Residents of Stepanakert cook on makeshift stoves on the streets
The Artsakh authorities on Saturday announced that during Thursday’s meeting in Yevlakh, the representatives of Stepanakert and Baku reached agreements around a series of issues that would be fulfilled immediately, based on the Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement that ended Azerbaijan’s large-scale military attack on Artsakh this week.
The Artsakh InfoCenter reported that one of the agreements was the “withdrawal of units of the Defense Army from combat positions and their transfer to places of permanent deployment in parallel with the process of disbanding the Army.”
The Russian peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh announced on Friday that the process of disarming the Artsakh Defense Army had begun and its units had begun withdrawing from their positions, presumably to be replaced by Russian peacekeeping forces.
The other issue is the transport of the wounded, “who are in serious and extremely serious condition, as well as patients, to medical institutions in Armenia, accompanied by the International Committee of the Red Cross and Russian peacekeepers.”
The ICRC announced on Saturday that the process of registering the names of the injured as well as reaching Artsakh residents in Mardakert and evacuating the wounded from there had already begun.
Another agreement involved the delivery of “humanitarian supplies, medicines, essential goods and fuel into Artsakh via the Goris-Stepanakert highway through the mediation of the Russian peacekeeping mission.”
A convoy of trucks belonging to the Russian peacekeeping forces entered Artsakh via Armenia on Friday, carrying was they said was 50 tons of humanitarian aid to Artsakh.
The Artsakh InfoCenter reported that per the agreement, the electricity supply to Artsakh would be restored on Sunday.
The power supply in Martakert has been restored, reporter Lusine Zakaryan told Armenpress by phone on Saturday.
However, the town of Askeran still has no power, according to the local regional administration’s spokesperson Anahit Petrosyan said. The power supply in Stepanakert has not been restored either.
Gayane Gevorgyan, a Stepanakert resident, told Armenpress that the residents have set up stoves in the streets to cook food.
“We have been managing to somehow charge our phones using car batteries to be able to maintain contact with one another. We are waiting with hope,” Gevorgyan said.
As previously reported, Stepanakert and Baku also agreed to continue negotiations, the first of which was held Thursday in Yevlakh.
Artsakh’s presidential advisor Davit Babayan said Friday that issues regarding the security guarantees for the residents of Artsakh were not agreed to.
Baku is insisting on carryout a plan that it calls the “reintegration” of Artsakh Armenians within the Azerbaijani society and “under Artsakh laws.”