Summary of the day
A ceasefire agreement was reached one day after Azerbaijan launched a new military offensive against the local Armenian government in Nagorno-Karabakh. Local officials in Stepanakert and in Baku have confirmed that representatives will meet in Yevlakh in Azerbaijan on Thursday for negotiations.
A spokesperson for the European Commission told reporters that Brussels hoped the announcement of a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh “will be followed up on the ground”.
The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, asked Azerbaijan to ensure proper treatment of Karabakh Armenians, telling the Azerbaijani leader, Ilham Aliyev, that “their human rights and security need to be ensured”.
Marina Kaljurand, the chair of the European parliament’s delegation for relations with the south Caucasus, called for the EU to rethink its relationship with Azerbaijan and work to protect Armenian civilians.
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Russia, once more, is playing a role following the latest violence in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Although the dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia has a long history, Armenia’s decision in 1988 to declare Nagorno-Karabakh a separate ‘state’, taking it out of Azerbaijan and uniting it with Armenia is seen as a significant moment.
The announcement of a unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) for Nagorno-Karabakh by Armenia was prompted by its impatience with Moscow’s diplomatic failure, as they saw it, to resolve the territorial dispute.
The Guardian’s Jonathan Steele, based in Moscow, explained the significance of the escalation “which had pitted two Soviet republics against each other for the first time” and the implications it would have for the region.
European Council president tells Azerbaijan to ensure Karabakh Armenians' safety
The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, has asked Azerbaijan to ensure proper treatment of Karabakh Armenians.
Michel said in a post on social media that he had spoken on the phone to Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, and called on him “to ensure full ceasefire & safe, dignified treatment by Azerbaijan of Karabakh Armenians”.
“Their human rights and security need to be ensured,” Michel said, adding that access was also needed for immediate humanitarian assistance.
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The announcement of a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh on Wednesday appeared to involve the de facto capitulation of local defence forces and looked likely to fuel political unrest in Armenia, piling pressure on the country’s prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan.
Protesters broke the windows of government buildings on Yerevan’s central Republic Square late on Tuesday as they scuffled with police in an attempt to get inside.
Security officers responded by throwing stun grenades into the crowd.
“If we had good leadership, we would be able to resist what is happening,” said Sarhat Petrosyan, an architect and former member of Pashinyan’s government who was out protesting. “All these people are ready to go and fight.”
“If he [Pashinyan] can’t do anything, he should resign,” said another protester, Svetlana Abramyan, a pensioner. “He’s a coward.”
Read the full report from Yerevan.
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Marina Kaljurand, the chair of the European parliament’s delegation for relations with the south Caucasus, is calling for the EU to rethink its relationship with Azerbaijan and work to protect Armenian civilians.
Kaljurand told us this afternoon that she understood there was not much appetite in European capitals for imposing sanctions on Azerbaijan but that they should consider it.
“I think we have to reconsider our relations, and we have to get rid of Azerbaijani gas,” she said, calling for Europe to find alternative sources of energy.
The international community, she said, needed to step up to protect Armenian civilians.
“The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh is becoming really bad,” she said. “It was already a humanitarian catastrophe, and it will turn into an even bigger catastrophe in the coming days.”
An Estonian member of the Socialists and Democrats group who previously served as her country’s foreign minister, Kaljurand said: “It’s the obligation of the EU to show very strong political support to Armenia, but also assist more financially.”
Speaking of the ceasefire announced on Wednesday, she said Russian peacekeepers’ participation in the negotiations was “just ridiculous.”
“The EU and the international community should be present,” she said.
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What does today’s ceasefire announcement mean for the region?
We asked Thomas de Waal, a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe, a thinktank.
“A ceasefire is positive, obviously, if it lasts, as the threat of mass bloodshed will be averted,” he wrote in an email this afternoon. “What we are seeing here is the intervention of Russia on behalf of Azerbaijan to keep its peacekeeping force in Karabakh at least for the time being and thereby a foothold in the South Caucasus.
“The main losers are the Karabakh Armenians who have lost their 35-year-old struggle for self-determination or secession from Azerbaijan.
“They now lose any means of self-defence and face a very uncertain future in Azerbaijan. The Karabakhis may have avoided complete destruction but they are more likely facing a slow-motion removal from their homeland, as Azerbaijan is not offering them any autonomy or special political rights.”
The other losers, he said, “are the European Union and the United States, which have tried hard to be mediators in this conflict but whose message of rights and international guarantees is being drowned out by the tougher messages of Azerbaijan and Russia”.
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Armenia’s prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, said in a televised address today that his country “did not participate in drafting” the Karabakh ceasefire deal, Agence France-Presse reports.
The prime minister said his country’s army was not in the enclave and that it was “very important” that the ceasefire held.
There have been protests in Yerevan, with demonstrators clashing with police and calling on Pashinyan to step down.
