UPDATE - Azerbaijan, Russia officially confirm beginning of withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Karabakh

Azerbaijani presidential aide, Kremlin spokesman say process of withdrawal of Russian forces from Azerbaijan's territory has begun

UPDATES HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE; ADDS COMMENTS BY AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENTIAL AIDE

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Azerbaijan and Russia officially confirmed the beginning of the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Karabakh on Wednesday.

Commenting at a press briefing in Moscow on media reports which said the withdrawal of the Russian peacekeepers started several days ago, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the reports were accurate: "Yes, it really is so."

Azerbaijani state news agency APA said earlier in the day the Russian forces left the territory of the Albanian Khudavang temple in Kalbajar district several days ago.

The agency also said the temple is currently guarded by the Azerbaijani police.

Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev told reporters in Baku that the decision to withdraw Russian peacekeepers from Karabakh was made by the top leadership of Russia and Azerbaijan.

"According to the trilateral statement signed on Nov. 10, 2020, the top leadership of both countries decided to withdraw the peacekeepers of the Russian Federation temporarily stationed in the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan from the territory of our country," he said.

The process has already begun and the defense ministries of the two countries are already taking steps related to the implementation of this decision, he said.

The Russian peacekeepers had been deployed in the aftermath of a fall 2020 conflict in which Azerbaijan regained much of its territory of Karabakh after nearly three decades of Armenian occupation.

Relations between Baku and Yerevan have remained tense since 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 44-day war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement that also opened the door to normalization.

Last September, Azerbaijan established full sovereignty in Karabakh following an "anti-terrorist operation" after which separatist forces in the region surrendered.

Kaynak:

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