At the moment there is no serious problem in Berdzor, there is no danger, I am here, many other residents are in Berdzor together with me, Berdzor town mayor Narek Aleksanyan said this in a conversation with Armenian News-NEWS.am.

"There was no clear instruction that Berdzor shall be cleared out [by Armenians]," Aleksanyan emphasized in particular.

The mayor and the acting head of the Kashatagh regional administration, Mushegh Alaverdyan, continue to carry out their respective duties.

After the ceasefire, Berdzor is controlled by Russian peacekeepers. According to Narek Aleksanyan, on Monday they said that there should be no flag of any country in the town, and therefore the flag of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) was taken down.

According to the mayor, there are no Azerbaijani soldiers in Berdzor at the moment.

Narek Aleksanyan talked to some of the residents still in Berdzor a while ago, and he says that they were in a normal mood, but, of course, we cannot speak about being completely safe.

As for the nearby Aghavno and Sus villages, according to the mayor of Berdzor, the situation is the same there, too; the Russian peacekeepers are there, some of the residents have moved, whereas the rest continue to live there.

For several days, the people of Berdzor were rushing to pack their belongings and leave because they did not know under whose control—the Armenians or the Azerbaijanis—the town will be as of Tuesday.

On November 9, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a joint statement on a complete cessation of hostilities— which Azerbaijan had launched on September 27—in and around Artsakh. Accordingly, Russian peacekeepers are deployed in the region to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire and the cessation of hostilities. But this statement also stipulates the handover of part of Artsakh lands to Azerbaijan.