In the evening of 9 November 2020 a ceasefire agreement
(3)was signed in Moscow, facilitated by the Russian Federation, but with Turkey also being kept informed. The three signatories were Russian President Vladimir Putin, Nikol Pashinyan, the prime minister of Armenia, and Ilham Aliev, the president of Azerbaijan.
The agreement prescribed the immediate cessation of armed hostilities along the current line of contact. This prevented the complete destruction of the surviving Armenian forces, whose losses were staggering. The ceasefire ordered the swift return of the three Armenian-occupied districts around Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan, which had not yet been seized by the Azerbaijani forces during the war. At the same time, some 70% of the territory of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) was to remain under Armenian control, as the rest had already been taken over by the Azeri military by 9 November.
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During last autumn’s six-week war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the ethnic-Armenian majority enclave Nagorno-Karabakh, as Azerbaijani forces took control of areas in and around the region, they rounded up local civilians. Most younger civilians had fled the hostilities. Those remaining, with few exceptions, were older people who did not want to abandon their homes.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has documented several cases in which Azerbaijani forces used violence to detain civilians and subjected them to torture and inhuman and degrading conditions of detention. Two detainees died in Azerbaijani captivity; one of them, based on the evidence, was most likely the victim of an extrajudicial execution. Azerbaijani forces detained these civilians even though there was no evidence that they posed any security threat – they had no weapons and were not participating in the hostilities.
What’s new? A Russian-brokered ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan ended a six-week war in and around Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan regained most of the territory it lost to Armenian forces in the first war, which ended in 1994. Russian peacekeepers have deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh.
Why does it matter? Decades of failed negotiations after the first Nagorno-Karabakh war hardened positions on both sides, which culminated in 2020’s six weeks of bloodshed. Today, the ceasefire plan leaves many questions unanswered, including the crucial issue of Nagorno Karabakh’s status, but immediate efforts to force compromise on that risk backfiring.
What should be done? Rather than seek an elusive comprehensive agreement, parties and stakeholders should prioritise humanitarian needs and international support to rebuild infrastructure and forge cooperative ways forward, including through commerce. Of outside actors, Russia will play the lead role, but success is more likely if Eu
Shusha in Nagorno-Karabakh. Photo: Francis Farrell
On the southeastern outskirts of the hilltop city of Shusha, a narrow street lined with the forlorn ruins of old stone houses gives way to an open grassy field. Walking in the direction of a distant opposite cliff face, the land abruptly begins to drop away underfoot, opening into a dramatic gorge hundreds of metres deep. Among the grass on the edge of the ravine, great blocks of karst jut out in near-perfect rows to form a natural grandstand on which locals gather to drink tea and watch the sunset.
In the early days of November, these cliffs, and the mountains stretching to the south became the new front line in the renewed outbreak of bitter war over Nagorno-Karabakh. On 8 November, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced the capture of Shusha (Shushi in Armenian), adding; “We have won this historic victory on the battlefield, not at the negotiating table.” The announcement has been met with jubilation in Azerbaijan, w
Published date: 11 December 2020 14:22 UTC | Last update: 3 months 3 weeks ago
Ankara and Azerbaijan put their differences aside in pursuit of a military victory over Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh. The outcome is a huge geopolitical shift in Turkey s favour
It took 44 days for Azerbaijan to defeat Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh and make Turkey one of the fundamental players in the Caucasus.
And today, Turkey s power in the region could not be clearer.
The Ottoman Islamic Army of the Caucasus enters Baku on 15 September 1918
Words thanking Ankara were some of the first from Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev s lips when he joyously declared a ceasefire on TV last month.