Armenian Aggression
Baku urges Russia peacekeepers to end Armenian troops’ deployment in Azerbaijan
By Vafa Ismayilova
Baku has urged Russian peacekeepers, which have been temporarily stationed on Azerbaijani territories under the November 10, 2020, trilateral peace deal, to put an end to the Armenian troops' deployment on formerly Armenian-occupied Azerbaijani territories currently under their control.
In an official statement published on its website on August 11, the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry said: "In accordance with the provisions of the tripartite statement, the Russian Federation's peacekeeping forces must put an end to the deployment of Armenian armed forces on the Azerbaijani territories where they are temporarily stationed."
The ministry underlined that under the trilateral deal signed by the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian leaders in 2020, the remnants of the Armenian armed forces have not been fully removed from the Azerbaijani territories.
The statement stressed that Armenia has recently been flagrantly violating the trilateral deas by moving its armed forces to Azerbaijan, where Russian peacekeepers are temporarily stationed, and setting up new Armenian posts near Mukhtarkand and Shushakand, as well as in the eastern part of Kalbajar and Lachin regions.
"Appropriate measures are taken by the Azerbaijani army and such cases are not allowed. Armenia is purposefully resorting to such provocations to aggravate the situation," the ministry said.
It pledged that the Azerbaijani army will continue to take all appropriate measures to thwart similar provocations.
"All this is taking place against the background of new Armenian Defence Minister Arshak Karapetyan's irresponsible and provocative order to the Armenian army to use force by all means. We would like to remind that former Armenian Defence Minister David Tonoyan also spoke with a provocative military doctrine, which he called 'new wars, new territories'. His shameful plight is known to everyone," the ministry said.
The past three weeks saw the worst escalation of tension between Azerbaijan and Armenia since the signing of the November statement that ended the last year’s hostilities.
Nakhchivan's Sadarak region and Kalbajar region, which was liberated from Armenia's occupation in the last year's war, have been in the centre of this escalation over the said period.
It should be noted that the presence of any Armenian serviceman on Azerbaijan's internationally-recognized territories is in violation of the November 10 peace deal signed by Baku, Moscow and Yerevan that ended the 44-day war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020.
About 2,000 Russian peacekeepers have been deployed for five years in Karabakh under the Moscow-brokered trilateral cease-fire deal.The signed agreement obliged Armenia to withdraw all its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it had occupied since the early 1990s.
The deal also stipulated the return of Azerbaijan’s Kalbajar, Aghdam and Lachin regions. Before the signing of the peace deal, Azerbaijan liberated 300 villages, settlements, city centres, and historic Shusha city that had been under Armenian occupation for about 30 years.
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