The units of the Azerbaijan Army entered the Lachin region after 27 years, the country’s Defense Ministry announced in a statement on Tuesday.

“According to the trilateral Statement signed by the Presidents of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Russian Federation, and the prime minister of the Republic of Armenia, units of the Azerbaijan Army entered the Lachin region on December 1^st,” the statement said.

After 40-day fierce clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, a ceasefire agreement was signed on 9 November by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and the President of Russia Vladimir Putin.

The agreement ended all hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh region from 00:00, 10 November 2020 Moscow time.

According to the agreement both parties will exchange prisoners of war and the dead.

Furthermore, the Armenian forces will withdraw from Armenian-controlled territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh by 1 December.

A 2,000-strong Russian peacekeeping force from the Russian Ground Forces will be deployed to the region for a minimum of five years to protect the Lachin corridor, which is situated between Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Additionally, Azerbaijan will gain passage to its Nakhchivan exclave, which is detached from Azerbaijan, through a strip of land in Armenia's Syunik Province close to the border with Iran.

Russian forces will oversee security for the roads connecting Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan. (ILKHA)