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24 years pass since declaration of ceasefire between Azerbaijan and Armenia

11 May 2018 22:01 (UTC +04:00)

Twenty-four years have passed since the declaration of a ceasefire between Azerbaijan and Armenia, APA reports.

The Bishkek protocol signed between the sides on 8 May 1994 came into force on May 12, and active military operations on the line of contact were temporarily ceased.

Russia offered Azerbaijan and Armenia to sign an agreement on ceasefire on May 4, 1994. Russia presented the draft agreement on ceasefire at the meeting of CIS Interparliamentary Assembly in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, but Armenia-Azerbaijan talks failed. The main divergence was that along with Azerbaijan and Armenia, Armenian community of Nagorno-Karabakh was regarded as an equal side.

On May 8, then speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament Rasul Guliyev and head of Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh Nizami Bahmanov signed the document with participation of Russian co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group Vladimir Kazimirov. According to Russia’s draft, Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders were to sign the Great Peace Agreement after the ceasefire agreement.

On May 19, OSCE's permanent committee on Nagorno-Karabakh was established to control the implementation of the ceasefire agreement.

Azerbaijani armed forces managed to conduct successful strike warfare along the frontline beginning in December 1993. Attacking toward the southern direction of the frontline, the Azerbaijani army liberated nearly 20 settlements of Fuzuli district, including the settlement of Horadiz, but the attacks toward Aghdam-Terter and Murovdagh in February-March 1994 didn’t give the expected result. The Armenian army deployed all it forces toward this direction of the frontline and could stop the attack of the Azerbaijani army. The main reserve forces of the Armenian army were destructed as a result of air support carried out by the Azerbaijani air forces in the direction of Aghdam and Terter in February-March. Just after that Russia interfered in the developments, and ceasefire talks were started.

The biggest military collision between the sides during 24 years after the signing of the ceasefire agreement took place in early April 2016. Azerbaijani army repelled the attack of the Armenian armed forces and liberated a strategic Lalatapa height in the direction of Fuzuli district and the positions around Talish village in the direction of Terter district. Each side suffered many losses in the battles.