KORNIDZOR: Nago­rno-Karabakh separatists were negotiating the end of their long struggle against Azerbaijani rule on Saturday, surrendering their weapons after a lightning government offensive.

If the ceasefire holds, it will mark the end of a conflict between Caucasus rivals Armenia and Azer­baijan that has raged, off and on, through the three decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

An Azerbaijani army spokesman said Azerba­ijani soldiers and Russian peacekeepers were working jointly to disarm separatist fighters in the ethnically Arme­nian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. “We are in close cooperation with the Russian peacekeepers, conducting the demilitarisation” of the separatists, spokesman Anar Eyvazov told reporters in Shusha, a district on the edge of the rebel stronghold Stepa­nakert.

“We have already seized weapons and amm­u­nition,” Eyvazov said.

Azerbaijan working with Russia to disarm rebels; US officials meet Armenian premier

Russia had been a traditional ally of Armenia in the restive region, but Moscow is now bogged down in a war in Ukraine, and refused to enter the latest fighting. The separatists agreed to disarm under a ceasefire agreement reached on Thur­sday.

Eyvazov said, “The priority is the mine clearing and demilitarisation”, hin­t­i­ng that the disarmament process “can take time” as some rebels were based in remote mountain districts.

Germany meanwhile called for the rights of the residents of the mountainous region to be guaranteed.

A US congressional delegation led by Senator Gary Peters, will meet Armen­ian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to, in the words of the US embassy, discuss “the impact of Azerbai­jan’s recent military acti­ons on the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh”.

The Democrat senator had earlier accused Azerbaijan of launching “unprovoked” attacks agai­­nst its neighbour.

In the Armenian border town of Kornidzor, civilians have been gathering, some of them waiting for days, at the last checkpoint before Azerbaijani territory hoping for news of relatives stuck in the embattled enclave.

Situation ‘horrible’

“I’ve been here for three days and nights, sleeping in my car,” said 28-year-old Garik Zakar­ian, as displaced Armenians borrowed a soldier’s telescope to scan a village on the other side of the valley.

It was shelled by Azerbaijani forces on Tuesday. Zakarian had got his family out, three days before Azerbaijan blockaded the area, but he is worried for friends and family still across the border.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2023