World

KORNIDZOR, Armenia — Nagorno-Karabakh separatists were negotiating the end of their long struggle against Azerbaijani rule on Saturday, surrendering their weapons after a lightning government offensive.

If the ceasefire holds it will mark the end of a conflict between Caucasus rivals Armenia and Azerbaijan that has raged, off and on, through the three decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

On Friday, Moscow confirmed that the rebels had surrendered their first weapons and the process is expected to continue through the weekend, with the help of Russian peacekeepers.

Germany meanwhile called for the rights of the residents of the mountainous region to be guaranteed, as concern grew in the international community over the plight of the mainly Armenian-speaking civilians there.

A US congressional delegation was expected to meet Armenian leader Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to, in the words of the US embassy, discuss "the impact of Azerbaijan's recent military actions on the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh".

The years of fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh have been marked by abuses on both sides and there are fears of a new refugee crisis. This week's Azerbaijani offensive left tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians cut off from electricity in the disputed enclave.

In the Armenian border town of Kornidzor, civilians have been gathering, some of them waiting for days, at the last checkpoint before Azerbaijani territory hoping for news of relatives stuck in the embattled enclave.

Situation 'horrible' 

"I've been here for three days and nights, sleeping in my car," said 28-year-old Garik Zakarian, as displaced Armenians borrowed a soldier's telescope to scan a village on the other side of the valley.

It was shelled by Azerbaijani forces on Tuesday. No-one was killed, but witnesses who managed to escape report that 150 inhabitants were forced to take refuge close to a Russian peacekeeper base a kilometre from the last Armenian positions. 

Zakarian got his family out in December, three days before Azerbaijan blockaded the area, but he is worried for friends and family still across the border.

“I don’t have much hope of seeing them soon, but I couldn’t just do nothing. Just being here, being able to see the Russian base, I feel better,” he said. 

A spokeswoman for the Nagorno Karabakh breakaway region said Friday that fearful civilians in the main city Stepanakert were hiding in their basements, with Azerbaijan’s forces camped on the outskirts.

The situation there was “horrible”, said Armine Hayrapetyan.

An AFP reporter in the separatist stronghold said food, water, medicine and fuel for the panicked population were scarce and displaced people had arrived in the city from surrounding villages. 

International pressure has mounted on Azerbaijan to re-open the only road leading to Armenia, dubbed the Lachin Corridor, so supplies and people can move in and out.

The separatists have said they are in Russian-mediated talks with Baku to organise the withdrawal process and the return of civilians displaced by the fighting.

They say they are discussing how citizens’ access to and from Nagorno Karabakh, where up to 120,000 ethnic Armenians live, will work.

Baku said it had started sending in urgently needed aid on Friday as it seeks to cement its grip over the region it lost control over in a war in the 1990s.

Pashinyan under pressure 

While the surrender of the separatists, after an offensive they said left 200 dead, has sparked jubilation among Azerbaijanis, it has put Pashinyan under increasing pressure.

He has faced criticism for making concessions to Azerbaijan since losing swathes of territory in a six-week war in 2020. Police said 98 people were arrested as anti-government demonstrators blocked streets in Yerevan for a third day on Friday.

Pashinyan himself has blamed peacekeepers from traditional regional power broker Russia, stationed around Karabakh since 2020, for failing to avert Azerbaijan’s offensive.

Moscow is currently bogged down with its war on Ukraine, but has still played a role in mediating the ceasefire and peace talks.

YEVLAKH, Azerbaijan — Azerbaijan and Armenian separatists from the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh held their first direct peace talks on Thursday, after Baku claimed to have regained control over the breakaway region in a lightning military operation.

The separatists agreed to lay down their arms on Wednesday as part of a Russian-brokered ceasefire plan that halted Azerbaijan's 24-hour offensive to retake land at the centre of decades of conflict.

Azerbaijani state media reported the talks aimed at reintegrating the Armenian population of Karabakh into Azerbaijan ended after several hours and the separatist delegation departed without making a statement.

While the meeting was happening, gunfire rang out in the separatist stronghold of Stepanakert on Thursday despite the truce deal.

The breakaway authorities accused Azerbaijan of violating the ceasefire, but Baku denied the allegation.

"There was a small exchange of fire outside the city. We are sitting at home and waiting for the results of the talks," Arutyun Gasparyan, a businessman and father of two, told AFP.

