Russian MoD: Peacekeepers control traffic on Garabagh roads

Russian Defence Ministry has said Russian peacekeepers at observation posts in the Garabagh region of Azerbaijan control the movement of vehicles on the roads.

"At observation posts, Russian peacekeepers are monitoring the situation around the clock, as well as controlling the movement of motor transport on public roads. No ceasefire violations have been recorded in the zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent," Interfax quotes the Russian Defence Ministry as saying in a Telegram post.

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan dates back to the late 1980s, with growing anti-Azerbaijan sentiments in Armenia centred on illegal claims to Azerbaijan’s Garabagh region. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenia launched a full-scale military aggression against Azerbaijan. The bloody war, which lasted until a ceasefire in 1994, resulted in Armenia occupying 20 per cent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories. This occupation led to the deaths of over 30,000 Azerbaijanis and the expulsion of one million others in a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign conducted by Armenia.

About 2,000 Russian peacekeepers have been deployed for five years in Azerbaijan's Garabagh region under the trilateral cease-fire deal signed by Baku, Moscow and Yerevan on November 10, 2020. The signed agreement obliged Armenia to withdraw all its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it had occupied since the early 1990s. However, Armenia failed to fully implement its obligations regarding the withdrawal of its armed forces from the region, which was often accompanied by armed provocation against the Azerbaijani army units.

On September 19, Azerbaijani Armed Forces launched an anti-terrorist measure in Garabagh in response to the mine terror by the Armenian sabotage group that killed four employees of the Azerbaijani Interior Ministry.

As a result of a one-day campaign, Garabagh’s junta regime agreed to surrender and negotiate the reintegration process with Baku on September 21 in Azerbaijan’s Yevlakh city.