Azerbaijan army enters agdam as Armenians Flee
Radi Free Eurpoe: [2] Azerbaijani troops have entered a district bordering Nagorno-Karabakh as part of a Russian-brokered peace agreement that ended a six-week war with Armenian forces over the breakaway region.
[3] The Defense Ministry said on November 20 that its units entered the Agdam district, one of three ringing Nagorno-Karabakh that are to be handed over to Azerbaijan after nearly three decades under Armenian control.
[4] “According to the trilateral statement signed by the president of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the prime minister of the Republic of Armenia, and the president of the Russian Federation, units of the Azerbaijani Army entered the Agdam region on November 20,” the ministry said in a statement.
[6] As Azerbaijani troops moved into Agdam a day after columns of Armenian soldiers and tanks rolled out of the territory, Armenia’s Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan tendered his resignation. Tonoyan had held the position since May 2018.
Armenian villagers in Agdam were given just days to leave their homes, scrambling to pack their belongings into vehicles and emptying homes before setting structures on fire.
Scorched Earth: Ethnic Armenians Destroy Homes, Infrastructure Before Fleeing Azerbaijani Regions
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Scorched Earth: Ethnic Armenians Destroy Homes, Infrastructure Before Fleeing Azerbaijani Regions
It is the latest exodus of Armenians as Azerbaijan reasserts control over its former territories under the peace deal brokered by Moscow that ended six-weeks of intense fighting between the two South Caucasus neighbors.
The November 10 accord allows Azerbaijan to keep a sizable chunk of Nagorno-Karabakh captured during fighting as well as all areas ringing the mountainous enclave that had been under Armenian control.
In addition to Agdam, located east of Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenians must leave the western districts of Kalbacar on November 25 and Lachin by December 1. Baku captured four other districts during the conflict.