Azerbaijan-Armenia agree non-use of force over Nagorno Karabakh at a meeting with Putin

The leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed on Monday that they will not use force and rely on existing agreements to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, following a meeting with the involvement of Russian president Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea city of Sochi.

Last month saw the most intense conflict between the two countries since 2020, with more than 200 people killed in the clashes. The clashes occurred despite agreements in 2020 and 2021 to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

“We agreed to refrain from the use of force or the threat of use of force, we will discuss and resolve all problematic issues only on the basis of mutual recognition of sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders” – this text of the statement published by the RIA agency said. 

The independence of Nagorno-Karabakh was declared in the early 1990s by ethnic Armenians who previously lived in the Soviet Autonomous Region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Independence has not been recognized by any state. After the hostilities of 2020, part of the region came under the control of Azerbaijan.

The international community recognizes Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan’s sovereign territory, although Baku has not controlled much of the region since the early 1990s.

After a renewed war in the fall of 2020, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a cease-fire agreement mediated by Russia. With this document, which caused opposition protests in Yerevan, Baku regained a significant part of the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Russian peacekeeping forces are stationed in the region.