Talks Held on the Future of Nagorno-Karabakh as Azerbaijan Claims Full Control of the Region

Representatives from Nagorno-Karabakh and the Azerbaijan government met for talks Thursday to discuss the future of the breakaway region that Azerbaijan claims to fully control following a military offensive this week.
Azerbaijan’s state news agency said the talks had ended but provided no details on whether an agreement was reached. Nagorno-Karabakh authorities and the news agency earlier said the talks between regional leaders and Azerbaijan's government would focus on Nagorno-Karabakh’s “reintegration” into Azerbaijan.
The talks in the Azerbaijani city of Yevlakh came after local Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh agreed to lay down their weapons following an outbreak of fighting this week in the decades-long separatist conflict. Authorities in the ethnic Armenian region that has run its affairs without international recognition since fighting broke out in the early 1990s declared Wednesday that local self-defense forces will disarm and disband under a Russia-mediated cease-fire.
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev trumpeted victory in a televised address to the nation, saying his country’s military had restored its sovereignty in Nagorno-Karabakh.
On Tuesday, the Azerbaijan army unleashed an artillery barrage and drone attacks against outnumbered and undersupplied pro-Armenian forces, which have been weakened by a blockade of the region in the southern Caucasus Mountains that is recognized internationally as being part of Azerbaijan.
Nagorno-Karabakh human rights ombudsman Gegham Stepanyan said at least 200 people, including 10 civilians, were killed and more than 400 others were wounded in the fighting. The figures could not immediately be independently verified.
Azerbaijan’s move to reclaim control over Nagorno-Karabakh raised concerns that a full-scale war in the region could resume between it and Armenia, which have been locked in a struggle over Nagorno-Karabakh since a separatist war there ended in 1994.
The hostilities worsened an already grim humanitarian situation for residents who have endured shortages of food and medicine for months as Azerbaijan enforced a blockade of the road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.
The UN Security Council scheduled an urgent meeting Thursday on the Azerbaijani offensive at the request of France.
On Thursday, authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh accused Azerbaijan of violating the cease-fire agreement by firing on Stepanakert in the disputed region, according to Russian news agency Interfax. Azerbaijan's defense ministry said allegations of an attack were "completely false," the Azerbaijan news agency reported.
In a phone call Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Aliyev that the rights and security of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh should be guaranteed, according to Russian state news agency Tass. Aliyev apologized to Putin during the phone call for the death of Russian peacekeepers in the region on Wednesday, Tass said, citing the Kremlin press service. Russia’s defense ministry said some of its peacekeepers were killed, though it didn’t say how many or whether it happened before or after the start of the cease-fire.
On Thursday, Russia's defense ministry reported that about 5,000 civilians in the region had been evacuated to a camp operated by Russian peacekeepers to avoid the fighting. Many others gathered Wednesday at the airport in Stepanakert hoping to flee the region.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a speech that fighting had decreased following the truce, emphasizing that Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh are fully responsible for residents' security.
Pashinyan, who has previously recognized Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh, said Armenia wouldn’t be drawn into the fighting. He said his government didn’t take part in negotiating the deal, but “has taken note” of the decision made by the region’s separatist authorities.
He again denied any Armenian troops were in the region, even though separatist authorities said they were in Nagorno-Karabakh and would pull out as part of the truce.
Protesters rallied in the Armenian capital of Yerevan for a second day Wednesday, blocking streets and demanding that authorities defend Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the US was “deeply concerned” about Azerbaijan’s military actions. “We have repeatedly emphasized the use of force is absolutely unacceptable,” he said, adding that the US was closely watching the worsening humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.
During another war that lasted six weeks in 2020, Azerbaijan reclaimed broad swaths of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent territories that were held for decades by Armenian forces. More than 6,700 people died in the fighting, which ended with a Russian-brokered peace agreement. Moscow deployed about 2,000 peacekeeping troops to the region.
The conflict has long drawn in powerful regional players, including Russia and Turkey. While Russia took on a mediating role, Turkey threw its weight behind longtime ally Azerbaijan.
Russia has been Armenia’s main economic partner and ally since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and has a military base in the country.
Pashinyan, however, has been increasingly critical of Moscow’s role, emphasizing its failure to protect Nagorno-Karabakh and arguing that Armenia needs to turn to the West to ensure its security. Moscow, in turn, has expressed dismay about Pashinyan’s pro-Western tilt.
The Kremlin said Putin spoke by phone with Pashinyan on Wednesday, welcoming the deal to end the hostilities and start talks.
The separatists’ quick capitulation reflected their weakness following the Armenian forces’ defeat in the 2020 war and the loss of the only road linking the region to Armenia.
While many in Armenia blamed Russia for the defeat of the separatists, Moscow pointed to Pashinyan’s own recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan.
“Undoubtedly, Karabakh is Azerbaijan’s internal business,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. “Azerbaijan is acting on its own territory, which was recognized by the leadership of Armenia.”
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Aliyev and “condemned Azerbaijan’s decision to use force ... at the risk of worsening the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh and compromising ongoing efforts to achieve a fair and lasting peace,” the French presidential office said.
Macron “stressed the need to respect” the cease-fire and “to provide guarantees on the rights and security of the people of Karabakh, in line with international law.”
Azerbaijan presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev said the government was “ready to listen to the Armenian population of Karabakh regarding their humanitarian needs.”
In announcing its military operation Tuesday, Azerbaijan aired a long list of grievances, accusing pro-Armenian forces of attacking its positions, planting land mines and engaging in sabotage.
Aliyev insisted that the Azerbaijani army struck only military facilities during the fighting, but separatist officials in Nagorno-Karabakh said Stepanakert and other areas came under “intense shelling.”
Significant damage was visible in the city, with shop windows blown out and vehicles apparently hit by shrapnel.
The Azerbaijani Prosecutor General’s Office said Armenian forces fired at Shusha, a city in Nagorno-Karabakh under Azerbaijan’s control, killing one civilian.

