BAKU, September 22. /TASS/. Azerbaijan’s interior ministry has reported deliberate arsons in Khankendi (Stepanakert), Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital city.

"After the successful completion of the local anti-terrorist operations in the Karabakh economic region, the entire territory is under total control. <…> Monitoring show that the opposite side deliberately starts fires in the capital city of Khankendi, destroys documents, material evidence and archives in various administrative buildings," it said on Friday.

According to the ministry, measures are being taken to ensure law and order in the region. "Azerbaijan’s relevant agencies fully control the situation in the region, Armenian citizens are being provided with humanitarian assistance, requests are not ignored," the ministry said.

On September 19, tensions flared up again in Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku announced it was launching what it described as "local anti-terrorist measures" and demanded the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the region. Yerevan, in turn, said there were no Armenian forces in Karabakh, calling what was happening "an act of large-scale aggression." Residents of the Armenian capital took to the streets to protest outside the Armenian government building, blaming the country’s leadership and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for the situation.

Russia called on the conflicting sides to prevent civilian casualties and return to a diplomatic solution. On September 20, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry announced that an agreement had been reached in coordination with the Russian peacekeeping contingent to suspend the anti-terrorist operation in Nagorno-Karabakh as of 12:00 p.m. Moscow time. On September 21, representatives of Baku and the Armenian population of Karabakh met in the Azerbaijani city of Yevlakh "to discuss reintegration issues.".