The ethnic Armenian rulership of breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh conveyed on Thursday that it had agreed a ceasefire with Azerbaijan but that important details, involving the surrender of weapons, still required to be worked out. David Babayan, an adviser to Samvel Shahramanyan, the president of the self-styled ‘Republic of Artsakh,’ told Reuters that Karabakh Armenians felt abandoned by Russia, the West and Armenia.
He said many prominent problems had not yet been agreed with Azerbaijan, which sent troops supported by artillery strikes into Armenian-controlled Karabakh on Tuesday in an attempt to bring the breakaway area to heel by force. “We have agreement on the cessation of military action, but we await a final agreement – conversations are continuing, we’ll see” Babayan, said by phone. “We require to converse through several questions and problems.”
“There has not been a final agreement yet,” Babayan said. In the rules of ceasefire agreement, highlighted a day before by Azerbaijan and the Russian Defence Ministry, which has peacekeepers on the ground, ethnic Armenian forces are meant to break up and win over. So many of questions still require to be solved,” revealed Babayan. “We are not aware about what guarantee of safety our people will get – this must be solved.”