(Choucha) Azerbaijan promised on Saturday at the UN to treat the majority Armenians in the secessionist region of Nagorno-Karabakh as “equal citizens”.
“I want to reiterate that Azerbaijan is determined to reintegrate the Armenian inhabitants of the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan as equal citizens,” Foreign Minister Djeyhoun Bayramov told the General Assembly.
Azerbaijan announced on Saturday that it was carrying out with Russia a “demilitarization” of the forces of Nagorno-Karabakh, a secessionist region mainly populated by Armenians where the Azerbaijani military won a lightning victory at the start of the week.
“In close cooperation with Russian peacekeepers, we are carrying out the demilitarization” of the separatist troops, declared to the press, including AFP, Anar Eyvazov, the spokesperson for the Azerbaijani army, in the Shusha region, a town in Nagorno-Karabakh that came under the control of Azerbaijan three years ago.
“We have already seized weapons and ammunition,” he added, without further details.
The disarmament process “may take time” because some separatist fighters were based in remote mountainous areas, Mr. Eyvazov continued. “The priority is mine clearance and demilitarization,” he insisted.
PHOTO IRAKLI GEDENIDZE, REUTERS
A border crossing point between Armenia and Azerbaijan and a base of Russian peacekeepers deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh.
At one of the accesses to Choucha, an AFP journalist saw a tank and, more generally, a strong military presence.
Mortars are also positioned on a nearby hill, oriented towards Stepanakert, the “capital” of Nagorno-Karabakh which, the separatists claim, Azerbaijani troops are surrounding, she also noted.
Six armored vehicles, more than 800 small arms and around 5,000 munitions have so far been returned, declared Friday the Russian peace contingent present in this territory where a ceasefire was concluded on Wednesday the day after the outbreak of the Azerbaijani assault.
“In accordance with the cessation of hostilities agreements, the armed formations of Karabakh began to hand over” their weapons “under the control of Russian peacekeeping forces,” the Russian Defense Ministry explained at the time.
The talks between the Nagorno-Karabakh authorities and the Azerbaijani side, which began on Thursday “under the auspices” of the Russian interposition force, should make it possible to “organize the process of withdrawal of troops and ensure the return to their homes of citizens displaced by military aggression,” the separatists said.