An Azerbaijani checkpoint at the entrance to the Lachin Corridor, the only road connection between Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh region, on May 2, 2023. TOFIK BABAYEV / AFP
Regaining control that Russia wants to take over the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process is faltering. Azerbaijan on Sunday (July 16) accused Moscow of failing to meet its obligations under the Kremlin-sponsored ceasefire deal to end the war between Baku and Armenia in this mostly Armenian-populated but internationally recognized region as part of Azerbaijan.
“The Russian side has not ensured the full implementation of the agreement within its obligations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said, adding that Moscow “did nothing to prevent Armenia” from supplying military equipment to separatist forces in the enclave.
In the fall of 2020, Moscow backed a ceasefire agreement at the end of a six-week war that resulted in the defeat of Armenian forces and forced them to cede territories they had controlled for decades.
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Russia had pledged to use soldiers to ensure free movement between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh via the Lachin Corridor, the only road linking Armenia to the enclave. It was closed Tuesday by Azerbaijan over “smuggling operations” by the Armenian branch of the Red Cross, which was able to resume medical evacuations from Nagorno-Karabakh on Friday.
discussions in Brussels
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry claimed on Saturday that Armenian separatists caused “radio interference against GPS navigation systems of local and foreign airlines” flying in Azerbaijan. “These incidents pose a serious threat to flight safety,” the ministry said in a statement.
According to this source, on July 13, an Azerbaijan Airlines plane flying to the town of Fizuli in Nagorno-Karabakh experienced a GPS system failure due to alleged malfunctions. The Armenian separatist authorities have denied these allegations, calling them “absolute lies”.
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On Saturday, the Russian Foreign Ministry asked Azerbaijan to reopen the corridor. Russian diplomacy also said that Armenia’s recent recognition of Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan “radically changed the position of the Russian peacekeeping contingent stationed in the region.” As part of the negotiations in late May, Yerevan agreed to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan, subject to compliance with several mechanisms such as protecting the rights and security of the region’s Armenian residents.
On Saturday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met in Brussels for European Union (EU)-brokered talks aimed at resolving decades-long conflicts.
Demonstrations to reopen the Axis
Mr Pashinian on Thursday denounced an illegal “blockade” of Nagorno-Karabakh, and several thousand people demonstrated in Stepanakert, the capital of that region, on Friday, demanding Azerbaijan to reopen this axis. For several months, Yerevan has feared a serious humanitarian crisis in the enclave due to increasingly difficult access conditions.
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Baku and Yerevan are trying to negotiate a peace deal with the help of the EU and the US, whose growing diplomatic engagement in the Caucasus is angering Moscow. In a bid to regain control, Russia on Saturday offered to host a meeting of foreign ministers from both countries and suggested that the future peace treaty could be signed in Moscow.
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The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, has announced his intention to organize a new meeting with MM. Aliyev and Pashinyan in Brussels after the summer, and a five-way talks in Granada (southern Spain) in early October with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the sidelines of the next European Political Community summit.
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