Karabakh Armenians agree to lay down arms on second day of Azerbaijan offensive

A cease-fire agreement with Azerbaijan was reached on Wednesday to end two days of fighting in the  Nagorno-Karabakh region, local authorities and Azerbaijani officials said. 

The agreement was to go into effect at 1 p.m. local time (0900 GMT), and talks between Azerbaijani officials and the breakaway region's ethnic Armenian authorities on its “re-integration” into Azerbaijan were scheduled to take place on Thursday in the Azerbaijani city of Yevlakh.

The deal was reached through negotiations with the Russian peacekeeping contingent in the region and envisions the withdrawal of Armenian military units and equipment from Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as disarming the local defense forces, according to the region's officials.