Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia sign Karabakh peace deal

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FE Team | Published: November 10, 2020 23:36:03

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KARABAKH, Nov 10 (BBC): Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia have signed an agreement to end military conflict over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called the deal "incredibly painful both for me and both for our people".
It comes after six weeks of fighting between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenians.
The region is internationally recognised as Azerbaijani but has been run by ethnic Armenians since 1994.
In that year, a truce was signed after fighting but not a peace deal.
A number of ceasefire agreements have been brokered since fighting broke out again in September, but all of them have failed.
The new ceasefire agreement prompted anger in Armenia, as protesters stormed the parliament, beating up the speaker and reportedly looting the prime minister's office.
The peace deal took effect on Tuesday from 01:00 local time (21:00 GMT Monday).
Under the deal, Azerbaijan will hold on to areas of Nagorno-Karabakh that it has taken during the conflict. Armenia has also agreed to withdraw from several other adjacent areas over the next few weeks.
During a televised online address, Russia's President Vladimir Putin said that Russian peacekeepers would be deployed to patrol frontlines.
Russia's defence ministry confirmed that 1,960 personnel would be involved and reports said planes had left an airbase at Ulyanovsk on Tuesday carrying peacekeepers and armoured personnel carriers to Karabakh.
Turkey will also take part in the peacekeeping process, according to Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev, who joined President Putin during the address.
President Putin said the agreement would include an exchange of war prisoners, with "all economical and transport contacts to be unblocked."
President Aliyev said the agreement was of "historic importance," and amounted to a "capitulation" by Armenia.
A still image taken from video footage published 20 October 2020 on the official website of the Azerbaijan's Defence Ministry shows allegedly artillery units of the Azerbaijani army fire during military combat with forces of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Armenia's prime minister said that his decision had been based on "deep analyses of the combat situation and in discussion with best experts of the field".
"This is not a victory but there is not defeat until you consider yourself defeated," Mr Pashinyan said.
The Armenian leader in Nagorno-Karabakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, said a ceasefire had been unavoidable after the loss of Karabakh's second biggest town, Shusha (known as Shushi in Armenian).
Battles were already taking place on the outskirts of Karabakh's main city, Stepanakert, and if the conflict had continued the whole of Karabakh would have been lost, he said on Facebook. "We would have far more losses," he said.
In the Armenian capital Yerevan, a large crowd gathered to protest against the agreement, according to local media. They broke into parliament and government buildings, shouting "We will not give it up."