Russia says terms of peacekeepers' presence in Karabakh to be coordinated with Azerbaijan

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russia will decide on terms of the presence of its peacekeepers in Karabakh together with Baku, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

"The timing and other issues of the deployment of Russian peacekeepers in the region will be determined jointly with our colleagues ... If we are talking about the territory of Karabakh, then together with the Azerbaijani side, taking into account the situation on the ground," Zakharova said in response to Anadolu's question at a news conference in Moscow.

Conflict between Baku and Yerevan started in 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

Most of the territory was liberated by Azerbaijan during a war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement and also opened the door to normalization.

This year on Sept. 19, the Azerbaijani army initiated an anti-terrorism operation in Karabakh to establish constitutional order in the region.

Illegal Armenian armed forces in Karabakh surrendered after the 24-hour operation, and a cease-fire was reached.

Azerbaijan, having established full sovereignty in the region, has called on the Armenian population of Karabakh to become part of the Azerbaijani society.

- Zangezur corridor, relations with Armenia

Zakharova said the Zangezur transport corridor has a "significant potential" for moving towards normalization of relations between Yerevan and Baku.

The work on the implementation of the project is being carried out in the trilateral Armenian-Azerbaijani-Russian working group, headed by deputy prime ministers of the three countries, she said.

"(The group) considers a project to restore the transport route that connects Azerbaijan with the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic through the Syunik region of Armenia.

"We see in the implementation of this project a significant potential for moving towards normalization of relations between Yerevan and Baku. Everything depends on the political will of the countries and the willingness to reach specific agreements," she emphasized.

Asked about the possibility of any negative measures against Russia's military base in Armenia after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's remarks that it was wrong to bet only on Moscow in security matters, Zakharova said: "I don't think it's necessary to comment on this. Any options can and should be considered but it makes no sense to comment on this because there is a countless number of possibilities."

She urged Armenia to study the historical experience of France's military cooperation with other countries before seeking its assistance.

She said France guaranteed many African nations security, including through its "physical" presence on the ground in the form of military bases and private military companies, but to no avail.

"The African continent and a number of countries did not thank (France) for these efforts, on the contrary, they are telling everyone that they were literally left by Paris to fend for themselves with security problems, simply because at some point Paris decided that it no longer made sense to participate," she stressed.

The official noted that many countries on the African continent expelled French ambassadors due to "absolutely inadequate behavior of Paris."

Speaking at a news conference in Yerevan on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said France has agreed to sign an agreement with Armenia on military equipment. She did not give further details, but said a “number of issues have already been agreed upon between Paris and Yerevan.”