BAKU: Azerbaijan does not oppose the deployment of peacekeeping troops to the Armenian-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region, President Ilham Aliyev said. The Azerbaijani president said he is not against observers and peacekeepers in the region but added that Baku would present its own conditions, according to Russia’s RIA agency.
Aliyev also said he would not rule out what he termed “cultural autonomy” for ethnic Armenians in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh.
Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of Armenian separatists, backed by Armenia, since a war that ended in 1994. The current fighting that started on Sept. 27 marks the biggest escalation in the conflict since then.
Two Russia-brokered cease-fires frayed immediately after entering force, and the warring parties have continued to trade blows with heavy artillery, rockets and drones. According to Armenian separatists, 834 of their troops have been killed, while Azerbaijan has reported 63 civilian deaths and 292 injuries. Aliyev wants to end hostilities and says Armenian forces must withdraw from the illegally occupied Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenian leader Nikol Pashinian, meanwhile, said Wednesday that he does not think a diplomatic solution to the crisis is possible, as he called on citizens to join the fight in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Meanwhile, On the 26th day of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, the entire territory on the Azerbaijan-Iran border that was held by Yerevan for almost 30 years has now been saved, President Ilham Aliyev said Thursday. The president celebrated the victory for the people of Azerbaijan and Iran.
The Azerbaijani army also liberated 20 villages and a town from Armenian occupation, he further expressed. So far in the conflict, three city centers, two towns and 112 villages have been liberated from Armenian occupation.
Armenian “terrorist elements” again unleashed violence in Nagorno-Karabakh on Sept. 27 in an attempt to occupy new lands. Azerbaijan reacted to protect its territory and liberate the areas. Russia has brokered two cease-fires since Sept. 27 when the new clashes first broke out, but neither has held.
In two missile attacks on Ganja, a major Azerbaijani city far from the front line, Armenia killed some two dozen civilians, including children, and injured scores more. Last Thursday, Armenia also targeted civilians at a cemetery in the western city of Tartar, killing four and injuring four others. –Agencies
