Addressing a hastily organised press conference in Baku on Sunday (15 November) presidential aide Hikmet Haciev said that Azerbaijan had acquiesced to an Armenian request to postpone the handover of the region of Kelbajar until the 25 November. Under an agreement between Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan signed last week the region was due to revert back to Azerbaijan today.
Hajiev said the decision was taken on humanitarian grounds because there was only one narrow road and access point to Kelbajar from the Armenian side, and movement was being hampered by bad weather. Haciev however said that the Armenian withdraw from Aghdam on 20 November, and from Lachin on 1 December, will still take place as was envisaged in the agreement.
Speaking at the same press conference, an Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence official, Major General Huseyn Mahmudov, said that the Azerbaijani army will enter the Kelbajar region from the Goygol region and the village of Togana, and the Azerbaijani army was in the meantime monitoring the Armenian exit from the territory.
Easrlier Armenian media showed a queue of vehicles with civilians trying to leave Kelbajar.
source: commonspace.eu with agencies
photo: Kelbajar town (archive picture)
