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The Armenian opposition rejects the ceasefire agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, accusing the country’s prime minister of “treason” for offering concessions and accepting the agreement, at a time when Russian peacekeepers began to deploy in the area of conflict.
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Russian peacekeepers began to deploy in the disputed area between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The comprehensive ceasefire agreement signed by Yerevan and Baku faces total rejection by the Armenian opposition, which accuses their country’s prime minister of “treason” for accepting the agreement. Between two and three thousand of his supporters gathered today, Wednesday, in the center of the capital, chanting slogans against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
At that time, Russian peacekeepers began deploying to the conflict zone, on the outskirts of the region that is still under Armenian control in Azerbaijan, after bloody battles that lasted six weeks, the most dangerous since the war of the nineties.
Several of them, including political figures such as the leader of the “Prosperous Armenia” party, were arrested at the beginning of the demonstration, before the police allowed the meeting to continue despite the fact that it was prohibited by a military law in force since the end of September.
“You cannot arrest the whole country,” said a deputy of the “Prosperous Armenia” party, Arman Abovyan, over a loudspeaker, as the crowd chanted slogans against the prime minister accused of surrender.
And the former commander of the intelligence services, Artur Vanitsyan, considered that the protesters “are accomplices of the Turks, they do not support them.” And “Turkey is the archenemy of Armenia and ally of Azerbaijan” and “We keep what we could not preserve.”
On Tuesday, Armenia and Azerbaijan signed an agreement to end military operations under the auspices of Moscow, following bloody battles that lasted six weeks in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The Armenian prime minister, whom the opposition considers responsible for this “shameful defeat”, defended his decision on Wednesday, highlighting that the signing of the cessation of hostilities was the only way to preserve the republic unilaterally proclaimed in Nagorno Karabakh, although it had weakened and reduced its surface.
“We keep what we could not have preserved,” said Pashinyan, who came to power after a peaceful revolution in 2018, in a video he posted on Facebook, if the fighting continued.
Shortly after the ceasefire was announced, hundreds of angry protesters stormed government and parliament headquarters, smashing windows and smashing offices.
The signing of the agreement came hours after Baku offered a formal apology to Moscow for accidentally shooting down a Russian military helicopter flying over Armenia near the border with Azerbaijan, in an accident that killed two crew members of the Mi- 24 and injured a third with moderate serious injuries. .
And diplomatic efforts intensified over the weekend as fighting intensified near Shusha, which Armenians call Shushi.
In return, the news aroused joy among the people of Azerbaijan and President Ilham Aliyev welcomed Armenia’s “surrender”.
The cessation of hostilities agreement specifically provides for Baku to regain control of seven of the Azerbaijani regions that were used as a protective shield around the Nagorno Karabakh region and to deploy Russian peacekeeping forces.
Azerbaijan also regained control of territories in the north and south of the separatist region.
The lands that are still under Armenian control will be linked to Armenia through the “Lachin Pass”, which stretches for five kilometers, and Russia guarantees their safety. In this corridor, the Russian blue helmets began to expand to secure this vital route for Nagorno-Karabakh.
In a statement, Russian General Sergei Rudsky confirmed the arrival of some 400 Russian soldiers in Armenia, out of 1,960 soldiers who are supposed to be deployed between Armenians and Azerbaijanis in the coming days.
According to observers, with this decision, Russian President Vladimir Putin strengthened his position in the South Caucasus, increasing Armenia’s dependence on Russia and deploying its forces for the first time on Azerbaijani lands. Turkey, Baku’s biggest supporter, has also gained influence, as it is supposed to play a role in monitoring and implementing the ceasefire.
It is worth noting that the signed agreement does not include any mechanism for a sustainable solution to the Karabakh problem, which has strained the region since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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