Already on November 10, 2020, it was reported that Russian troops and tanks, which were supposed to form a peacekeeping force under the agreement, were invading the Nagorno-Karabakh region. [41] The force was reportedly airlifted to Armenia prior to the signing of the agreement. [42] On November 12, the Russian force consisted mainly of personnel from the 15th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, which had entered stepanakert and began stationing observation posts throughout the region. [43] The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh Ceasefire Agreement is a ceasefire agreement that ended the Nagorno-Karabakh war in 2020. It was signed on November 9 by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin and ended all hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh region from 00:00 on November 10, 2020, Moscow time. [1] [2] The President of the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, also agreed to an end to hostilities. [3] After the signing of the humiliating ceasefire agreement on November 10, Pashinyan faced calls for his resignation, not only from opposition parties, but also from President Armen Sargsyan (who is head of state but mainly has ceremonial powers) and leaders of various branches of the Church. Pashinyan decided to fight for his position and blamed his predecessors for the defeat. Despite a dramatic drop in popularity compared to the dizzying ratings he enjoyed after the 2018 Velvet Revolution, he has so far managed to cling to power. Further north, before the ceasefire agreement, Azerbaijan demanded the return of seven villages in the Kazakh district – three of which are in Soviet-era enclaves surrounded by Armenian territory – as well as the Kerki enclave next to Nakhchivan. Here it is the Armenian side that refuses to abandon the land.
Armenians also point to an enclave called Artsvashen, which belonged to Armenia in Soviet times but was conquered by the Azerbaijanis in 1992. These territorial issues could have been postponed, subject to international arbitration or an agreement on territorial trade, but are causing new ill will between the two countries. 4 The OSCE website does not contain the full mandate of the Kasprzyk mission, but an OSCE source confirmed to the author that this text published by the European Parliament is correct. Strategic calculations may not be easy when emotions are still high. Horrific war videos of atrocities against prisoners, including beheadings, arouse revulsion and anger. The prisoners are still being held and the remains of the bodies have not been returned. In much of their rhetoric and actions, the two countries continue to pretend to be at war. Armenians seem traumatized by their sudden reversal of fate, and many voices, especially those opposed to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, insist that the November agreement has no legal status and can be rejected. A minority promises to recover the land lost by force. A second controversial issue is the fate of Armenian cultural monuments. In other post-conflict contexts, cultural heritage has been an area of cooperation and reconciliation. In the Armenian-Azerbaijani context, this is the cause of even more bitterness.
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia have signed an agreement to end the military conflict over the controversial Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. The Minsk format has been clearly recognised by all parties to the conflict, the mediating countries and international organisations (OSCE, UN, EU, PACE, etc.) are the exclusive format for resolving the dispute. The ceasefires were another example of this acceptance (there were three previous ceasefires negotiated successively in Moscow, Paris and Washington by the co-chairs of the Minsk Group). This agreement contradicts all the principles to which the Co-Chairs of the Minsk Group have committed, namely the principles of territorial integrity and self-determination. After signing the agreement, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said: “This is not a victory, but there is no defeat until you consider yourself defeated, we will never consider ourselves defeated and it will be a new beginning of an era of national unity and rebirth.” [13] After the ceasefire agreement was announced, violent protests erupted in Yerevan. The speaker of the Armenian parliament, Ararat Mirzoyan, was beaten by an angry mob that stormed the parliament after the peace agreement was announced. However, Pashinyan said Mirzoyan`s life is “not threatened” and that he has undergone surgery. [14] [15] On the other hand, with regard to the declaration signed by Armenia, there is a plausible argument that there is no indication that Armenia considers the declaration to be a binding agreement, the entry into force of which depends only on its signature.
According to the agreement, the two warring parties undertook to exchange prisoners of war and the dead. In addition, the Armenian armed forces were to withdraw from the Armenian-occupied areas around Nagorno-Karabakh by December 1. A Russian peacekeeping force of about 2,000 Russian ground troops was to be sent to the region for at least five years, one of its tasks being to protect the Lachin Corridor, which connects Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh region. In addition, Armenia pledged to ensure the “security” of the passage between the Azerbaijani mainland and its enclave of Nakhchivan via a strip of land in the Armenian province of Syunik. .