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  • Azerbaijan's army says it has entered the first of three district's to be handed back by Armenia as part of a contentious peace accord.

  • The agreement was brokered by Russia.

  • It ended weeks of fighting over the disputed region in and around Nagorno Karabakh.

  • Nagorno Karabakh marks here in red is a region inside Azerbaijan but populated by ethnic Armenians.

  • They control the territory and the surrounding areas for decades.

  • But in September, Azeri forces started an offensive to reclaim the disputed territory, quickly overpowering their Armenian counterparts.

  • Under the peace deal.

  • Now, the borders of the Ghana Karabakh have been redrawn and Armenian troops must leave the region's.

  • They've lost control off by December 1st Russian peacekeepers are being deployed there to oversee the withdraw.

  • A little earlier, I spoke to DW correspondent Emily Sherwin in Yerevan and asked her about the consequences for Armenia.

  • Well, when we were in the region of Nagorno Karabakh, we saw that soldiers there were on the move.

  • Convoys of soldiers were leaving the area.

  • Today's Agdam district is one of three regions that is going to be handed over to Ah Azeri control so far, for the last decades, it's been under Armenian control.

  • And for people on the ground, that handover is really emotional.

  • They truly feel that they are losing ah chunk of their homeland.

  • They feel that they've been betrayed.

  • And people are expressing that anger and desperation as they leave the district's that are being handed over.

  • For example, in the cow Bachar district, which is quite near Yerevan, we saw on the road uh, burning houses.

  • Uh, people are basically setting their own fires, their own houses, a light as they leave because they say they don't want to leave anything behind for Azerbaijan early, you have met some of the Armenians whose lives have been upended by recent fighting.

  • Let's take a look.

  • It's a joyful moment for some.

  • Reunited after weeks of fear now that the fighting in Nagorno Karabakh has ended, hundreds of refugees are returning to their homes in Stepanakert.

  • Every day.

  • Russian peacekeepers watch over the process, but not everyone has a home to come back.

  • Thio Anahita Krikorian and her mother, a Riga, are from the nearby city of Shoe she, which is now under Azeri control.

  • Just like for many here.

  • To them, the recent peace deal is a betrayal way, don't know what we will do and where we will live.

  • We just came here because we have no other option.

  • We don't have a home do Monetta e left everything behind in shoe.

  • She a two bedroom apartment with everything in us all done up and renovated.

  • E didn't even manage to take any clothing with me.

  • My neighbors got some of my clothes, one of everything on This is what I came here in.

  • With a population of just over 50,000 people, Stepanakert is the biggest city in Nagorno Karabakh.

  • But authorities here think they could soon be dealing with up to 25,000 refugees from nearby regions which are no longer under Armenian control.

  • E have prepared several hotels, big hotels so that people can live there for now.

  • While we start building more houses that people who have come from the regions all want to live in Stepanakert on, we have to explain to them the Stepanakert isn't big enough to provide for everyone.

  • Way have to send them to live in villages in other areas, Even for those who didn't leave, there's a lot of rebuilding to do.

  • Traces of the recent war lurk around every corner.

  • People in Stepanakert have gotten used to living in the middle of a frozen conflict.

  • But after the most recent fighting, even that normality seems far away.

  • But a gun.

  • Malcolm Ian is preparing for the return of his Children and grandchildren, who left during the fighting.

  • The windows of his building got blown out in a bomb blast.

  • For now, plastic sheets will have to do instead.

  • The 65 year old says he and his neighbors lived in the basement for around three weeks.

  • Many constituent remember the fierce fighting of the 19 nineties before there was machine gunfire back and forth.

  • This time it was really scary weapons.

  • We have to start over now.

  • We don't have anything.

  • We don't have work either.

  • But we're going to do our best to live well.

  • Mhm.

  • Even with destruction everywhere, most people say leaving is not an option.

  • Even if Nagorno Karabakh has just gotten smaller, it will always be their homeland.

  • Well, our correspondent Emily Sherman is still standing by in Euro.

  • Von Emily.

  • Russian peacekeepers have now been deployed.

  • How are they viewed in that region by the people in that region?

  • well.

  • People here in Armenia initially felt almost that Russia had betrayed them during the six week war.

  • After all, Armenia and Russia are close allies, and they also have a defense treaty.

  • But Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, had said that he would only intervene on Armenia's behalf if Armenia proper was under attack.

  • But now that sense of betrayal seems to have shifted.

  • We saw Russian peacekeepers inst obamacare and also at Daddy Vonk Monastery in thick Abu Shaar district.

  • Andi people there seemed to be very grateful for the presence off the peacekeepers.

  • They were thanking them for protecting the monastery, which is now going to be in Azerbaijan's control, as it were in territory which is under Azeri control.

  • And they even were giving chocolates and pies to the Russian soldiers there.

  • So it seems that sense of betrayal has shifted, particularly to the prime minister here in Armenia.

  • Yeah, the Armenian prime minister has been under a lot of pressure recently.

  • Domestically, aren't people just happy that the shooting has stopped?

  • People are happy that the shooting has stopped, that they feel that the peace deal that Nicole passion on the prime minister here signed was a betrayal.

  • Um they feel that he, as people said to me, sold off their homeland.

  • And there have been protests here in Yerevan almost every day today.

  • There are young protesters around the city blocking off roads, calling for he called passion on to resign.

  • People have been chanting Trader s o far.

  • Though passion on himself doesn't seem to be willing to resign, He has promised that 80% around 80% of his cabinet will go.

  • And we've seen that happening in the past two days, including today.

  • When the defense minister resigned just a few days ago, the foreign Minister resigned as well.

  • But it seems that passion in himself is willing Thio and is hoping thio whether the storm, despite those ongoing protests dws Emily Sherwin there in Yerevan.

  • Thank you very much, Emily.

Azerbaijan's army says it has entered the first of three district's to be handed back by Armenia as part of a contentious peace accord.

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