Russia relocates its peacekeeping contingent to new Azerbaijani route Analytics by Vestnik Kavkaza

Azerbaijani media published today footage of the relocation of Russian peacekeepers temporarily deployed in the Karabakh and East Zangazur economic regions of Azerbaijan. Russian peacekeeping contingent is dismantling the checkpoint and other facilities that have been used for almost two years to operate the Lachin Corridor, a road connection between the territory of Armenia and the Azerbaijani city of Khankendi.

The peacekeeping infrastructure was built primarily to check cars entering Azerbaijan from Armenia for the presence of weapons and other prohibited items in them, as well as to ensure the safety of automobile traffic both in Khankendi and when crossing the Lachin corridor by Azerbaijani transport. Today, the dismantling is being carried out not because the mission of Russian peacekeepers has come to an end – according to the Trilateral Statement of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia dated November 9/10, 2020, it will end in the fall of 2025 – but because the RPC, in accordance with the same document, is moving south, to an alternative route of the Lachin corridor.

The relocation of the Russian peacekeepers became possible due to the fact that Azerbaijan built a new road to Armenia bypassing the Azerbaijani settlements of Lachin, Zabukh, and Sus, which, according to the November Statement, after changing the path of the Lachin corridor, come under the full control of Baku. The launch of the alternative route is scheduled for today, August 25, and it is not surprising that the RPC is leaving the old road passing through Lachin. They are in the Lachin district only to work on a special highway leading from Armenia to Khankendi, and if Azerbaijan has moved the highway to the south, it means that Russian peacekeepers are moving along with it.

Of course, the organizers, sponsors, and supporters of the separatist nationalist project in Azerbaijani Karabakh are not happy about this event. Over the past week, demands have been repeatedly voiced for the RPC to stay on the old route, in Lachin, Zabukh, and Sus, and ignore Azerbaijan's fulfillment of its part of the obligations on the Lachin corridor. Interestingly, such statements were made de facto in vain, because in parallel Yerevan organized the withdrawal of illegal migrants living on the old route to Armenia, and today Zabukh and Sus are empty, with only a few families left in Lachin. In other words, the Armenian politicians and activists understood that Moscow had no motives to somehow violate the agreements with Baku, but this did not prevent them from demanding the impossible.

It is clear why they show such a reaction. The rerouting of the Lachin corridor looks to them like a step towards the closure of the separatist project: if despite the inaction of Yerevan, the new road is built, put into operation, and already hosts Russian peacekeepers to perform their functions, then we should expect the same in the future - Moscow, and Baku together implement the points of the Trilateral Declaration, while the team of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan does nothing on its part (creating problems for its own citizens, since the entrance to the alternative highway has not yet been built from the Armenian side, and they will have to use a broken rural dirty road to enter the Lachin corridor).

The biggest concern of the supporters of the Armenian revenge in the war with Azerbaijan over Karabakh is not the active union of Baku and Moscow which is nothing new, but the mode of non-action of official Yerevan. Nikol Pashinyan's passivity must indeed look suspicious from the point of view of the nationalists: maybe it is not just indecision or strengthlessness, but a well-thought-out strategy? What if Pashinyan has finally figured out how he can close the separatist project in Karabakh with minimal political risks? He will not do anything himself - neither for nor against it - but will only watch as Russia and Azerbaijan remove the nationalist legacy of the former Armenian authorities. He will continue to express dissatisfaction with both Moscow and Baku, but with a constant lowering of the rhetoric degree. Let the radical Turkophobic ideas of Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan die and move to the status of a perfect marginality like the Russophobes from "Sasna Tsrer".

Such a plan is in line with Nikol Pashinyan's political habits. Therefore, it is not surprising that official Yerevan does not comment in any way on the relocation of Russian peacekeepers, along with the Lachin corridor, to the road bypassing Lachin, Zabukh, and Sus. The separatist project is extremely disturbing for Pashinyan, and the Armenian Prime Minister, having a mandate from Armenian citizens for peace with Azerbaijan and Türkiye, will push for its closure in his own style.

Andrey Petrov

Vestnik Kavkaza