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Ceasefire to be implemented in coordination with Russian forces, Moscow says
Russia’s defence ministry has said the newly announced ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh will be coordinated with its troops.
“A ceasefire agreement between the Azerbaijani side and representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh has been reached through the mediation of the command for Russia’s peacekeeping mission,” the ministry said, according to the Tass news agency.
“The agreement will be implemented in coordination with the command for the Russian peacekeeping contingent,” it added.
Russia’s foreign ministry said: “The most important thing right now is to return without delay to implementing the package of trilateral agreements reached in 2020-22, stop the armed confrontation and do whatever is possible to ensure rights and safety of the Nagorno Karabakh population.”
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Europe hoping for ceasefire implementation, commission says
A spokesperson for the European Commission told reporters on Wednesday that Brussels hoped the announcement of a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh “will be followed up on the ground”.
“The member states and also international partners are dealing with it very intensively,” the spokesperson said, noting that senior diplomats were looking into the matter in Brussels while leaders were also discussing it at the UN this week.
“We expect immediate cessation of hostilities, and we also expect that Azerbaijan stops the current military activities,” the spokesperson said.
The EU “is watching the situation very closely – and the member states will decide next steps in this context as we see the developments unfolding on the ground”.
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Ceasefire agreed in Nagorno-Karabakh
A ceasefire agreement has been reached one day after Azerbaijan launched a new military offensive against the local Armenian government in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenian and Russian media have reported, citing a statement from local officials.
The ceasefire agreement will take effect at 1pm local time and will include provisions for the local Armenian government to disband its local military in what appears to be a major capitulation to Azerbaijan.
Local officials in Stepanakert and in Baku have confirmed that representatives will meet in Yevlakh in Azerbaijan on Thursday for negotiations.
Azerbaijan, which has demanded the dissolution of the local government in Nagorno-Karabakh, has said the talks will also include plans for the “reintegration” of the region into Azerbaijan.
The local government in Stepanakert did not mention any provisions to reintegrate the territory. In a statement, it cited an agreement to “pull out the remaining detachments and troops of the Armenian armed forces from the zone of deployment of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, to disband and fully disarm armed units of the Nagorno-Karabakh defence Army, and pull out heavy hardware and weapons from the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh for the sake of their soonest possible disposal”.
Both sides said the agreement had been mediated by a local Russian peacekeeping force that had been deployed in the region since war broke out in 2020.
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Washington calls for de-escalation
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, spoke to Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, late on Tuesday and urged him to end military actions in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“The secretary emphasised that there is no military solution and that the parties must resume dialogue to resolve outstanding differences between Baku and ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh,” a spokesperson for the US state department said in a statement.
Blinken also “noted President Aliyev’s expressed readiness to halt military actions and for representatives of Azerbaijan and the population of Nagorno-Karabakh to meet, and he underscored the need for immediate implementation”.
The top American diplomat also issued a statement underscoring that Washington was “deeply concerned by Azerbaijan’s military actions” and that Baku’s moves “are worsening an already dire humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and undermine prospects for peace”.
Aliyev’s office, meanwhile, said in a press release that the Azerbaijani leader told Blinken “that anti-terror measures will be stopped if the weapon is laid down and disarmed”.
Blinken also had a call with Armenia’s prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, and said that the US “fully supports Armenia’s sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity”.
I spoke to Azerbaijani President Aliyev today and urged him to immediately cease military actions in Nagorno-Karabakh. It is crucial for Azerbaijan to deescalate the situation to promote a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) September 19, 2023
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EU stresses dialogue as Borrell meets Armenian minister
The EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, has had a meeting with Armenia’s foreign minister, Ararat Mirzoyan, and called on Azerbaijan to halt military activities.
“The European Union condemns the military escalation along the Line of Contact and in other locations in Karabakh,” Borrell said in a statement on Tuesday.
“There is an urgent need to return to dialogue between Baku and Karabakh Armenians. This military escalation should not be used as a pretext to force the exodus of the local population,” he said, adding that “the EU remains fully engaged to facilitate the dialogue”.
After the meeting with the EU’s top diplomat, Armenia’s Mirzoyan said international partners – including the EU – “should take urgent action”.
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Hostilities continue in Nagorno-Karabakh
Fighting is continuing in Nagorno-Karabakh this morning, with the death toll rising as western capitals condemn Azerbaijan’s decision to launch what it describes as an “anti-terrorist operation” in the area on Tuesday.
Nagorno-Karabakh is recognised internationally as Azerbaijan’s territory but has a mostly Armenian population. Tensions have been rising over the past months as the Azerbaijani government and activists blockaded the Lachin corridor, a route that connects Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars over the territory, and there are growing concerns about further escalation.
Check out this useful explainer by the Guardian’s Pjotr Sauer.
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