San Francisco Frontiers - Karabakh separatist stronghold encircled but ceasefire holds

Ethnic-Armenian authorities from the breakaway territory said Baku's forces were stationed on the outskirts of main city Stepanakert and the humanitarian situation was dire.

Azerbaijan on Thursday held a first round of "reintegration" talks with separatists after they agreed to lay down their arms in the face of the day-long military assault.

Baku said it had started sending in urgently needed aid as it seeks to cement its grip over the region that it lost control of in a war in the 1990s.

Separatist spokeswoman Armine Hayrapetyan said the situation in Stepanakert, known in Azerbaijan as Khankendi, was "horrible" as electricity was cut and food and fuel were running out.

"Azerbaijani troops are all around the city, they are on the outskirts and people fear Azerbaijani soldiers could enter the city at any moment and start killings," Hayrapetyan, based in Armenia's capital Yerevan, told AFP.

"People are hiding in basements."

Ahead of the latest flare-up, Azerbaijan had imposed a de facto blockade on Nagorno-Karabakh for nine months as it piled pressure on the region.

Hikmet Hajiyev, foreign policy advisor to Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, said Baku had assured the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) it could send in assistance.

He said the ICRC could collect wounded separatist fighters and ambulances were allowed come in from Armenia to carry out medical evacuations.

"Work is underway with Russian peacekeepers to collect the bodies of combatants left on the field," he added.

- 'Positive dynamics' -

Nagorno-Karabakh has been at the centre of more than three decades of conflict between Caucasus rivals Armenia and Azerbaijan since the Soviet Union collapsed.

The fighting has been marked by abuses on both sides and there are fears of a new refugee crisis among Nagorno-Karabakh's estimated 120,000 ethnic-Armenian residents.

Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the "situation remains tense" in the disputed territory despite the Russian-brokered truce deal largely sticking.

"There is a hope for some positive dynamics," Pashinyan told a cabinet meeting.

"I don't rule out that more humanitarian aid will be delivered to Nagorno-Karabakh... There are some agreements, they must start implementing these," he said.

Yerevan has said it does not foresee a large-scale influx of refugees for now, but is ready to receive 40,000 families if needed.

Azerbaijan said Thursday the first round of peace talks had been "constructive" and both sides expressed readiness for further negotiations.

- 'Nightmare' -

The surrender of the separatists, after an offensive they said left 200 dead, has sparked jubilation among Azerbaijanis.

But in Armenia, it ratcheted up pressure on Pashinyan, who has faced stinging criticism for making concessions to Azerbaijan since losing swathes of territory in a six-week war in 2020.

Hundreds of anti-government demonstrators blocked streets in Yerevan on Friday for a third day to protest the government's handling of the crisis.

"People must take to the streets, Karabakh needs us," Lida Mkrtchyan, 43, who comes from the region, told AFP.

"This is a nightmare we can't wake up from. Why aren't they opening a corridor so that people can leave?"

Opposition leaders have announced plans to initiate Pashinyan's removal by parliament.

The premier has called for calm after two days of scuffles between police and demonstrators, and vowed to act "firmly" against the rioters.

The latest bloodshed in Karabakh came after the European Union and United States joined efforts to try to negotiate a lasting peace deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Pashinyan has blamed peacekeepers from traditional regional powerbroker Russia -- stationed around Karabakh since 2020 -- for failing to avert Azerbaijan's offensive.

Six Russian peacekeepers were among those killed, the Azerbaijan prosecutor's office said, five when its forces "mistakenly" identified them as Armenian separatists, and another who died after coming under fire from separatist troops.

The Kremlin has said the dispute over which country Karabakh belongs to has now been settled and that conditions are in place to reach a lasting peace between Baku and Yerevan.

B.Ramirez--SFF