Top Russian Navy Officer Among Troops Killed During Azerbaijan’s Attack On Nagorno-Karabakh

Closely watched “reintegration” talks in the western Azerbaijani city of Yevlax between representatives of Azerbaijan and the ethnic Armenian leadership of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh have ended with no public statements nor any sign of a breakthrough, as the two sides exchanged accusations and denials over reports of gunfire and apparent cease-fire violations in Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital.

Baku is hoping to consolidate gains from a 24-hour military offensive on September 19-20 that dramatically shifted political calculations in the Caucasus.

But reports of gunfire 100 kilometers away in the de facto capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, Stepanakert, highlighted lingering tensions as the potentially historic negotiations got under way.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose nearly three-year-old peacekeeping mission was crucial to brokering the cease-fire a day earlier, reportedly spoke by phone with Aliyev on September 21. The Kremlin quoted Putin as stressing “the importance of ensuring the rights and security of the Armenian population of Karabakh.”

Meanwhile, neighbor Armenia’s envoy to the United Nations, Andranik Hovhannisian, warned the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on September 21 that Azerbaijan was perpetrating “ethnic cleansing” and a “crime against humanity” as it tried to retake the territory following nine months of a de facto blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The talks follow Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s boast to his oil- and gas-rich nation of 10 million after a Russian-brokered cease-fire halted intense fighting on September 20 that he said had “restored its sovereignty.”

Aliyev 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 talks on the Azerbaijani side are being led by lawmaker Ramin Mammadov, whom Aliyev appointed in March to be in charge of relations with ethnic Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The delegation for the breakaway leadership of Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as Azerbaijani that Armenians call Artsakh, includes a member of the territory’s de facto parliament in Stepanakert, Davit Melkumian, and Artsakh Security Council member Sergey Martirosian. But it has not issued an official list of participants.

Russian peacekeepers, whom the Kremlin says are mediating the talks, were accompanying the ethnic Armenian delegation on its arrival at the venue.

An RFE/RL correspondent was not allowed into the meeting as it got under way.

Multiple reports of gunfire, meanwhile, trickled in from Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh’s biggest city.

One resident told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that they heard gunfire in the city and were considering options to leave after leaving a shelter to spend the night at home. They said many other residents were back in shelters.

Reuters also quoted two sources as saying they heard gunfire.

The ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh accused Azerbaijani forces of rifle fire from areas near Stepanakert and urged residents to stay in shelters. They said they had informed the command of the area’s Russian peacekeepers and demanded the Russians take immediate measures to protect them.

Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry “categorically denied” accusations that it was violating the day-old cease-fire.

Using the ancient name of Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital, it said on Facebook that “information spread in some Armenian social media accounts that the Azerbaijan Armed Forces allegedly launched an attack in the Khankendi direction is completely false and disinformation.”

The European Union monitoring mission in Armenia (EUMA) that was established earlier this year to help avoid escalations said it had “reinforced patrols at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border areas & line of confrontation” and in the nearby Armenian village of Sotk to report on military and security developments there. It reiterated the EU mission’s commitment to “contributing to stabilizing the situation.”

Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian leaders were forced to accept 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.

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.

In his address to the nation, Aliyev said, “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.”

He said of Armenia that Azerbaijan “recognize[s] their territorial integrity.”

“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.

Thousands of ethnic Armenians converged on Stepanakert’s airport 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 that its peacekeepers have “taken in” about 5,000 Karabakh residents.

The Kremlin said that in his phone conversation with Putin, Aliyev had apologized for an incident late on September 20 in which an unknown number of Russian peacekeepers had been killed when the vehicle they were in was fired upon in the region.

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.

The fresh offensive was 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 antigovernment protests after the cease-fire.

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.

The Russian 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.