Armenia proposed to create a demilitarized zone in Nagorno-Karabakh / Article

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced at a government meeting that he had proposed the creation of a demilitarized zone around Nagorno-Karabakh and a three-kilometer demilitarized zone along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev recently asked the Armenian army again to withdraw from Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought two wars over Nagorno-Karabakh: in the autumn of 2020 and in the 90s of the last century.

More than 6,500 people lost their lives in the six-week war in 2020. Under the ceasefire agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan with Russian support, the Armenians have lost part of the central territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as all areas of the security buffer zone that had been under Armenian control since the 1990s.

Since the end of this war, there have been several clashes on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In September, more than 280 people lost their lives in new clashes.

Nagorno-Karabakh, which was part of the Azerbaijani SSR during the Soviet era, has been a “de facto” independent Armenian republic since the early 1990s. Although Azerbaijan has not controlled Nagorno-Karabakh since the collapse of the USSR, it considers the Armenian-populated region as its territory.

At the summit organized by Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 31 in Sochi, the president of Azerbaijan and the prime minister of Armenia “agreed not to use force” for the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. But soon after, both sides accusing each other in border shootings.

Pashinyan announced Wednesday that Putin intends to pay a two-day visit to Yerevan on November 22.

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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