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Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Situation in Karabakh relatively calm after Saturday’s incident - Armenian PM

Nikol Pashinyan noted that some of the territories in this area had been handed over to Baku

YEREVAN, December 13. /TASS/. The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh’s Gadrutsky district, where a ceasefire violation was earlier reported, is relatively calm, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Sunday.

"A big group of Russian peacekeepers came to the area this morning and by now the situation there is relatively calm. At least, the presence of the Russian peacekeepers there gives grounds to be sure that no further escalation will follow," he said at a meeting of the Armenian Security Council.

He noted that some of the territories in this area had been handed over to Baku. "Since this is the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, under the November 9 agreements, these villages are to stay under Armenia’s control," he said.

According to the Armenian prime minister, the ceasefire violation was provoked by the Azerbaijani side. "The Azerbaijani forces attacked positions of the Armenian forces at the Stary Taher-Htsaberd section. According to some sourse, Turkish special force took part in the attack," Pashinyan said.

On Saturday, the Russian defense ministry reported the first ceasefire violation in Nagorno-Karabakh since the cessation of hostilities and deployment of Russian peacekeepers in early November. The incident took place in the Gadrutsky district. Baku and Yerevan blamed one another for staging this provocation.

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 stopped at the positions that they had held and Russian peacekeepers were deployed to the region. Apart from that, Agdamsky, Kelbajarsky and Lachinsky districts were handed over to Azerbaijan.

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Armenia Nagorno-Karabakh

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