Armenia on Monday (March 28) called on Russian peacekeepers deployed in Nagorny-Karabakh to act after Azerbaijan seized a strategic village in this separatist region plagued by renewed tensions.
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Azerbaijani soldiers seized the village of Faroukh on Thursday, which is believed to be under the control of Russian forces deployed in Nagorny-Karabakh after the ceasefire signed between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the fall of 2020. The Russia on Saturday accused Azerbaijan of violating this ceasefire, then claimed that the Azerbaijani side had withdrawn “
its units stationed near the village of Faroukh
”.
But Baku then denied having withdrawn from this village.
In response, the Armenian Foreign Ministry on Monday called for “
an investigation into the actions of the Russian peacekeeping contingent during the Azerbaijani incursion.
“
We expect the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorny-Karabakh to take concrete steps to end the incursion of Azerbaijani units into the area of responsibility of peacekeepers
,” the ministry stressed in a statement.
30,000 deaths in the 1990s
These new tensions come just over a month after the invasion of Ukraine ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mountainous region populated mainly by Armenians and supported by Yerevan, Nagorny-Karabakh seceded from Azerbaijan at the fall of the USSR, leading to a first war which had left 30,000 dead and hundreds of thousands of refugees in the years. 1990.
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In the fall of 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan battled for control of Nagorny-Karabakh for six weeks in a new war that claimed 6,500 lives and ended in an Armenian defeat.
After the signing of a Russian-mediated agreement, Azerbaijan made significant territorial gains and Moscow deployed a contingent of 2,000 peacekeepers to Nagorny-Karabakh.