Major fighting in the contested South Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh began last Sunday, with both sides accusing one another of starting the conflagration, and claiming that their forces have killed thousands of enemy troops.
Baku would be prepared to cease its operations in Nagorno-Karabakh if Armenia proposed an agenda for the pullout of its forces from the contested region's cities, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has announced.
“Our condition for a ceasefire is that Armenia should propose a temporary agenda for the withdrawal of troops from the occupied Azerbaijani territories in Nagorno-Karabakh, which would not be shown merely in words, but implemented in deeds, [with specifics] on which territories would be freed on which days,” Aliyev said, speaking to Al-Arabiya on Sunday.
According to the president, stopping the fighting will also require an apology from Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who allegedly “called the occupied Azerbaijani lands Armenian.”
“We will try to restore normal relations with the Armenian people after the liberation of our occupied territories. We will try to return to good-neighbourly relations, although it will not be easy,” the president said.
On Thursday, Pashinyan accused Turkey of coordinating Azerbaijan's military campaign, and suggested Ankara had returned to the South Caucasus “to continue the Armenian Genocide” in pursuit of its “imperialistic dream.”
In his remarks Sunday, Aliyev also demanded an apology from French…
