(Moscow) Russia, a mediator in the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, accused Baku on Saturday of violating the ceasefire agreement that ended the 2020 war between these two countries by leaving his troops cross the demarcation line.
“On March 25, 2023 (Saturday), a unit of the Azerbaijani armed forces crossed the line of contact in the Shusha district, in violation” of the agreement reached in 2020, the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a press release.
According to Moscow, Azerbaijani troops have “occupied a height” and “started the installation of a post”.
The Russian peacekeepers on the spot “take measures aimed at preventing an escalation of the crisis situation and avoiding mutual provocations of the opposing parties”.
“The Azerbaijani side has been informed of the need to comply with the provisions (of the agreement), to take measures to stop the engineering works and to withdraw the armed forces to the positions they previously occupied”, added added the Russian ministry.
Earlier Saturday, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense announced that it had taken control of certain roads in the enclave of Nagorny-Karabakh.
These “necessary control measures were implemented by Azerbaijani army units in order to prevent the use of dirt roads north of Lachin” for arms deliveries from Armenia, justified the ministry.
Yerevan accuses Azerbaijani militants of blocking since mid-December a vital road – the Lachin corridor – which connects Armenia to the territories controlled by Armenian separatists in Nagorny Karabakh.
Armenia has been warning for several weeks of a “humanitarian crisis” as a result of this blockade, which has caused shortages of medicines and food and power cuts. Baku has denied these accusations.
Yerevan accused the Russian peacekeepers of not acting to end this blockade and announced its intention to resort to the UN to prevent a “genocide” of the Armenians of the Nagorny Karabakh enclave.
Armenia and Azerbaijan, two former Soviet republics in the Caucasus, clashed in a short war in 2020 for control of the enclave of Nagorny-Karabakh.
This conflict had resulted in an Armenian military rout and a ceasefire agreement sponsored by Russia, which deployed peacekeepers there.
Deadly scuffles
Deadly clashes in Nagorny-Karabakh or on the border between the two countries, however, continue to break out periodically.
On March 23, Yerevan claimed that an Armenian soldier had been “mortally wounded when Azerbaijani troops opened fire at Eraskh” the day before, in the southeastern part of the border.
The previous week, Azerbaijan had accused Armenia of opening fire on its positions on the border and in Nagorny-Karabakh.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian had at the same time warned that there was a “very high risk of escalation” in this enclave populated mainly by Armenians.
A mountainous region that seceded from Azerbaijan when the Soviet Union collapsed, Nagorny-Karabakh continues to poison relations between Yerevan and Baku.
The first conflict, at the beginning of the 1990s at the time of the dismantling of the USSR, which caused 30,000 deaths, ended in an Armenian victory with the support of Moscow.
But Azerbaijan took its revenge in the fall of 2020 during a second war, which left 6,500 dead and allowed it to retake many territories.
Armenia is increasingly critical of the role of Russia, its traditional ally, a test of regional influence for Moscow mired in its invasion of Ukraine.