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Celebrating in Baku, protesting in Yerevan – Azerbaijan and Armenia, with the mediation of Russia, signed a ceasefire agreement in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a truce in Nagorno-Karabakh. The signing of the agreement took place in the context of the victories of the Azerbaijani army in the battles. But in Armenia they still refuse to admit their own defeat and protest against the ceasefire.
Correspondent.net He found out what the parties agreed to and what the consequences of such an agreement might be.
Military advantage
In the last days of the fighting, the Azerbaijani army gained control of the Lachin corridor, the main transportation artery connecting Armenia with the self-proclaimed Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The main thing is that Baku took control of the city of Shusha, the second largest settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh and one of the main ones for the Azerbaijanis. For Azerbaijan, Shusha has always been a symbol of its presence in Karabakh. In a region populated predominantly by Armenians, Shusha was one of the few cities where the majority were Azerbaijanis.
In fact, Azerbaijan has closed the circle around the territories controlled by the Armenian army. A hasty evacuation of the civilian population of Karabakh began, and they began to speak seriously about the threat of a humanitarian catastrophe.
The Armenian army had hopes of holding out until at least early spring due to the onset of cold weather. In a few weeks, the weather was supposed to halt active hostilities on the ground, but Azerbaijan’s air advantage remained overwhelming.
In which we agreed
Armenia and Azerbaijan, through Russian mediation, agreed to end the war in Nagorno-Karabakh from midnight on November 10. The agreement was signed by the presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan, Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was absent.
According to the trilateral agreement, Azerbaijan and Armenia “stop at their positions. A peacekeeping contingent from the Russian Federation is deployed along the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh and along the corridor connecting Nagorno- Karabakh with the Republic of Armenia “.
Thus, Armenia is losing control of all the “seat belt” territories around Karabakh, which it occupied in the 1990s. It maintains control only over part of Karabakh, as well as the Lachin corridor, the safety of which is guaranteed by the Russians. The Russian contingent will be 1,960 soldiers, and their mandate will last for 5 years with the right to renew.
Another great concession to Armenia: in exchange for preserving the Lachin corridor, it guarantees Baku the transit of Armenian territory between the main part of Azerbaijan and the Nakhichevan enclave.
Furthermore, internally displaced persons and refugees are returning to the Nagorno-Karabakh territory under the control of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (obviously, we are talking about both the Armenians who fled the war during the last month and a half and of Azerbaijanis expelled from Karabakh in the early 1990s.).
Surrender of Armenia?
The agreement does not contain a single mention of the future special statue of Nagorno-Karabakh, to which Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev later paid attention separately.
“This is actually the surrender of Armenia… What do you say now, Pashinyan? Where is your status? Aliyev asked in his speech to the nation. “Karabakh is ours!” – He finished his speech.
That is, even those territories, as long as they remain under the control of Armenia, do not receive sovereign status, not even autonomous status within Azerbaijan.
Aliyev said he “offered autonomy to Armenians, but they wanted independence.”
Pashinyan immediately admitted that the deal was “painful” for him personally and for all Armenians, but there was no other way out. The military situation is such that there is no better way out, assured the Prime Minister of Armenia, referring to the army in question.
“This is not a victory, but there will be no defeat until you admit that you are a loser. We will never recognize ourselves as losers, and this should be the beginning of our era of national unity and resurgence, ”Pashinyan said. But the Armenians did not believe him at all.
Popular anger
In Yerevan, thousands of Armenians immediately took to the streets demanding the abolition of the ceasefire. Protesters stormed the Armenian parliament, smashed windows and smashed the interior.
Furthermore, the protesters arrived at the Pashinyan residence, where they stole a computer, watch, perfume, driver’s license and other things. Along the way, the protesters also beat the Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Ararat Mirzoyan, who is in hospital.
On the eve of 17 opposition parties in Armenia demanded the voluntary resignation of Pashinyan and the transfer of power to a temporary governing body until the fighting ends.
The Ministry of Defense and the Armenian General Staff supported the agreement to end the war and called for an end to the bloodshed in Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenian President Armen Sarkissian, in turn, declared that he would initiate political consultations due to the agreement to end the war.
What will happen next?
Russian peacekeepers have already arrived in Armenia. The aircraft carried around 80 servicemen from the 15th Motorized Rifle Brigade (Peacekeeping) of the Central Military District, armored personnel carriers, armored vehicles and communications equipment, and command officers from the maintenance forces of the Russian peacekeepers flew to Armenia on a separate board.
A few hours before the conclusion of an agreement on Armenia, a Russian Mi-24 helicopter was shot down near the border with Azerbaijan. Two Russian servicemen died and another was wounded. Azerbaijani authorities said they shot down the helicopter by mistake. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, in a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, apologized for the incident and promised to punish those responsible.
Aliyev also said peacekeepers may appear in Turkey’s Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s main ally in this war. The Armenians are against it. The ceasefire caused a deep political crisis in the country, followed by a change of government.
