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Destroyed buildings in Stepanakert
Photo: Pablo Gonzalez / imago images / Eastnews
After the arrival of Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia has called for international negotiations on the future status of the conflict region in the South Caucasus.
There is an urgent need to determine the status, said Armenian President Armen Sarkissyan on Friday in Yerevan.
The mandate for these negotiations lies with Russia, France and the USA as co-chairs of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said Sarkissyan.
On Monday night Armenia agreed on a ceasefire for Nagorno-Karabakh with Azerbaijan and Russia.
The agreement does not define the status of the conflict region.
However, it provides that both warring parties may retain the areas in which they currently have control.
For Armenia this means huge territorial losses.
After the signing of the ceasefire, hundreds of demonstrators stormed the seat of government in Pashinyan and the parliament in Yerevan, and the parliamentary speaker was beaten up.
Many Armenians see the agreement as a surrender.
According to the agreement, 2,000 peacekeepers are to be stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh to keep the ceasefire.
Most of them have already taken up positions, including in the Armenian-controlled capital Stepanakert and in the city of Shusha, which was retaken from Azerbaijan.
The Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced.
Russia had emphasized that the status of the region had to be clarified after the return of the refugees from Armenia and Azerbaijan to Karabakh.
It is also about ethnic and denominational issues, it said.
According to media reports, more and more Azerbaijanis arrived in Shusha.
For the first time in 28 years, Muslims held a Friday prayer in the mosque there.
Reports of Karabakh Armenians fleeing
Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin said on Friday that tens of thousands of refugees would be returning.
He hoped that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will soon be history.
He also directed the establishment of an inter-agency humanitarian aid center to take care of the return of Azerbaijani and Armenians.
Representatives of the Russian civil, defense and foreign ministries and border guards would work there.
Many of the Christian Karabakh Armenians refused to live with the Muslim Azerbaijanis.
There have been numerous reports from Karabakh of refugees from those areas that the agreement says will be handed over to Azerbaijan.
Videos and photos showed how Karabakh Armenians set fire to their houses and shops.
Nagorno Karabakh's leader Araik Arutjunjan defended the initiative to end the war.
He had asked the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to prevent the loss of life and even larger areas.
The Karabakh authorities put the number of soldiers killed on Friday as 1383.
Dozens of civilians also lost their lives.
With regard to censorship under martial law, the Azerbaijani military does not provide any information about the losses in their own ranks.
Azerbaijan lost control of the mountainous area with around 145,000 inhabitants in a war after the collapse of the Soviet Union around 30 years ago.
A fragile ceasefire has existed since 1994.
In the new war, Azerbaijan reclaimed large parts of the area.
The country relied on international law and saw the support of its "brother state" Turkey.
Armenia, in turn, relies on Russia as a protective power.
According to Russian sources, representatives of the International Red Cross also returned to Stepanakert to deal with the humanitarian situation in the region.
France also wants to provide humanitarian aid, said the Elysée Palace after President Emmanuel Macron's phone call with Pashinyan.
Details on this remained open.
Macron assured the friendly ties with Armenia and welcomed the end of the fighting.
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slü / dpa