Cease-fire in Nagorno-Karabakh provokes protests in , celebrations in

By Robyn Dixon, Washington Post, Nov 10, 2020

MOSCOW — Nearly 2,000 Russian peacekeeping forces were deployed to the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh on November 10 after a cease-fire deal reached overnight allowed Azerbaijan to hold on to the substantial territory it has regained in six weeks of heavy fighting.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the trilateral agreement among Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia should halt fighting in the long term. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Turkey, which has sided with Azerbaijan, backs the cease-fire deal.

Previous efforts to end the latest fighting have unraveled. But the addition of Russian peacekeepers introduces major deterrents in the more than three-decade-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave controlled by ethnic Armenians but inside the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan.

“What is happening in Karabakh is a truly great tragedy,” Putin said. “I hope that all the steps we have taken recently will lead to the establishment of long-term peace for the benefit of the peoples of Azerbaijan and Armenia.”

The first Russian troops, arriving on Ilyushin-76 military planes, arrived in Armenia on November 10, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

The final days of the conflict for Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh fighters were devastating, according to Nagorno-Karabakh leader Arayik Harutyunyan. He described Azerbaijan-directed drone attacks on Armenian soldiers, already hard hit by the coronavirus and dysentery and exhausted by weeks of fighting. “The moral and psychological condition of the army was extremely poor,” Harutyunyan said. “We suffered very heavy human losses yesterday during the last few hours in the Martuni district, due to the drone attacks of the adversary.”

Armenian Prime Minister called the situation “a great failure for us, a great catastrophe, a great mourning for the lost lives,” adding that he took responsibility, according to a translation by Interfax. He said: “We did not fall into the abyss. We made the decision to stop in time. Otherwise our condition would be much worse. . . . Lessons must be learned.”

Under the deal, Armenian forces will withdraw from Nagorno-Karabakh, and Russian peacekeepers will take control of a three-mile-wide strip known as the Lachin region. Two other areas, Aghdam and Kalbajar, will be given back to Azerbaijan in the coming weeks, allowing the return of Azerbaijani refugees who fled in the early 1990s.

Russian peacekeepers will be deployed along the line of contact between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh and in the Lachin region for five years, with possible five-year extensions. A joint Russia-Turkey cease-fire monitoring center will be set up in Azerbaijan, according to Russian officials.

The cease-fire deal triggered outrage overnight in the Armenian capital, , where angry protesters broke into government buildings after Pashinyan announced the agreement. They ransacked Pashinyan’s office and broke windows and furniture in government buildings. Parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan was attacked by a mob.

Vahagn Vardumyan, 43, who runs hiking tours in Yerevan, predicted that the deal would not bring peace. “We are trapped in an unfair game,” he said. “There is no sense of relief. The fighting is not going to stop so how can there be relief?”

“For Armenians, Russia’s actions can be summed up in one word: betrayal,” he added. “To end the conflict this way is just insane. It is simply the worst possible thing that could have happened.”

The cease-fire came two days after Azerbaijan claimed it had won control of the ancient city of , known in Armenia as Shushi, an important symbolic goal for Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry posted a video Monday of the deserted-looking city with soldiers saluting Azerbaijani flags that were flying over government buildings.

Thousands have died in brutal fighting that saw both sides use cluster bombs, according to human rights observers. Armenian and Nagorno-Karabakh casualties reached at least 1,302, according to officials on November 10, while Azerbaijan has not released the numbers of its losses. Putin said recently at least 5000 people had died.

Celebrations erupted in the Azerbaijani capital, , on news of the cease-fire.

Turkey’s support for Azerbaijan dramatically shifted the strategic regional balance and paved the way for Azerbaijan’s swift gains. In the fighting, drones that Azerbaijan had bought from Turkey and Israel proved decisive, destroying hundreds of Armenian tanks, wiping out air defense systems and killing dug-in soldiers in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan, enriched in recent decades by Caspian Sea oil, invested much of its wealth in buying military equipment in a bid to overturn its humiliating loss in the 1988-1994 war in which Nagorno-Karabakh, which has a large Armenian population, split from Azerbaijan and declared independence.

Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence declaration led to the 1988-1994 war and to Azerbaijan’s loss of the region along with seven adjacent areas. Nearly three decades of talks failed to resolve the impasse, although Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence is not recognized internationally. France and the United States, co-chairs with Russia of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe — which has mediated efforts to resolve the conflict — played no part in the agreement, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said. The agreement sees Russia retain a foothold in the region, with Turkey increasing its influence in a area that is important because of oil pipelines through the region. Alexander Gabuev, analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center, said Russia was left with “few good options” as war resumed in the region this summer.

He added that Moscow realized it could no longer completely dominate post-Soviet space, as Turkey asserted itself more. “Moscow is satisfied with this outcome given the options that it has,” Gabuev wrote in a Twitter thread. “And I haven’t met any senior Russian official who believes that Moscow will ever be able to be in full control in the South Caucasus with no other powers in the mix. It’s more about balance than dominance.

Putin spoke to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on November 10.

Harutyunyan listed a string of territorial losses since fighting broke out Sept. 27. He said Azerbaijan’s forces had come within a couple of miles of the Nagorno-Karabakh capital, . “If the fighting continued at that pace, we would have lost Artsakh within days and would have had many more victims,” he said, using an Armenian term for Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia’s Defense Ministry released a statement Tuesday saying the military had “done everything possible and impossible” in the war.

Putin said refugees and internally displaced people would be able to return to their homes. Aliyev said transport links in the region would reopen.