Azerbaijan: possible amnesty for Karabakh fighters

STORY: Azerbaijan's lightening 24-hour military operation forced the ethnic Armenians of Karabakh to accept a humiliating ceasefire agreement on Wednesday that has stoked calls for the resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

"Even with regard to former militaries and combatants, if they can be classified in such a way, and even for them we are envisaging an amnesty or alluding to an amnesty as well," he said.

The future of Karabakh and its 120,000 ethnic Armenians hangs in the balance: Azerbaijan wants to integrate the breakaway region but ethnic Armenians said the world had abandoned them to a fate which could include ethnic cleansing.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev vowed to guarantee their rights but said his iron fist had consigned the idea of an independent ethnic Armenian Karabakh to history and that the region would be turned into a "paradise" as part of Azerbaijan.