“Violating the provisions of a trilateral declaration of the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia of November 9, 2020, the Azerbaijani armed forces between March 24 and 25 entered the zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh and set up an observation post,” the Russian Defense Ministry denounced. it’s a statement. The statement added that Turkish-made drones were used to attack Karabakh troops near the village of Farukh, also known as Parukh.
Baku denied the accusations, saying it “regretted the unilateral statement by the Russian Defense Ministry, which does not reflect the truth,” adding that “Azerbaijan did not violate a single provision” of the ceasefire agreement.
Incidents between the armed forces of Azerbaijan and Armenia have been frequent in recent months, but Saturday’s announcement was the first time since the end of hostilities over Karabakh in November 2020 that Moscow has accused one of the parties of violating the uneasy ceasefire..
Moscow denounced the outbreak on the 31st day of the Russian military campaign in Ukraine, with signs that both sides were entrenching themselves for a protracted conflict in the pro-Western country. In this context, experts believe that Azerbaijan could be taking advantage of the weakness of the Russian troops due to the pressure in the invasion to venture into the area where the Russian mission is supposed to rule.
The Kremlin said on Saturday that President Vladimir Putin had discussed the situation with Armenian leader Nikol Pashinyan twice, last Friday and Thursday, and in an official statement urged Azerbaijan to withdraw troops. “An appeal has been sent to the Azerbaijani side to withdraw its troops,” the Defense Ministry said. “The command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent is taking steps to resolve the situation,” he added.
In 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a war over the long-contested enclave, claiming more than 6,500 lives.. A Putin-brokered ceasefire agreement saw Yerevan cede swathes of territory and Russia will deploy a peacekeeping contingent in the mountainous region.
This Saturday, in addition, the Ministry of Defense of the split-off region stated in a statement that Azerbaijani drones had killed three people and injured 15 others.
“The Azerbaijani armed forces continue to remain in the village of Parukh,” the statement added. Armenia called on the international community to prevent attempts to “destabilize the situation in the South Caucasus.” “We also hope that the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh will take concrete and visible steps to resolve the situation and prevent further casualties and hostilities,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Yerevan claimed that the “invasion” of the strategically important Parukh “was preceded by constant shelling of Armenian settlements and civilian infrastructure.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia declared earlier this week that Azerbaijani troops entered the village of Parukh – controlled by Russian peacekeepers – on Thursday in what they considered “a clear violation of the ceasefire agreement”.
Armenia has also warned of a possible “humanitarian catastrophe” in Karabakh after gas supplies to the disputed region were cut off following repair works. Yerevan has accused Azerbaijan of deliberately starving the ethnic Armenian population of Karabakh of natural gas, an accusation that the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected as “baseless”.
Ethnic Armenian separatists from Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and the ensuing conflict claimed some 30,000 lives.
With information from AFP
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