Russian peacekeepers have begun to withdraw from Nagorno Karabakh, now under the control of Baku, in a coordinated action with the Azerbaijani government. Russian troops planned to remain in the area until 2025, but pressures in the region – both with Armenia and neighboring Georgia – accelerated the Russian withdrawal from the South Caucasus.
Russia announced this Wednesday, April 17, the withdrawal of its peacekeepers from Nagorno Karabakh, a region populated until recently mostly by Armenians and which has been fully controlled by Azerbaijan since September 2023.
The Russian withdrawal was confirmed by the Kremlin spokesmanDmitry Peskov: “Yes, it is true,” said the senior official, without giving more details, when asked by a journalist.
Nearly 2,000 peacekeepers were deployed to the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh in November 2020, under a deal brokered by Moscow that halted six weeks of fighting between Azerbaijani and ethnic Armenian forces.
The confirmation came after an unverified video of Russian armored personnel carriers allegedly headed to Dagestanin southern Russia.
The Azerbaijani news agency APA reported late Tuesday that the Russian peacekeepers had begun to withdraw and? the first troops and equipment had displaced a few days ago from a monastery revered by Armenians in the Azerbaijani district of Kalbajar.
According to APA, the Azerbaijani Police have replaced the Russians at the scene.
Hikmet Hajiyevforeign policy advisor to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, was quoted by state news agency Azertac confirming that an agreement had been reached of withdrawal.
“The early withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers, temporarily stationed on the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan, in accordance with the Trilateral Declaration signed on November 10, 2020, has been decided by the leaders of both countries,” Hajiyev said.
Hajiyev did not explain why the forces were withdrawing, but their presence was sterile after Azerbaijan regained full control of the region last year.
Nearly 2,000 Russian troops were in the disputed region since November 2020 under the Lachin agreement – which ended six weeks of fighting between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces.
At that time, Russia acted as an intermediary to de-escalate the conflict and committed to being present in the area to avoid future escalations until 2025.
Read alsoFrom humanitarian blockade to dissolution: the heartbreaking journey of Nagorno Karabakh in 2023
But, then new tensions emerged between Armenia and Azerbaijan that would end the entire control of the territory by the Armenian side. Thanks to Russian “passivity”, as Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian repeatedly denounced, Aliyev was able to return the border to its original state, but this time without the presence of Armenians.
An agreement that ends
The Kremlin came to calm the waters in 2020 and was able to contain Baku's military offensive through diplomatic means. Their presence ended six weeks of offensive in the territory of the self-proclaimed and not internationally recognized Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh), of mostly Armenian ethnicity.
Both sides agreed to peace supervision by Russia, which would also control the sensitive Lachin Pass, a highway linking Armenia to Karabakh. This road, a few meters from Azerbaijani territory, represented the umbilical cord of the Armenians residing in the largest city in the Karabakh territory, Stepanakert, and its towns.
The enclave, internationally recognized as part of the territory of Azerbaijan but populated by a majority of ethnic Armenians, had declared itself independent in 1991, amid the fall of the Soviet Union.
lThe 2020 offensive was the beginning of the recovery of the entire territory by Azerbaijan.
In 2022, “environmental activists,” as the Azerbaijani Government called them at the time, occupied the Lachin Pass, alleging illegalities in a factory within Karabakh. Baku police and military personnel joined the environmentalists “to protect its integrity.”
That was the beginning of a process that ended with the total blocking of the pass, so Stepanakert and its surroundings could not be supplied. And while Baku pressed, Moscow refused to confront the problem.
Azerbaijan, which justified its presence in Lachin by claiming that it was in its own territory, imposed inspections on the humanitarian aid arriving at the pass and ended up not allowing more trucks to enter due to the accusation that the convoys were used for weapons smuggling. It was then that famine settled in the streets of Karabakh, under the gaze of Russian forces.
After months of increasingly serious food and medicine shortages in Karabakh due to the blockade, Azerbaijan launched a bombing in September 2023, which forced the Armenian authorities in Karabakh to capitulate after negotiations mediated by Russian forces.
Azerbaijan regained control of Karabakh in September last year, prompting exodus of 120,000 Armenians who lived there and the arrest of Armenian leaders from the separatist area.
Breakup between Armenia and Russia
After Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian harshly criticized the Kremlin, the alliance seems more than broken.
In fact, the total withdrawal of Russian troops has triggered the Armenian request to also leave Yerevan airportstarting August 1.
Even before this week, when it was confirmed that Russia would no longer supervise this small area of the South Caucasus, the course Armenia took was to move away from the Russian ally to get closer to the West.
Pashinian has the entire opposition and part of the country against him for having allowed the total loss of Karabakh, a core issue of Armenian national interests. And while he is being singled out, the top leader points his finger at Russia for its inefficiency in preserving peace, as they had committed to.
Moscow has repeatedly rejected the accusations, arguing that its troops had no mandate to intervene..
Russia has also criticized Pashinian's efforts to strengthen ties with the West and distance his country from a Russian-dominated security alliance of former Soviet nations.
Russia was also irritated by Armenia's decision to join the International Criminal Court, which last year indicted Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes related to the Ukraine war.
In fact, the rapprochement became evident in March with the visit of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
“We want to continue and develop the existing political dialogue and expand our partnership with the Alliance and some of its members,” Pashinian declared after those talks with Stoltenberg.
The president also stated that Yerevan will welcome NATO's efforts to help normalize ties between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
In this matter, France, host to a significant Armenian diaspora, said it was willing to participate in mediation efforts, while showing its unwavering support for Armenia. But what has followed has been diplomatic problems with Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan denounces “threats” from France
Relations between France and Azerbaijan are not at their best after months of discussions and where the country's president, Ilham Aliyev has accused Paris of supporting Armenia in its territorial conflict.
If the diplomatic tension between both countries was already palpable, at the beginning of April France criticized the extension of the preventive detention in Azerbaijan of a French citizen accused of espionageaccusations that the French authorities “categorically” rejected.
Three weeks after his arrest, Baku announced the expulsion of two French diplomats, before France announced a reciprocal measure the next day.
Finally, Paris called its ambassador in Baku “for consultations” and the fact has caused the Azerbaijani Government to point out that the Elysée is “threatening” and “pressuring” it.
“Our country's official measures and statements towards France were nothing more than a response to the destructive activities of this country,” said Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Ayjan Hajizada, deploring “a smear campaign.”
With AP, Reuters and local media
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