This well-established and complex conflict will not be ended simply or quickly, but investing in the upcoming border commission talks can lay the groundwork for a safer and more just Karabakh. During the active fighting in fall 2020, many people in ethnic Armenian communities were forced to flee their homes and interviewees reported extra-judicial executions by Azeri forces. An agreement was reached during the meeting to set up a bilateral commission on the issues of delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijan border, which will be in charge of ensuring security and stability along the frontier, the ministry said. Anna Grace is a correspondent intern at the Organization for World Peace. Al Jazeera Centre for Public Liberties & Human Rights. Azerbaijan denies the allegations. Any attempt to incorporate Artsakh [an Armenian name for the region] into Azerbaijan would lead to bloodshed and the destruction of Arsakh, Davit Babayan, the de facto foreign minister for the region, said on April 14th. There is lots of trauma between our two nations. After the Soviet Unions dissolution in 1991, Armenia launched an offensive against Azerbaijan, occupying the Karabakh region and settling nearly 150,000 people there. The European Union said Michel noted both President Aliyevs and Prime Minister Pashinyans stated desire to move rapidly towards a peace agreement between their countries. Yerevan also called on Baku to start peace talks without delay.

The reaction to this declaration of an end to the war in Armenia has been greeted with what appears to be absolute disgust and despair, Robin Forestier-Walker, an Al Jazeera correspondent in neighbouring Georgia, said. Azerbaijans foreign ministry also said works were under way to begin peace talks, adding that the future peace treaty would be based on the basic principles proposed earlier by Azerbaijan. Armenia asserts conversely that disarmament was not part of the 1994 ceasefire deal. She is passionate about novel and non-violent approaches to supporting human rights, good governance, and conflict prevention and stabilization. The meeting came after a flare-up in Nagorno-Karabakh on March 25 that allegedly saw Azerbaijan capture a strategic village in the area under the Russian peacekeepers responsibility, killing three Armenian separatist troops. Furthermore, Armenian officials have accused Azerbaijan of deliberately damaging a pipeline into their countrys enclave, leaving Armenians in Karabakh to endure nearly a month of extreme winter conditions without heating. The E.U. Armenian foreign minister Ararat Mirzoyan sparked controversy at home when he said commenting on the Azerbaijani proposal that for Yerevan the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not a territorial issue, but a matter of rights of the local ethnic-Armenian population. The ensuing conflicts killed about 30,000 people. I know lots of people who were killed.. Armenia and Azerbaijan are preparing for peace talks, their officials said on Thursday, after a recent flare-up in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Furthermore, the needs of ethnic Armenians in Karabakh must remain a key element of negotiations, regardless of Azeri military capabilities to re-take the area. She is currently an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia, studying Public Policy and Computer Science. Though violence remained low post-ceasefire, it flared up again into full-scale war in 2020 after Armenian forces shelled Azeri military positions and civilian settlements. There is just a sense of disbelief that somehow this was the only option for Armenia, to effectively admit defeat, and to sign this agreement, with Azerbaijan, brokered by Russia, that brings this war to an end, but effectively allows Azerbaijan to claim almost complete victory., The protests against Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his insistence that the international community calls on Armenia to scale down demands on Karabakh suggest that Armenians will view ceding any additional territory as capitulation. On Tuesday, several thousand opposition supporters rallied in Yerevan to warn the government against concessions on Nagorno-Karabakh. Efforts to de-escalate conflict, like re-launching a hotline between the two sides defense ministries or funding missions to clear landmines, will be essential to ensure that miscommunication does not cause accidental clashes and that any intentional aggression will be attributed and documented correctly. The pact saw Armenia cede swathes of territories it had controlled for decades in what was seen in Armenia as a national humiliation, sparking weeks of mass anti-government protests. We understand that we have to coexist like neighbors [with Azerbaijan] but living under their control is impossible, Harutyunyan said. However, violations of the ceasefire have been reported since this deal was struck, with a notable uptick in incidents over the past year. thousands of whom have erupted in protest, over 6,000 people were killed and Azerbaijan reclaimed large swaths of territory, deliberately damaging a pipeline into their countrys enclave, up to 100,000 displaced people still live in informal housing, authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh have laid out their unwillingness to allow for expanded Azeri control, Israel Announces Early Elections, Dissolving The Knesset Over West Bank Law, Taiwan and the U.S. Search for Best Response as China Enters Taiwanese Air Defense Zone, Turkish Politics Become Increasingly Hostile to Syrian Refugees, The Fight For Justice: The Murder Of Dom Phillips And Bruno Pereira In The Amazon Forest, Alternatives To Military Deterrence In The Korean Peninsula, Worldwide Focus On Ukraine Leaves Somalia High, Dry, And Hungry. This precedent Azerbaijan making consistent gains, while Armenians operate on their back foot does not bode well for re-defining borders in Karabakh. For the last 30 years, Armenians have controlled this mountainous territory inside Azerbaijan, with skirmishes repeatedly breaking out between the two sides. Ethnic Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Armenias National Security Service warns of a real threat of mass unrest in the country.. Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders order their foreign ministers to begin preparation of a future peace treaty. However, this is an unacceptable concession for many Armenians, thousands of whom have erupted in protest. What is the Organization for World Peace? In the ensuing six-week clash, over 6,000 people were killed and Azerbaijan reclaimed large swaths of territory, though Karabakh itself remained under Armenian control. Covering approximately two million square miles in South America, the Amazon is the worlds biggest tropical rainforest that hides some of the most beautiful secrets, The United States and South Korea are attempting to deter North Korea from conducting further nuclear tests through increased military presence and a request to, Nearly a quarter million people in Somalia are facing starvation as a decade-long drought crisis worsens and global food prices reach record highs, according to. has played a critical role in easing tensions between the two countries and must continue to do so. I have huge security concerns when it comes to living close to Armenians, one source told Amnesty International. In addition to determining civilian safety, the commission must articulate a new vision for how to govern and enforce the decided-upon border. Baku agreed, saying it had already put forward such a proposal a year ago. The resolution of border claims must be accompanied by clear agreements over how to counteract displacement, remedy pre-existing poor living conditions, and establish governance and military activity in the region. Ultimately, this border commission is a necessary first step in moving towards a durable peace within Karabakh, but simply articulating new borders will be insufficient to prevent further warfare. Long-contested between the Caucasus neighbours, Nagorno-Karabakh was at the centre of an all-out war in 2020 that killed more than 6,500 people before it ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement. Azerbaijan argues that the de facto Armenian leadership has illegal military forces in the region. This plan will be best formulated incorporating local opinion, so Azerbaijan must be convinced to let mediators visit the conflict zone and speak with key figures. Some of her main focuses are the MENA region, the role of international organizations in promoting peace, and refugee policy. Following the 1994 agreement, the international community noted Armenians distaste for having to relinquish territory which they view as ethnically, historically, and rightfully their own. An agreement which does not uphold the dignity and basic living conditions of all peoples living in the region will create refugee flows and suffering, and likely trigger further violent disputes. To this end, it was agreed to instruct Ministers of Foreign Affairs to work on the preparation of a future peace treaty, which would address all necessary issues, it said in a statement. Azeri people considering relocating to territory reclaimed by Azerbaijan have also expressed concerns over entering what has been an Armenian stronghold for decades. The new commission has designated state officials from both Armenia and Azerbaijan representing various ministries, state services, and executive positions and executive representatives from the countries bordering Armenia to meet in order to make plans regarding the Armenia-Azerbaijan interstate border. Conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh has claimed around 30,000 lives in the past 31 years. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met on Wednesday in Brussels for rare talks mediated by the European Council President Charles Michel. During the meeting, the two leaders ordered foreign ministers to begin preparatory work for peace talks between the two countries, the foreign ministry in Yerevan said in a statement. Karabakhs de facto president, Arayik Harutyunyan, offered a slightly more optimistic stance. The ceasefire agreement struck in 1994 left Armenians occupying around 20% of Azerbaijans internationally recognized territories and did little to rehome the around 1 million internally displaced Azeri people. The border commission should consider resolving these conditions essential to establishing a safe and secure border. The framework for the April 2022 peace agreement would give both sides mutual recognition of territorial integrity, making Karabakh an official part of Azerbaijan. Even ignoring new refugee concerns should borders shift, Amnesty estimates that up to 100,000 displaced people still live in informal housing in Azerbaijan. After the March incident, Moscow and Yerevan accused Azerbaijan of a ceasefire violation, a charge Baku has rejected, insisting its troops are in Azerbaijans sovereign territory. All of these components of peace will be supported by the full and dedicated engagement of the E.U., co-operation with Moscow, and a concerted effort to understand and incorporate local officials and citizens priorities. Russias role in this transition must also be navigated with care, as it remains the leading outside power in the conflict. This will be difficult; authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh have laid out their unwillingness to allow for expanded Azeri control. Baku tabled in mid-March its set of framework proposals for the peace agreement that includes both sides mutual recognition of territorial integrity, meaning Yerevan should agree on Nagorno-Karabakh being part of Azerbaijan. A tri-lateral deal between Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia ended the war after Russia deployed about 2,000 peacekeepers to oversee the truce. The territorys parliament concurred, issuing a statement declaring, Any change of Nagorno-Karabakhs status is unacceptable. One member went so far as to say that even the threat of war cant hold us back from defending Arsakhs autonomy, and a former official even suggested that he would prefer to join Russia rather than face physical annihilation should Azerbaijan gain ownership of the region. Following E.U.-mediated talks in Brussels, Armenia and Azerbaijan announced the creation of a border commission to determine claims over the long-contested Nagorno-Karabakh region. Given the extreme hostility from local governing forces and civilians, a plan for transitional governance must be discussed in order to mitigate violence during any shifts in regional power. In March, Azeri troops seized territory near the ethnically Armenian-populated village of Farukh, sparking concerns about a greater incoming offensive.