Tropical storm Gaemi brought rain to central China on Saturday as it moved inland after making landfall at typhoon strength on the country's east coast Thursday night.

The storm felled trees, flooded streets and damaged crops in China but there were no reports of casualties or major damage. Eight people died in Taiwan, which Gaemi crossed at typhoon strength before heading over open waters to China.

The worst loss of life, however, was in a country that Gaemi earlier passed by but didn't strike directly: the Philippines. A steadily climbing death toll has reached 34, authorities there said Friday. The typhoon exacerbated seasonal monsoon rains in the Southeast Asian country, causing landslides and severe flooding that stranded people on rooftops as waters rose around them.

China Gaemi weakened to a tropical storm since coming ashore Thursday evening in coastal Fujian province, but it is still expected to bring heavy rains in the coming days as it moves northwest to Jiangxi, Hubei and Henan provinces.

About 85 hectares (210 acres) of crops were damaged in Fujian province and economic losses were estimated at 11.5 million yuan ($1.6 million), according to Chinese media reports. More than 290,000 people were relocated because of the storm.

Elsewhere in China, several days of heavy rains this week in Gansu province left one dead and three missing in the country's northwest, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Taiwan Residents and business owners swept out mud and mopped up water Friday after serious flooding that sent cars and scooters floating down streets in parts of southern and central Taiwan. Some towns remained inundated with waist-deep water.

Eight people died, several of them struck by falling trees and one by a landslide hitting their house. More than 850 people were injured and one person was missing, the emergency operations center said.

Visiting hard-hit Kaohsiung in the south Friday, President Lai Ching-te commended the city's efforts to improve flood control since a 2009 typhoon that brought a similar amount of rain and killed 681 people, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported.

Lai announced that cash payments of $20,000 New Taiwan Dollars ($610) would be given to households in severely flooded areas.

A cargo ship sank off the coast near Kaohsiung Harbor during the typhoon, and the captain's body was later pulled from the water, the Central News Agency said. A handful of other ships were beached by the storm.

Philippines At least 34 people died in the Philippines, mostly because of flooding and landslides triggered by days of monsoon rains that intensified when the typhoon — called Carina in the Philippines — passed by the archipelago’s east coast.

The victims included 11 people in the Manila metro area, where widespread flooding trapped people on the roofs and upper floors of their houses, police said. Some drowned or were electrocuted in their flooded communities.

Earlier in the week, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered authorities to speed up efforts in delivering food and other aid to isolated rural villages, saying people may not have eaten for days.

The bodies of a pregnant woman and three children were dug out Wednesday after a landslide buried a shanty in the rural mountainside town of Agoncillo in Batangas province.

Talks Held on the Future of Nagorno-Karabakh as Azerbaijan Claims Full Control of the Region