Azerbaijan regained control of its breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh in a deadly two-day military offensive and held initial talks with representatives of its ethnic Armenian population on reintegrating the area into the mainly Muslim country, Azerbaijan's top diplomat told the U.N. Security Council Thursday.
Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov reaffirmed Azerbaijan's determination to guarantee Nagorno-Karabakh's residents “all rights and freedoms” in line with the country's constitution and international human rights obligations, including safeguards for ethnic minorities.Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev, declared victory in a televised address. Bayramov said there is now “a historic opportunity” to seek better relations after 30 years of conflict.
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, who called for the emergency meeting of the Security Council along with France, accused Azerbaijan of an “unprovoked and well-planned military attack,” launched to coincide with this week's annual meeting of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly. He said the “barbarity” of Azerbaijan's aggression and deliberate targeting of the civilian population “was the final act of this tragedy aimed at the forced exodus of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.”
“The local forces, they were never strong. The Azerbaijani army is much better prepared, much better equipped. … So it was quite obvious, you know, that any military action that was to take place in that area, it would lead to the defeat of the local Armenian side,” Olesya Vartanyan, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, told The Associated Press.
In a phone call Thursday with Aliyev, Russian President Vladimir Putin also urged that the rights and security of the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh should be guaranteed, according to the Tass news agency.
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