KALBAJAR, November 24. /TASS/. Last Armenian military units are leaving the Kalbajar district in Nagorno Karabakh, which is to be handed over to Azerbaijan under the November 25 agreement, a motorized rifle brigade commander told TASS on Tuesday.
"We managed to hold our positions here [in the Kalbajar district] throughout the entire war, and yielded nothing to them. Now, the Azerbaijanis are 12 km away," the officer said. "We are now dismantling our outposts in the mountains and, after that, we will blow up the remaining buildings of our military base to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Azerbaijanis. Once it is done, we will leave for Armenia. At the moment, our military unit is among the last ones remaining here."
According to him, Azerbaijani forces are to enter the region at 06:00 (05:00 Moscow time) on November 25.
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.
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 starting from November 10. Under the document, the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides are to maintain the positions that they held and Russian peacekeepers are to be deployed to the region.
In line with the agreements, Azerbaijan is to assume control over the Agdam district until November 20, Kalbajar district - until November 15, and the Lachin district - until December 1. Later, Baku agreed to postpone the handover of the Kalbajar district until November 25.