Armenia and Azerbaijan agree on ceasefire / Article

Armen Grigoryan, secretary of the Security Council of Armenia, announced on television the ceasefire.

There is no written agreement on a ceasefire, so there is a serious risk of a new escalation of the conflict.

The clashes that took place this week are the most serious since the hostilities of September 2020, when Azerbaijan managed to recover the territories lost in the 1990s and to occupy part of the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. It legally belongs to Azerbaijan, but is mainly inhabited by Armenians.

On the conflict escalation both sides blame each other.

In two days, Armenia would have lost another 10 square kilometers of territory and 105 soldiers would have died. On the other hand, Baku official reports the deaths of 50 soldiers.

Experts agree that the clashes will bring residents of both countries even closer and have virtually destroyed the European Union’s efforts to bring Baku and Yerevan closer to a peace agreement.

CONTEXT:

Azerbaijan and Armenia have had hostile relations since the 1990s, when a war was fought in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The region is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but is mainly inhabited by ethnic Armenians.

In September 2020, on the current Nagorno-Karabakh border heavy fighting began, the Azerbaijani army managed to recapture about a fifth of the territory previously controlled by the Armenian forces. About 6,500 people lost their lives in hostilities.

The armed conflict lasted six weeks and ended in November 2020, when Armenia and Azerbaijan, with the support of Russia, concluded a ceasefire agreement, which many in Armenia see as a capitulation.

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