Page 14 - FSUOGM Week 45

FSUOGM POLICY FSUOGM

Azerbaijan, Armenia reach peace deal

CAUCASUS ARMENIAN Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian information in the coming days, adding that the
has announced that he has signed an agreement agreement was “the best possible solution for the
Azerbaijan has hailed with Russia and Azerbaijan to end the war over current situation”.
the agreement as a the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave starting from Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, who
victory. 01:00 local time on November 10. said the agreement amounted to a "capitula-
Pashinian’s announcement, which he said tion" by Armenia, took part in a televised online
was an “incredibly painful” decision for all meeting with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.
Armenians came hours after Azerbaijan posted “The signed trilateral statement will become a
video footage which appeared to confirm its [crucial] point in the settlement of the conflict,”
forces had captured the Nagorno-Karabakh city Aliyev said.
of Shusha (a mountain citadel called Shushi in Putin said in a statement that he would
Armenian), lending credibility to reports that deploy peacekeepers along the front line in
Azerbaijani troops were now also approaching Nagorno-Karabakh following the agreement
the region’s main city, Stepanakert, regarded as to stop fighting. He said he hoped the deal
the capital by the ethnic Armenians who control “will set up necessary conditions for long-last-
the self-proclaimed republic still internationally ing and full-scale settlement of the crisis over
recognised as part of Azerbaijan. It was con- Nagorno-Karabakh”.
firmed that as expected Russian peacekeeping In another breakthrough for Azerbai-
troops will be deployed to keep the truce intact. jan, the deal to end the war is expected
In a Facebook post announcing the agree- to lead to the establishment of two road
ment, Pashinian said he had signed a statement corridors. While one corridor is to lead
with Russian President Vladimir Putin and from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, the
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on the “ter- second corridor would connect the Azer-
mination” of the six-week-old war. baijani exclave of Nakhchivan—which
“I made this decision as a result of an in-depth borders Armenia, Turkey and Iran—to
analysis of the military situation and an assess- Baku, potentially bringing meaningful
ment of the people who know it best,” he said. economic benefits.
He added: “This is not a victory but there is Up to 100,000 of the territory’s 150,000 peo-
not defeat until you consider yourself defeated. ple are thought to have been displaced by the
We will never consider ourselves defeated and conflict, with both sides accusing each other of
this shall become a new start of an era of our indiscriminate shelling of civilians.
national unity and rebirth.” November 9 also saw Azerbaijan apologise
Arayik Harutyunyan, leader of the to Moscow after its forces shot down a Russian
Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, said on helicopter over Armenia, killing two Russian
Facebook that he gave agreement “to end the war servicemen and injuring a third.
as soon as possible”. It is not yet possible to make an accurate
assessment of the death toll caused by the con-
“Best possible solution” flict but Moscow lately put the figure at around
Pashinian said he would provide more 5,000. ™

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 45 11•November•2020