Azerbaijan intends to smoothly reintegrate Karabakh Armenians: official

Azerbaijan has said that it wanted a "smooth reintegration process" for the ethnic Armenians of its Karabakh region, after forcing the surrender of the separatists in the territory in a 24-hour operation.

Hikmet Hajiyev, foreign policy adviser to Azerbaijan's president, said the disarmament of separatist forces would improve the chances of successfully reintegrating the territory, which had been out of Baku's control for three decades, as well as the prospects of concluding a peace treaty with Azerbaijan's neighbour Armenia.

He told a briefing for diplomats and media that this would mean "transformative and sweeping change" to the political map of the South Caucasus.

"Also we are looking forward to meeting the immediate humanitarian requirements of the population on the ground," he said, adding that it was unacceptable, as Armenian President Nikol Pashinyan did on Tuesday, to accuse Baku of a campaign of "ethnic cleansing".

Although Armenia denied having stationed any forces in Karabakh, Hajiyev said Azerbaijan had received assurances that both separatist forces and also "military detachments of the Republic of Armenia" would abandon all their positions and surrender all their equipment and weapons.

He said Armenia had "real combat forces on the ground", and not just paramilitary units.

Hajiyev dismissed calls for UN Security Council involvement, saying any issues needed to be solved on the ground.