Azerbaijan's Yevlakh hosted a delegation of Azerbaijani officials and Armenian representatives of the separatist group in Karabakh on Thursday.
The first direct talks between the two sides follow a declaration of ceasefire after Azerbaijan launched an anti-terror operation in the region. In the company of Russian peacekeepers in the region and Azerbaijani police, the Armenian delegation traveled through a road controlled by Azerbaijan and arrived at the town hall of Yevlakh, where the meeting was held.
The separatists agreed to lay down their arms on Wednesday as part of a Russian-brokered cease-fire plan that halted Azerbaijan's 24-hour offensive to retake land at the center of decades of conflict. Azerbaijani state media reported the talks aimed at reintegrating the Armenian population of Karabakh into Azerbaijan ended after several hours and the separatist delegation departed without making a statement.
Azerbaijan has given Armenia a draft agreement on peace between the two neighboring countries, a representative to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Thursday, according to Russia's RIA news agency. Baku is waiting for the reaction of Armenian authorities, the representative said.
A statement by Azerbaijan's Presidency said the talks were "constructive and positive," and they agreed to hold further talks with the Armenian side. The statement, quoted by Azerbaijani media, said that the sides discussed the reintegration of the community and the improvement of infrastructure in the region, among other topics. Azerbaijan also agreed to provide the region with food and humanitarian aid.
Earlier, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian told his compatriots that their country needed to be "free of conflict" for the sake of its independence.
RIA also quoted a representative from the Karabakh separatist delegation, saying that they did not reach a final agreement with the Azerbaijani side. The representative was quoted as saying that it was difficult to expect that all problems between Azerbaijan and Karabakh Armenians could be resolved in one meeting. The talks lasted about two hours, with no news conference planned after the meeting in the Azerbaijani town of Yevlakh, Azerbaijan's state news agencies and television said.
While the meeting was happening, gunfire rang out in the separatist stronghold Stepanakert (Khankendi) on Thursday despite the truce deal. The separatist authorities accused Azerbaijan of violating the cease-fire, but Baku denied the allegation.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars over the region.
The collapse of separatist resistance represents a major victory for Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev in his quest to bring the region back under Baku's control. Aliyev said his country had restored its sovereignty over the region for the first time in decades and Baku insists it now wants to see the "peaceful reintegration" of Karabakh Armenians.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday urged Aliyev in a call to ensure the security of the 120,000 Armenians living in the territory. Russia, the traditional regional powerbroker, sent peacekeepers to mountainous Karabakh in 2020 as part of a deal to end a six-week war there and they are mediating the ceasefire deal.
Under the truce, the separatists said they had agreed to fully dismantle their army and that Armenia would pull out any forces it had in the region. Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said all weapons were to be surrendered.
After the Soviet Union fell apart, Armenian separatists seized the region, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, in the early 1990s. In 2020, Azerbaijan recaptured swathes of territory in and around the region.
The latest flare-up comes as Moscow is bogged down by its war against Ukraine and after the United States and European Union ramped up attempts to find a lasting peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The Kremlin said Aliyev had apologized to Putin over the death of several Russian peacekeepers during the fighting on Wednesday.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday expressed "wholehearted support" for traditional ally Azerbaijan in a call with Aliyev.
The apparent capitulation of the separatists has sparked jubilation among Azerbaijanis, hoping this now heralds a definitive victory and the end of the decadeslong conflict. But the loss in Karabakh ratchets up domestic pressure on Pashinian, who has faced criticism at home for making concessions to Azerbaijan since losing swathes of territory in 2020. Clashes broke out Wednesday in the capital, Yerevan, where riot police guarded official buildings.
Pashinian said in a televised address on Thursday that a road to peace with archrival Azerbaijan was difficult but must still be pursued. "This path is not easy; it goes through internal and external shocks, and we must pursue it," he said.
Aliyev had said this week's events would have a "positive impact" on attempts to negotiate a lasting peace between the two feuding Caucasus neighbors. But mutual distrust remains sky-high and finding a lasting settlement to a dispute that has divided the region for decades is a major task. Armenia's Defense Ministry late Wednesday said Azerbaijan had fired on its positions along the border between the arch-foes. Such frontier skirmishes are frequent.
