Russian peacekeeping
Russian peacekeeping contingent was deployed this week to Nagorno-Karabakh where they set up checkpoints and positions in the region’s administrative centre, Khankendi [or Stepanakert]
Moscow’s peacekeeping mission, which the military said included soldiers that previously were stationed in Syria, comprises some 2,000 troops for a renewable five-year mission.
The ex-Soviet rivals agreed to end hostilities earlier this week after efforts by Russia, France, and the US to get a ceasefire fell through during the nearly two months of clashes.
A key part of the deal includes Armenia’s return of Kalbajar, as well as the Aghdam district by November 20 and the Lachin district by December 1, which have been held by Armenians since a devastating war in the 1990s.
READ MORE: Russia deploys first peacekeeper troops in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone
Kalbajar goes back to ethnic Azerbaijanis
Armenia conceded on Saturday that 2,317 soldiers or militants were killed in six-week clashes in which both sides accused the other of targeting civilian infrastructure.
Azerbaijan has not revealed its military casualties. It says the real toll on Armenian side after weeks of fighting is much higher.
Kalbajar was almost exclusively populated by ethnic Azerbaijanis before they were expelled by Armenians in the 1990s war following the breakup of the Soviet Union, and a majority of the homes being abandoned previously belonged to Azerbaijanis.
The Armenian government controversially subsidised the region’s settlement by ethnic Armenians.
Bitter history
Azerbaijan has pushed for Ankara’s involvement in the settlement and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has his country would jointly supervise the ceasefire with Russia.
Relations between the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Upper Karabakh, a territory recognised as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.
Fresh clashes erupted on September 27, and the Armenian army continued its attacks on civilian and Azerbaijani forces, even violating humanitarian ceasefire agreements for 44 days.
Baku liberated several cities and nearly 300 of its settlements and villages from Armenian occupation during this time.
Before the second Karabakh war, about 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory had been under illegal Armenian occupation for nearly three decades.
READ MORE: Turkey: Armenia to pay price if it violates Karabakh ceasefire
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