Russia’s President Vladimir Putin says Russian peacekeepers are being deployed to the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, following a new ceasefire agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
“A Russian peacekeeping contingent is being deployed along the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh and along the corridor connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with the Republic of Armenia,” Putin said in a televised statement on Tuesday.
According to Putin, the two warring sides would exchange prisoners of war and the war dead, and all economic and transport links in the area would be reopened.
Under the deal, Azerbaijan will reportedly get to keep all of its territorial gains, and ethnic Armenian forces must hand over control of a number of other territories between now and December 1.
Putin expressed hope that the deal would pave the way for a lasting political settlement of the conflict in the region.
“We are operating on the premise that the agreements will create the necessary conditions for a long-term and fully-fledged settlement of the crisis around Nagorno-Karabakh on a fair basis and in the interests of the Armenian and Azeri peoples,” the Russian president said.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said Turkey — which is an ally of Azerbaijan — would also be involved in the peacekeeping efforts.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s leader Arayik Harutyunyan said the ceasefire was unavoidable.
The deal followed three failed ceasefire attempts and relentless advances by Azeri troops.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said, “The decision was made based on a deep analysis of the combat situation and in conjunction with the best experts.”
“This is not a victory, but there is no defeat until you consider yourself defeated. We will never consider ourselves defeated, and this shall become a new start of an era of our national unity and rebirth,” Pashinyan wrote on social media.
The separatist government of Nagorno-Karabakh said on Monday that it had lost control of the mountainous enclave’s second-largest city of Shusha and that Azerbaijani forces were closing in on the main city of Khankendi, also known as Stepanakert.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it had begun dispatching 1,960 servicemen, along with their equipment and vehicles.
“The fifth Il-76 military transport aircraft with Russian peacekeepers on board took off from the Ulyanovsk-Vostochny airfield. Personnel from the peacekeeping unit, armored personnel carriers, and materiel are on board,” the ministry said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russia signed a statement on ending the war in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh. The ceasefire agreement came into effect overnight.
Azerbaijan and Armenia had been fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh since September. Russia was attempting to mediate an end to the war.
Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but it is held by ethnic Armenian separatists backed by Armenia since 1992, when they broke from Azerbaijan in a war that killed some 30,000 people.
Source: Agenceis
