Azerbaijan forces enter land ceded by Armenia under the Nagorno-Karabakh peace deal

Azerbaijani army units have entered a territory ceded by Armenian forces in a ceasefire deal following fighting over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

A view of an expanse of jagged concrete and houses reduced to shells in Agdam, November 19, 2020 Source: AP

Azerbaijan's military says it has entered the Agdam district of the Nagorno-Karabakh region under a deal in which that territory was formally ceded by Armenia to Azerbaijan.

Armenia and Azerbaijan had fought a bloody, six-week flare-up over the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region, largely controlled for decades by Christian Armenian troops but considered by the United Nations as part of predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan.

A peace deal reached last week between the warring sides and regional power Russia provided for Armenia to cede control over significant territory in the region, including the Agdam district.

That district had been largely populated by ethnic Azerbaijanis before it was seized by Armenian troops during a war between those former Soviet republics in the early 1990s.

In accordance with the trilateral agreement, "units of the Azerbaijan army entered the Agdam region on November 20", Azerbaijan's defence ministry said on Friday.

With at least 1,000 people reported killed, the fighting that began in late September was the deadliest between Azerbaijan and Armenia since the 1980s-90s war.