There is a high probability of an escalation Nagorno-Karabakh regionThis is what Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan warned on Tuesday, in a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
These tensions in the Caucasus, where Yerevan and Baku, in particular, are fighting over control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, are a test of Russia’s regional influence mired in its invasion of Ukraine.
Despite the Russian President’s sponsorship of the agreement that allowed the war to stop in the year 2020 Between Armenia and Azerbaijan, two former Soviet republics, Russia’s peacekeeping force in Nagorno-Karabakh appears helpless in the face of increasing clashes.
Pashinyan said during a press conference that he had discussed, in a phone call Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, “the possibility of an escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh,” adding, “I think there are problems in the region that is supervised by the Russian peacekeeping force.”
Referring to the killing of two Armenian policemen in clashes with Azerbaijan last week, he continued, “I want to confirm that this happened in the area of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping force. This worries us, and I expressed this concern during my conversation with Putin.”
Skirmishes
On the sixth of March, the Russian army announced that its peacekeeping forces in the Nagorno-Karabakh region had stopped an exchange of fire between the belligerents, which had been recorded a day earlier and left five dead.
Two wars took place between Azerbaijan and the Armenian separatist forces, supported militarily by Yerevan, one at the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the other in the fall of 2020 led to death 6500 person and allowed Baku to recover a number of areas adjacent to the disputed territory.
“ethnic cleansing”
In the context of frequent border clashes since the war between Yerevan and Baku in the year 2020Pashinyan said on Tuesday, “Today, there is a very high possibility of an escalation along the Armenian border and in Nagorno-Karabakh (…) Day following day, Azerbaijan’s rhetoric is becoming more hostile.”
Since December, Azerbaijani militants have been blocking an important road linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, causing an acute shortage of resources in this mountainous enclave where the majority of the population is Armenian.
Armenia accuses Azerbaijan of pursuing a policy of “ethnic cleansing” by imposing a blockade on the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Pashinyan added, “If we look at the siege of the Lachin corridor, the humanitarian catastrophe in Nagorno-Karabakh lies in the fact that Azerbaijan is clearly preparing to commit ethnic cleansing, so I think it is necessary (…) to send international observers.”
Baku denies imposing any siege on Nagorno-Karabakh and blames the tension on Yerevan.
Pashinyan’s statements coincide with the visit of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to Berlin, where he will be received on Tuesday by German Chancellor Olaf Schultz, at a time when Europe seeks to play a mediating role in the sensitive peace process between Yerevan and Baku.
Although “progress” has been made recently in the peace negotiations, Pashinyan referred to “fundamental problems” that prevent further progress.
“We see that Azerbaijan is trying to sign a peace agreement by putting forward regional demands (…), which is a red line for Armenia,” he said.
France 24/AFP
