(Asbarez)- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan revealed that he had signed an agreement with the presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan that will end the fighting in the Karabakh conflict zone, and will surrender Aghdam, Lachin, Kelbajar and Shushi to Azerbaijan.
The agreement also calls for the deployment of Russian peacekeeping forces in the region for a minimum of five years. The Russian border troops will also allow for the unimpeded transport between Azerbaijan-proper and Nakhichevan through Armenia.
“I have signed an agreement on the termination of the Karabakh war with Russian and Azerbaijani presidents that will begin at 1 a.m. The text of the statement, which has already been publicized is unbelievably painful for me and our people,” Pashinyan said in a Facebook post early Tuesday local time immediately after the end of the military hostilities went into effect.
Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan soon took to Facebook to announce that he had consulted with Pashinyan and had agreed to the decision in the name of salvaging lives.
Below is the text of the agreement.
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan,
Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia
and the President of the Russian Federation
We, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan I. G. Aliyev,
Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikolai Pashinyan and President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin announced the following:
1. A complete ceasefire and end all hostilities in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are announced from 00:00 hours Moscow time on November 10, 2020. The Republic of Azerbaijan
and the Republic of Armenia, hereinafter referred to as the Parties, stop at their positions.
2. The Aghdam region and the territories held by the Armenian Party in the Gazakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan shall be returned to the Azerbaijan Party until November 20, 2020.
3. Along the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh and along the Lachin corridor, a peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation is deployed in the amount of 1,960 servicemen with small arms, 90 armored personnel carriers, 380 units of automobile and special equipment.
4. A peacekeeping mission of the Russian Federation will be deployed in conjunction with the withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces. The duration of the stay of the peacekeeping mission of the Russian Federation is five years, with an automatic extension subsequent five-year periods, if none of the Parties declares six months before the expiration of the period of intention to terminate the application of this provision.
5. In order to increase the effectiveness of control over the implementation of the agreements by the Parties to the conflict, a peacekeeping center is being deployed to control the ceasefire.
6. The Republic of Armenia will return the Kelbajar region to the Republic of Azerbaijan by November 15, 2020, and the Lachin region by December 1, 2020, leaving behind the Lachin corridor (5 km wide), which will ensure the connection of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia and at the same time not will affect the city of Shushi.
By agreement of the Parties, in the next three years, a plan for the construction of a new traffic route along the Lachin corridor, providing communication between Stepanakert and Armenia, with the subsequent redeployment of the Russian peacekeeping contingent to protect this route will be determined.
The Republic of Azerbaijan will guarantee traffic safety along the Lachin corridor of citizens, vehicles and goods in both directions.
7. Internally displaced persons and refugees are returning to the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent areas under the control of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
8. There is an exchange of prisoners of war and other detained persons and bodies of the dead.
9. All economic and transport links in the region are unblocked. The Republic of Armenia provides transport links between the western regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic in order to organize the unimpeded movement of citizens, vehicles and goods in both directions. Control over transport communication is carried out by the bodies of the Border Guard Service of the FSB of Russia.
By agreement of the Parties, the construction of new transport communications linking the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic with the western regions of Azerbaijan will be provided.
November 2020
The president
The Republic of Azerbaijan
Prime Minister
Republic of Armenia
The president
Russian Federation