Azerbaijan moves into second district handed back by Armenia

A ERBAIJANI soldiers and military trucks rolled into the district of Kalbajar on Wednesday, reclaiming the second of three regions Armenia is handing back under a deal that ended weeks of fighting.

Images released by Azerbaijan’s defence ministry showed troops deploying into the district overnight, some scanning for landmines on snow-covered roads.

The district is among those being handed back by Armenia after it agreed to a peace deal ending six weeks of clashes over the disputed NagornoKarabakh region.

Kalbajar, wedged between Karabakh and the territory of Armenia, was initially scheduled for handover on November 15 but Azerbaijan pushed back the deadline for humanitarian reasons.

Armenia agreed to hand back three districts around Karabakh -- Aghdam, Kalbajar and Lachin -- as part of the deal that stopped an Azerbaijani offensive that had reclaimed swathes of territory lost to Armenian separatists in a 1990s war.

Aghdam was ceded on November 20 and Lachin is to be handed over by December 1.

Near the village of Cherektar on the edges of Kalbajar, Armenian soldiers were setting up a checkpoint with stacks of tyres blocking the road.

Holding a Kalashnikov rifle and with a white cross drawn on the front of his camouflage uniform, 20-year-old soldier Armen Shakhnazaryan said it was a shame for Armenia to lose the district.

“We have a lot of churches here,” Shakhnazaryan told AFP. “Our ancestors, our elders and our friends are buried here.”

In a televised address on Wednesday, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev congratulated his people, saying Kalbajar had been “liberated”.

He said historic monuments in the district including churches and mosques were considered “historical treasures” by mainly Muslim Azerbaijan and would be preserved.

Azerbaijanis who fled the region nearly 30 years ago are expected to return as Armenians left en masse.

In the days before the handover, Kalbajar residents packed all they could take, determined to leave nothing for their longtime

Locals collected electric cables, loaded parts of a hydroelectric power station into a truck and even cut down trees to take with them as they left.

Clashes between the exSoviet rivals over NagornoKarabakh broke out in late September, reigniting a longsimmering conflict over the mountainous region.

The ethnic Armenian enclave broke away from Azerbaijani control in the 1990s war and declared independence, though this was never internationally recognised.