Future of Karabakh and its 120,000 ethnic Armenians hangs in the balance
However, Mr Babayan said agreement had been reached for a humanitarian convoy to travel from Armenia to Karabakh on Friday via the Lachin corridor, a road crossing Azerbaijani territory. “The situation is very difficult: the people are hungry, there is no electricity, no fuel – we have many refugees.”
His country, supported by Turkey, has military superiority over Karabakh fighters. But it is unclear how many of those fighters are prepared to lay down their arms or what shape any more comprehensive agreement now being discussed is taking. “Our one and only hope is help from the Russian peacekeepers. The world turned a blind eye, it doesn’t want to hear anything. We think if there are no peacekeepers even for one hour, we will have genocide,” said Grigor Zakharyan, an Armenian living near the border with Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijani presidential foreign policy adviser Mr Hajiyev said Karabakh Armenian rights would be respected as part of their integration into Azerbaijan. Three cargos of humanitarian help would be delivered to the region on Friday, he said. Armenia’s prime minister Nikol Pashinyan, who has faced protests in Yerevan calling for him to resign over Karabakh, said the government had prepared space for a possible flow of displaced people into Armenia but that it did not want to depopulate Karabakh. “We must do everything ... so that our compatriots, residents of Nagorno-Karabakh, have the opportunity to live in their homes without fear, safely and with dignity.