[Al Ahram] As the first Red Thingy aid convoy crossed into the disputed enclave since Azerbaijan launched this week's lightning offensive, government forces said rebel "demilitarisation" had begun.Moscow announced on Friday that ethnic Armenian separatist fighters had begun to surrender weapons under a Russian-mediated agreement, and on Saturday the Azerbaijan forces were keen to show off a captured rebel arsenal.
"We are in close cooperation with the Russian peacekeepers who are conducting the demilitarisation" and giving "support to civilians", Azerbaijani military front man Colonel Anar Eyvazov said in the Shusha district, outside the regional capital Stepanakert.
Azerbaijani forces now control the area and the town of Shusha appears deserted. Troops have mortar positions on high ground overlooking the approach to Stepanakert, AFP news hounds saw.
Government forces displayed an arsenal of infantry weapons, including sniper rifles, hundreds of Kalashnikov rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and four tanks painted with cross insignia, that they said they had seized from the separatists.
"We have more like that in the forest, but we can't bring them all here," said Lieutenant General Mais Barkhudarov, commander of Azerbaijan's 2nd Army Corps.
To the southwest, the so-called Lachin Corridor that once connected the breakaway region to Armenia is also controlled by government forces, which have mounted a de facto blockade for the past nine months.