Karabakh delegation arrives for talks with Azerbaijan: state news agency

BAKU: The delegation representing ethnic Armenians of breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh arrived in the town of Yevlakh in Azerbaijan Thursday for talks on integrating the region as part of a ceasefire agreement.

The state-run Azerbaijani news outlet, Azertag, published images showing the negotiators arriving one day after Armenian separatist forces agreed to lay down their arms and disband.

Azerbaijan said on Wednesday it had halted military action in its breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh after Armenian separatist forces there agreed to a ceasefire whose terms signalled the area would return to Baku’s control.

Under the agreement, confirmed by both sides and effective from 1 p.m. (0900 GMT) on Wednesday, separatist forces will disband and disarm and talks on the future of the region and the ethnic Armenians who live there will start on Thursday.

Karabakh, a mountainous area in the volatile wider South Caucasus region, is internationally recognised as Azerbaijani territory, but part of it has been run by separatist Armenian authorities who call the area their ancestral homeland.

Fearful of what the future might hold, thousands of Armenians massed at the airport in Stepanakert, the capital of Karabakh which is known as Khankendi by Azerbaijan. Others took shelter with Russian peacekeepers.

Azerbaijan, which sent troops backed by artillery strikes into Karabakh on Tuesday to bring the breakaway region to heel, says it plans to integrate the area’s 120,000 ethnic Armenians and that their rights will be protected under the constitution.