SOCHI, November 10. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has noted the courage of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan shown when making decisions on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict regulation.
"It is true, to resolve such difficult, tightly wound conflicts, it is necessary to look for compromise, to reach this compromise, and this requires courage from the side of those making the decisions. In this regard, of course, all of you must support both Prime Minister of Armenia Mr. Pashinyan and President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr. Aliyev in their resilience to create the conditions for the peaceful development of the situation in the region and to make the decision in the interest of long-term building of relations between the Armenian and Azerbaijani people," Putin said during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit on Tuesday.
On November 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh since 00:00 Moscow Time on November 10. The Russian leader said the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides would remain on the positions they held and Russian peacekeepers would be deployed to the region.
Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The area experienced flare-ups of violence in the summer of 2014, in April 2016 and this past July. Azerbaijan and Armenia have imposed martial law and launched mobilization efforts. Both parties to the conflict have reported casualties, among them civilians.
The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them. Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been ongoing since 1992 under the OSCE Minsk Group, led by its three co-chairs - Russia, France and the United States.