Kalbajar
Armenia on Sunday was due to begin handing over disputed territory to Azerbaijan as part of a peace accord that ended six weeks of fierce fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The first of the territories, Kalbajar, was to be turned over on Sunday. But Azerbaijan agreed at the last minute to give Armenian forces and civilians until November 25 to withdraw.
Kalbajar is home to the well-known Dadivank monastery of the Armenian Apostolic Church. On Saturday, a day before the territory’s expected handover, workers removed many of the monastery’s sacred objects.
Azerbaijani presidential spokesman Hikmet Hajiyev said on Sunday that the delay was requested by Armenia and granted “taking into account the worsening weather conditions and the difficult mountainous terrain”.
Residents of the Kalbajar district in Azerbaijan, that was controlled by Armenian separatists for decades, began a mass exodus of the mountainous province in the days leading up to the official withdrawal day.
Civilians fleeing the region caused huge traffic jams on the single road leading to Armenia. AFP journalists saw fleeing residents pile furniture and kitchenware into vehicles before leaving for Armenia and some among the departing ethnic-Armenians said they had exhumed graves they feared would be desecrated by Azerbaijanis.
Thick plumes of smoke were rising over the valley near the village of Charektar after residents set their homes on fire preferring to leave devastation in their wake and homes that would be uninhabitable by Azerbaijanis. A Russian peacekeeping contingent was deployed this week to Nagorno-Karabakh.
They set up checkpoints and positions in the region’s administrative centre, Stepanakert, as part of the terms of the accord that sees Armenia cede swathes of territory that Azerbaijan’s forces gained in the fighting.
Moscow’s peacekeeping mission, which the military said included soldiers that previously were stationed in Syria, comprises some 2,000 troops for a renewable five-year mission.
The ex-Soviet rivals agreed to end hostilities earlier this week after efforts by Russia, France and the United States to get a ceasefire fell through during the nearly two months of clashes.
A key part of the peace deal includes Armenia’s return of Kalbajar, as well as the Aghdam district by November 20 and the Lachin district by December 1, which have been held by Armenians since a devastating war in the 1990s.
Meanwhile, the president of Azerbaijan promised that Christian churches will be protected when the Muslim-majority country takes possession of areas formerly controlled by Armenians.
President Ilham Aliyev’s office said he made the promise in a telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is deploying peacekeeping forces in the areas under an agreement that ended six weeks of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.—AFP