“All the residents are sitting either at home or in their gardens, waiting.”

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars over the region.

The years of conflict have been marked by abuses on both sides, and there are concerns of a fresh refugee crisis as Karabakh’s Armenian population fears being forced out.

Armenia warned the United Nations on Thursday that Azerbaijan was carrying out “ethnic cleansing” and committing a “crime against humanity” as it regained control of the breakaway Nagorno Karabakh region.

The UN Security Council was holding an emergency session later Thursday to discuss the situation in Karabakh after the Azerbaijani assault that separatists said killed 200 people.

Putin talks to Aliyev 

The collapse of separatist resistance represents a major victory for Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev in his quest to bring the Armenian-majority region back under Baku’s control.

Aliyev said his country had restored its sovereignty over the region for the first time in decades and Baku insists it now wants to see the “peaceful reintegration” of Karabakh Armenians.

A separatist official said more than 10,000 people had been evacuated from Armenian communities in Nagorno Karabakh.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday urged Aliyev in a call to ensure the security of the 120,000 Armenians living in the territory.

Russia, the traditional regional powerbroker, sent peacekeepers to mountainous Nagorno Karabakh in 2020 as part of a deal to end a six-week war there and they are mediating the ceasefire deal.

Under the truce, the separatists said they had agreed to fully dismantle their army and that Armenia would pull out any forces it had in the region.

Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said all weapons were to be surrendered.

After the Soviet Union fell apart, Armenian separatists seized the region, internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, in the early 1990s.

That sparked a war that left 30,000 people dead and displaced hundreds of thousands.

In 2020, Azerbaijan recaptured swathes of territory in and around the region.

The latest flare-up comes as Moscow is bogged down by its war against Ukraine and after the United States and European Union ramped up attempts to find a lasting peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The Kremlin said Aliyev had apologised to Putin over the death of several Russian peacekeepers during the fighting on Wednesday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose has helped Baku bolster its military might, on Thursday expressed “wholehearted support” for traditional ally Azerbaijan in a call with Aliyev.

‘Path is not easy’ 

The apparent capitulation of the separatists has sparked jubilation among Azerbaijanis hoping this now heralds a definitive victory and the end of the decades-long conflict.

But the loss in Karabakh ratchets up domestic pressure on Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who has faced stinging criticism at home for making concessions to Azerbaijan since losing swathes of territory in 2020.

Clashes broke out Wednesday in the capital Yerevan, where cand riot police guarded official buildings.

Pashinyan said in a televised address on Thursday that a road to peace with arch-rival Azerbaijan was difficult but must still be pursued.

“This path is not easy, it goes through internal and external shocks, and we must pursue it,” he said.

Aliyev had said this week’s events would have a “positive impact” on attempts to negotiate a lasting peace between the two feuding Caucasus neighbours.

But mutual distrust remains sky-high and finding a lasting settlement to a dispute that has divided the region for decades is a major task.

Armenia’s defence ministry late on Wednesday said Azerbaijan had fired on its positions along the border between the arch-foes. Such frontier skirmishes are frequent.

UNITED NATIONS — US President Joe Biden urged the United Nations on Tuesday to authorise a multinational “security support mission” led by Kenya to deal with gangs in strife-torn Haiti.

“I call on the Security Council to authorise this mission now. The people of Haiti cannot wait much longer,” Biden told the UN General Assembly in New York.

Haitian authorities and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have been pleading for months for a deployment to the Caribbean country, which is sinking under compounding humanitarian, political and security crises that have overwhelmed its weak government and security forces.

Many countries have been hesitant to step in, partly out of fear of finding themselves in a bloody quagmire.

In late July, however, Kenya announced it was willing to head a multinational police intervention to train and assist the Haitian police, with Nairobi pledging 1,000 officers.

The mission would need a greenlight from the Security Council, even though it wouldn’t be deploying under the flag of the UN. 

The Security Council began negotiations on the issue earlier this month.

More than 2,400 people have been killed in Haiti since the start of 2023 amid rampant gang violence, the UN said earlier this month.

Gangs control roughly 80 per cent of the capital, and violent crimes have soared, including kidnappings for ransom, carjackings, rape and armed theft.

BATAM, Indonesia — Militaries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations began their first-ever joint exercises on Tuesday in Indonesia, with a Myanmar representative present despite the bloc’s ban on its junta leaders.

