Azerbaijan Army enters the last district paid by Armenia
Azerbaijan said Tuesday its forces had entered the Lachin district, the last of 3 handed back by Armenia as part of a package that ended weeks of fighting above Nagorno-Karabakh.
The defence ministry in Baku said in a statement that "units of the Azerbaijan army entered the Lachin region on December 1" beneath the offer signed in early November by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia.
It released a video tutorial showing a container flying the Azerbaijani flag and leading a column of trucks into the district along a street at night.
Armenia agreed to hand over three districts around Karabakh -- Aghdam, Lachin and Kalbajar -- within the deal that stopped a great Azerbaijani offensive that had reclaimed swathes of territory lost to Armenian separatists found in a 1990s war.
Aghdam was ceded on November 20 and Kalbajar on November 25.
The peace offer saw some 2,000 Russian peacekeepers deployed between your two sides including along the Lachin corridor, a 60-kilometre (35-mile) route through the district that connects Karabakh's primary city Stepanakert and the Armenian border south.
Clashes more than Nagorno-Karabakh broke out between your ex-Soviet rivals found in late September, reigniting the long-simmering conflict over the mountainous region.
The peace deal was reached after six weeks of serious fighting that saw
Azerbaijan's army overwhelm Armenian separatist forces and threatening to advance on Stepanakert.
Beneath the agreement Armenia is losing control of seven areas seized through the post-Soviet war in the 1990s, which killed 30,000 persons and displaced many Azerbaijanis who used to are in the area.
The separatists are retaining control over the majority of Karabakh's Soviet-era territory though they have misplaced the main element town of Shusha.
Citizens of Lachin cleared out frantically prior to the handover, acquiring with them livestock, firewood, furniture, even plastic water pipes.
Some residents are also burning up their homes before they leave and on Mon evening AFP journalists saw two houses on the outskirts of the city of Lachin in flames, sending clouds of thick smoke in to the air. -- AFP
