It was on Tuesday that Azeri forces began shelling the region after a long period of tension, something described as an anti-terror operation. On Wednesday, a ceasefire agreement was reached between the sides, with Armenian separatists pledging to lay down their arms.
Later in the evening, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev claimed in a televised speech that the Armenian separatists are now leaving Nagorno-Karabakh, and that Azerbaijan has thus regained control of the region.
– Illegal Armenian units have started the process of withdrawing from their positions. They have accepted our terms and started handing over their weapons, Aliyev said.
In the same speech, the president offered the ethnic Armenians in the breakaway region and also in neighboring Armenia opportunities for cooperation, reconciliation and joint development, Reuters reports.
Aliyev: Nothing against the Armenian population
According to Aliyev, Azerbaijan has nothing against the Armenian population of Karabakh, whom he calls “our citizens”, but only their “criminal junta”.
His words were aimed at Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s earlier accusations that Baku was planning an ethnic cleansing of Karabakh Armenians in the region.
Armenian officials have reported that at least 32 people have been killed in the attack, including seven civilians, and another 200 people have been injured. But according to a separatist Armenian human rights official, at least 200 people were killed and more than 400 injured. The figures could not be verified.
On Thursday, “integration talks” are to begin according to both parties.