ASEAN countries have participated in multinational defence drills before, but these are the first featuring just the bloc, which is battling perceptions of irrelevance on major regional issues such as the turmoil in Myanmar and disputes in the South China Sea.

These are non-combat exercises, however, with member forces training in areas such as humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, rescue operations and joint maritime patrols, according to the host Indonesia.

“By uniting together, we can maintain stability in the region for the favour of the people,” Indonesian military chief Margono Yudo told reporters on Batam island.

He said forces from every nation in the bloc including Myanmar are taking part in the five-day ASEAN Solidarity Exercise, but did not detail the extent of Myanmar’s participation.

The crisis-hit nation was represented at the exercise’s opening ceremony on Batam Island by a defence attache.

An Indonesian military official later told AFP on condition of anonymity that Myanmar would only attend the drills as an observer.

Myanmar has been ravaged by deadly violence since 2021, when the military deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s government and launched a bloody crackdown on dissent.

The leaders of its junta have since been banned from ASEAN meetings, and the bloc’s efforts to defuse the crisis have been fruitless so far.

Indonesia has also denied that the drills are aimed at countering China’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety.

China has angered Indonesia and other Southeast Asian nations in recent years by entering parts of the waterway they claim.

It has developed artificial islands in the region and outfitted some with military facilities and runways.

In response to the drills, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Tuesday said that Beijing’s position on the South China Sea remained “consistent”.

Initially, organisers had planned to hold the ASEAN Solidary Exercise in the North Natuna Sea, which Indonesia says is inside its exclusive economic zone.

But China also sends patrols there occasionally to assert its historic claim on the area.

After talks between ASEAN military chiefs in June, the exercise was moved to the South Natuna Sea, avoiding the disputed waters.

Cambodia, China’s leading regional ally, had refused to confirm participation at the initial location but is now attending.

NEW YORK — Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of New York on Sunday, calling for increased action against climate change ahead of the opening of the UN General Assembly.

Taking up multiple city blocks, protesters from some 700 organisations and activist groups carried signs reading “Biden, end fossil fuels”, “Fossil fuels are killing us” and “I didn’t vote for fires and floods” in a demonstration that came on the heels of a summer marked by multiple climate change-linked disasters. 

US President Joe Biden is among the world leaders set to attend the UN General Assembly (UNGA), which is scheduled to formally open on Tuesday.

“We are here to demand that the administration declare a climate emergency,” said Analilia Mejia, director of the activist group Centre for Popular Democracy.

“We must wake up and take immediate action,” she told AFP.

A UN climate report released this month named 2025 as the deadline for global greenhouse gas emissions to peak — followed by a sharp drop thereafter — if humanity is to cap global warming in line with Paris Agreement targets.

The 2015 Paris treaty has successfully driven climate action, but “much more is needed now on all fronts”, said the report, which will underpin a crucial climate summit in Dubai at the end of the year.

Achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 — another Paris goal — will also require phasing out the burning of all fossil fuels whose emissions cannot be captured or compensated.

Mejia, 46, pointed to recent extreme weather events — from fires in Canada, Hawaii and Greece to flooding in Libya — as demonstrating the seriousness of the “existential crisis” posed by climate change.

Another activist, Nalleli Cobo, 22, told AFP she’d like to see political leaders “come to my house” in the western US state of California and “spend the night living next to an oil and gas well”.

Cobo, who has worked with Sweden’s Greta Thunberg on climate campaigns, blames the “toxic air” she has been exposed to at her home for the ovarian cancer she contracted at 19.

“Our lives are on the line,” she said.

Biden has made a historic push for green manufacturing, offering billions of dollars for clean energy projects, but some young activists say he has not acted forcefully enough to lead the United States off dependence on fossil fuels.

California filed a lawsuit on Friday against five global oil majors, alleging the firms caused billions of dollars in damages and misled the public by minimising the risks from fossil fuels.

Top world scientists warn that the world is likely to experience new record heat in the next five years, and that global temperatures are more likely than not to breach a crucial threshold of an average 1.5ºC rise.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has organised a Climate Ambition summit for Wednesday, during the General Assembly, at which he hopes to accelerate the ongoing work to counter climate change by governments as well as private sector organisations and financial institutions.

“History will remember their action, or inaction,” said Mejia. “And if we’re lucky, human beings will be around to remember what [world leaders] did in this summit.”