After an occupation that lasted about 30 years, Azerbaijan today takes over the Kalbgar region from Armenia based on the agreement to stop the fighting on the Karabakh front, which stipulated the handover of other regions, while Baku will keep the areas that it has regained through the fighting, especially the strategic city of Shusha, Fuzuli and Gabriel.

Armenia and Azerbaijan signed an agreement, under Russian auspices, that ended a six-week war in Karabakh province, after the Azerbaijani forces announced their control of the city of Shusha, 15 km from Stepanakert, the capital of the Nagorno Karabakh region, which is not recognized internationally.

It is known that the Karabakh region is internationally recognized as part of the Azerbaijani territories, but it has been under the control of Armenia since 1994.

The agreement came into effect with a ceasefire from both sides on Monday, November 9, at 9:00 pm GMT (one after midnight Tuesday, Baku local time).

In the following, we review the path of handing over regions from Armenia to Azerbaijan, and the importance of each region:

Kalbgar .. The first test


The Kalbgar region is the first area that Yerevan must return to Baku by Sunday, November 15, knowing that it is located on the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Kalbgar is distinguished by its curative mineral water, and it is one of the most important agricultural centers in Azerbaijan, and Armenian forces took control of it on April 2, 1993, and killed 511 Azeris, including 13 women and 13 children, and about 1732 houses were destroyed in these events.

In conjunction with the withdrawal of Armenian forces today, a Russian force is deployed along the line of contact between Kalbgar and Armenia.

The exact strength of this Russian force is not known, but it is part of a Russian peace-keeping unit of 1960 soldiers with their firearms, with 90 armored personnel carriers and 380 pieces of special equipment, which will be deployed successively between the Azerbaijani and Armenian regions.

According to reports, several aircraft have already taken off from an air base in Ulyanovsk, Russia, on Tuesday, carrying peacekeepers and armored vehicles.

Aghdam .. The second step


On July 23, 1993, the Armenian forces took control of the Agdam region, which is known as an important region with rich underground resources, and 5897 Azeris who came from different cities were killed to defend it.

Nuri Pasha, commander of the Islamic Army in the Caucasus, had rescued Baku from the Armenian forces and the Soviet Bolshevik forces in 1918, and went to Agdam and raised the Azeri flag on it and then went to Shusha.

After that, more than a million Azeris fled to Iran and eastern Azerbaijan, fearing a new massacre, as happened in Khojaly.

By November 20, Yerevan must hand over the Agdam region to Baku, and this will be accompanied by the deployment of a Russian military force to maintain peace on the borders of Agdam with the Armenian-majority area in the Karabakh region, which will remain under the control of Armenia, then the displaced Azeris will be allowed Those who fled their homes in 1993 to return to their homes there, under the supervision of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

A map showing the location of the Karabakh region, in which the battle between Azerbaijan and Armenia took place (the island)


Lachin .. End of the journey,


Armenian forces took control of the Lachin region on May 18, 1992, a city blessed with natural resources and abundant mineral water resources.

Lachin is strategically important because of its location on the road connecting Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia.

As a result of the air strikes and armed clashes, many homes collapsed, the city was looted and villages were obliterated, and at least 164 were killed.

Armenia will hand over the Lachin region to Azerbaijan on December 1, leaving under its control the Lachin Corridor 5 km wide, which will ensure the connection of Karabakh with Armenia, and thus we will have reached the history of Azerbaijan's extension of its sovereignty over most of the Karabakh region and the surrounding provinces that were outside its control.

During the next three years, a plan should be defined to build a new traffic route along the Lachin Corridor, to provide and ensure communication between Stepanakert and Armenia, with the redeployment of the Russian peace-keeping unit to protect this route, and at the same time Azerbaijan guarantees the safety of transport lines along the Lachin Corridor.

Aliyev declared Azerbaijan's victory over Armenia after a few weeks' war (European)


Nakhchivan region and the border strip


Before the cessation of hostilities agreement, access to Nakhchivan region required passage either through Iran or through Armenia, but according to the agreement, the region will allow Azerbaijan to have geographical contact with Turkey through a separating border strip of 23 km long, and a window 8 km wide. According to the Azerbaijani press, the paving of this land strip should be completed before the end of this year.

The Nakhchivan region (Nakhchivan) is an autonomous region of Azerbaijan, located between Armenia, Iran and Turkey on the plateau in the south of the Caucasus region, and its capital bears the same name, and the region is one of the most isolated parts of the former Soviet Union, and it is rarely visited by tourists.

The area of ​​the region is about 5363 square kilometers, and it is separated geographically from the rest of Azerbaijan, but it is subordinate to it, and its population is 450 thousand people, and among his most famous sons is Heydar Aliyev, the former President of Azerbaijan, and Ilham Aliyev, the current President, as well as many of the current leaders of the republic.

Under the agreement, the ban imposed on all economic and transportation links in the region should be abolished. Armenia pledged to guarantee transportation between the western regions of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, and this will be subject to Russian border guard control. In addition, it plans to ensure the construction of new transport lines, to connect the main lands of Azerbaijan with Nakhichevan.

By handing over the Lachin region and the border strip between Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan region, we will have practically reached the end of the Karabakh war that lasted between September 27 and November 9, during which it is not clear how many people died as a result of the fighting there, but both sides denied that they had targeted civilians. And they exchanged accusations of targeting them.

The Armenian authorities say that about 1,200 of its soldiers were killed and that scores of civilians were also killed and wounded, while Azerbaijan did not publish any figures on the losses suffered by its forces in the fighting, but said that 93 of its civilians were killed, while the Russian President stated that the fighting resulted in the deaths Almost 5,000 people.

The head of the Main Operations Department of the Russian General Staff, Sergey Rudskoy, revealed - in a press statement - that in order to monitor the implementation of the agreements between Armenia and Azerbaijan, 16 monitoring centers are to be established under the Russian and Turkish administration along the line of contact between the two sides in Karabakh and along the Lachin Corridor, which It connects the territory with the territory of Armenia.