as part of local anti-terrorist measures.”
The breakaway leadership of Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as Azerbaijani that Armenians call Artsakh, was forced to acquiesce to Baku’s terms for the cease-fire as more numerous and better-supplied Azerbaijani forces armed with artillery and drones quickly tallied victories after the surprise offensive began on September 19, with Russian peacekeepers seemingly unprepared or unwilling to act.
A rights ombudsman for Nagorno-Karabakh, Gegham Stepanian, has said that at least 200 people were killed and about twice as many wounded during the fighting, including children.
WATCH: Ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh say they have agreed to a Russian-brokered cease-fire after Azerbaijan launched a fresh offensive in the region. Under the terms of the deal, ethnic Armenians said they had agreed to the region’s reintegration into Azerbaijan.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian appeared to have been caught off guard by the Azerbaijani offensive, and he has since emphasized that his government was not involved in shaping the terms of the cease-fire. But he welcomed the end of intense fighting.
Representatives of Azerbaijan and the ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh agreed to meet on September 21 in the Azerbaijani city of Yevlax, about 265 kilometers west of Baku, as part of the truce for what the Azerbaijani side calls talks on “reintegration” of the territory into the rest of the country after decades of occupation.
“The day is not far off when Azerbaijan and Armenia will settle the issues between them, sign a peace treaty, and the countries of the South Caucasus will start working on future cooperation in a trilateral format,” Aliyev said in his address to the nation, in a reference that also included Georgia.
He said of Armenia that Azerbaijan “recognize[s] their territorial integrity.”
The Kremlin has said Russian peacekeepers will mediate the talks.
“The integration plan of Karabakh Armenians is ready,” Hikmet Hajiyev, assistant to the president of Azerbaijan, told reporters at a briefing organized for accredited foreign diplomats in Baku.
Protests In Yerevan Follow Azerbaijani Attacks As Karabakh Residents Seek Shelter
Armenians took to the streets to demand Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian resign after Azerbaijan launched what it called an “anti-terrorist operation” targeting ethnic Armenian military positions in Nagorno-Karabakh that left at least 32 people dead and more than 200 wounded.
Thousands of ethnic Armenians converged on the airport of Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto capital, Stepanakert, on September 20 seeking protection and possible transport to Armenia amid uncertainty over the fighting and the cease-fire that was proffered by Russian peacekeepers on distinctly Azerbaijani terms.
Russia has said its peacekeepers have “taken in” about 5,000 Karabakh residents.
But the truce appeared to be holding early on September 21.
The White House has expressed concern about a possible humanitarian and refugee crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh and placed the blame on Baku for the situation.
“We’re obviously still watching very, very closely the worsening humanitarian situation inside Nagorno-Karabakh,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
Azerbaijani leaders vowed to allow “safe passage” to Armenia for the separatist forces of the region as part of the agreement to halt fighting, putting a halt to the long struggle for ethnic Armenians seeking independence or attachment to Armenia for the territory.
“Safe passage to appropriate assembly points will also be provided by the Azerbaijani side,” Aliyev adviser Hajiyev told reporters. “All the actions on the ground are coordinated with Russian peacekeepers.”
The European Union called on Aliyev to protect the rights of ethnic-Armenians in region and “to ensure full cease-fire and safe, dignified treatment by Azerbaijan of Karabakh Armenians.”
“Their human rights and security need to be ensured. Access needed for immediate humanitarian assistance,” EU chief Charles Michel said he told the Aliyev in a phone call.
Authorities in Armenia accused Baku of attempting ethnic cleansing with their actions in Karabakh.
Separately, the Russian Defense Ministry said late on September 20 that an unknown number of its peacekeepers had been killed when the vehicle they were in was fired upon in the region. Details remained scarce in the incident.
The quickly changing situation is a blow to Armenians who have made control of Nagorno-Karabakh a nationalist priority since the breakup of the Soviet Union, and Yerevan saw a second successive night of anti-government protests after the cease-fire.
As part of the truce, Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto leadership said that “issues raised by the Azerbaijani side on reintegration, ensuring the rights and security of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh…will be discussed at a meeting between representatives of the local Armenian population and the central authorities of the Republic of Azerbaijan.”
In addition to a suspension of fighting and some sort of integration effort, the cease-fire proposal reportedly includes a commitment for a pullout of any “remaining units of the armed forces of Armenia,” the withdrawal and destruction of any heavy military equipment from the territory, and the disbandment of the so-called Artsakh Defense Army established by ethnic Armenians in the early 1990s at an early phase of the conflict.
The UN Security Council’s rotating Albanian chairmanship scheduled an emergency meeting for September 21 to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh fighting.
After weeks of bloody skirmishes and one day after an aid shipment was finally allowed into the area, Azerbaijan launched the major escalation on September 19 with the breakaway region already teetering on the brink of a humanitarian crisis after being essentially blockaded for more than eight months despite international calls for Baku to allow food and other shipments.
The shelling started shortly after Azerbaijan blamed what it called “Armenian sabotage groups” for two separate explosions that killed at least four military personnel and two civilians in areas of Nagorno-Karabakh that are under the control of Russian peacekeepers.
Those peacekeepers are in place since a cease-fire that ended six weeks of fighting in 2020 in which Azerbaijan recaptured much of the territory and seven surrounding districts controlled since the 1990s by ethnic Armenians with Yerevan’s support.
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