Saturday, Russia Tells Azerbaijan To Withdraw Troops From Karabakh Village NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- A Russian peacekeeper patrols near a dog at a checkpoint outside Askeran, November 19, 2020 Russia has accused Azerbaijan of violating a Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh and called for the withdrawal of Azerbaijani forces from an area in eastern Karabakh occupied by them this week. The Azerbaijani army on Thursday reportedly captured Parukh, a village in Karabakh’s Askeran district, before advancing towards strategic hills to the west of it controlled by Karabakh Armenian forces. Fighting in that area continued for the second consecutive day on Saturday despite the presence of Russian peacekeeping troops. In a statement released on Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that Azerbaijani army units “entered the zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent” in breach of the 2020 truce accord. It also confirmed that they used Turkish-made combat drones to strike Karabakh Armenian positions near Parukh. “At present, the command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent is taking measures to resolve the situation and return the troops to their original position,” added the statement. “A call for the withdrawal of the troops was sent to the Azerbaijani side.” The Russian Foreign Ministry said, meanwhile, that it is “extremely concerned” about the rising tensions in Karabakh. It urged the warring sides to “show restraint” and avoid ceasefire violations. Earlier on Saturday, the Armenian Foreign Ministry urged Moscow to “issue a clear demand” for the Azerbaijani withdrawal. It said Yerevan also expects the Russian peacekeepers to take other “concrete, visible steps to resolve the situation.” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in Karabakh in phone calls on Thursday and Friday. The U.S. State Department on Friday expressed serious concern over the Azerbaijani troop movements, calling them “irresponsible and unnecessarily provocative.” Baku rejected the criticism. Both conflicting sides reported fresh fighting near Parukh on Saturday. Karabakh’s Defense Army said its troops thwarted Azerbaijani attempts to gain more ground outside the village. Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry claimed, for its part, that Armenian forces tried to launch a sabotage attack on one of its frontline positions but were pushed back. The Karabakh army denied that. Fighting Continues In Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh - A view of the village of Khnapat in the Askeran district, March 11, 2022. Fighting continued in Nagorno-Karabakh on Saturday, with military authorities in Stepanakert accusing Azerbaijani forces of trying to push deeper into Karabakh’s eastern Askeran district. The Karabakh Armenian army said that its troops are “taking appropriate measures to stop the enemy’s advance.” It said it is also working with the Russian peacekeeping contingent stationed in the Armenian-populated territory to try to stop the hostilities. The Karabakh state minister, Artak Beglarian, spoke later in the afternoon of an “unsuccessful” Azerbaijani attack on one of the Karabakh Armenian positions in the area. Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry claimed, meanwhile, that Armenian forces tried to launch a sabotage attack on one of its frontline positions but were pushed back. Karabakh’s Defense Army was quick to dismiss the claim as a “complete lie” designed to cover up the Azerbaijani truce violations. Tensions along the Karabakh “line of contact” rose dramatically on Thursday after Azerbaijani forces reportedly captured a village in Askeran and tried to advance to strategic hills to the west of it. Three Karabakh Armenian soldiers were killed and more than a dozen others were wounded in the area on Friday. The U.S. State Department expressed serious concern over the Azerbaijani troop movements, calling them “irresponsible and unnecessarily provocative.” The French Foreign Ministry similarly urged Baku to withdraw its troops to the positions occupied by them before Thursday. NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- An Armenian police officer patrols as the truck of Russian peacekeeping forces moves past him at their checkpoint outside Askeran, November 20, 2020 Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian discussed the situation in Karabakh in a phone call late on Friday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the following morning that the two leaders also spoke by phone on Thursday. He did not comment on Russia’s possible responses to the escalation. Armenian officials have said that they expect the 2,000 or so Russian peacekeepers to do more to ensure Baku’s compliance with the ceasefire regime and withdrawal from the village of Parukh. According to Beglarian, the Russian peacekeepers are maintaining their presence in Parukh as well as the nearby village of Khramort. They have made “considerable efforts” to prevent further ceasefire violations, said the Karabakh official. Earlier on Saturday, Karabakh’s leadership announced that it has appealed to Putin to deploy more Russian soldiers in Karabakh. It said that the existing peacekeeping contingent is too small to carry out its mission in the current circumstances. The Russian peacekeepers were deployed in Karabakh under the terms of a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement that stopped the Armenian-Azerbaijani war in November 2020. Pashinian, Putin Agree ‘To Make Efforts’ To Resolve Crisis In Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Sochi, Russia, on November 26, 2021. The leaders of Armenia and Russia reportedly agreed “to make efforts to resolve the crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh” as they had a phone call late on Friday. The conversation between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir Putin was held after reports of fresh fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh where at least three ethnic Armenian soldiers were killed and more than a dozen were wounded as Azerbaijani forces took control of a village and nearby heights supposed to be protected by Russian peacekeepers. The Armenian prime minister’s press office said that during the phone call the two leaders discussed “the situation created after the invasion by Azerbaijani units into the zone of responsibility of the peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation in Nagorno-Karabakh.” It said that Pashinian assessed the situation as tense. “Prime Minister Pashinian raised the need to investigate the actions of Russian peacekeepers in the given situation and stressed that it is necessary that Russian peacekeepers demand that Azerbaijani armed forces withdraw to their initial positions,” the transcript of the phone call released by the Armenian side said. “The leaders of the two countries agreed to make efforts to resolve the crisis situation in Nagorno-Karabakh,” it added. About 2,000 Russian peacekeepers were deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh as part of a Moscow-brokered ceasefire that put an end to a six-week war between Armenians and Azerbaijan in November 2020. Meanwhile, France, which along with Russia and the United States co-chairs the OSCE Minsk Group that spearheads international mediation efforts on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, has expressed its concern over the advancement of the Azerbaijani army in the region and called for its withdrawal to the positions determined by the 2020 truce. “France regrets the armed incidents in the area of Parukh and Khramort, and calls on the Azerbaijani units to return to the positions they held on the day of the declaration of a ceasefire on November 9, 2020,” the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement released late on Friday. During a U.S. State Department briefing on March 25, principal deputy spokesperson Jalina Porter said that “the United States is deeply concerned about Azerbaijan troop movements.” “Troop movements and other escalatory measures are irresponsible and unnecessarily provocative,” she said, according to the transcript of the briefing published by the State Department’s official website. Porter added that the United States, as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, “remains deeply committed to working with the sides to achieve a long-term political settlement of the conflict.” The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has denied reports about fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh. According to Azerbaijani media, official Baku says that “specifications of positions and locations are taking place on the ground without any use of force.” Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.