Russia, Armenia agree to set up joint border commission

221
1
Russia, Armenia agree to set up joint border commission

MOSCOW, Nov 26, Reuters - The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on Friday to work toward a delimitation of the border between their two countries after a war that killed at least 6,500 people last year.

Putin brought together Armenia's Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliyev for talks in Sochi, 10 days after the deadliest border clashes between the two sides was signed a year ago. A three-way communique said Aliyev and Pashinyan agreed to set up a joint commission to define the border, one of the key issues that were left unresolved when Russia intervened to stop the fighting last year in and around the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan came as the decisive victor, recapturing territory it had lost in a previous war between 1991 and 1994. Many questions remain unresolved, including the legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh and the Armenians who live there, who numbered up to 150,000 before the war.

The communique said the leaders discussed unblocking economic and transport links, but there was no mention of the return of prisoners of war.

Moscow deployed nearly 2,000 peacekeepers to the region after the ceasefire and reaffirming its role as a policeman and chief power broker in a volatile part of the former Soviet Union, where Turkey has an increasing influence thanks to its close alliance with Azerbaijan.