Russian military setting up humanitarian response center in disputed Nagorno-Karabakh to assist displaced refugees

RT
Sun, 15 Nov 2020 18:18 UTC

© Sky News

Nagorno-Karabakh: The Moscow-brokered ceasefire came into place on 10 November

Following the Moscow-brokered armistice between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Russian military has begun setting up a humanitarian response center in Stepanakert, the de facto capital of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The conflict over the territory, which had been raging since late September, came to an abrupt end on Monday, after Russia managed to persuade Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders to agree to halt the fighting. As part of the truce, Russian peacekeepers moved into Nagorno-Karabakh to separate the warring sides and curb any possible provocations.

The Russian military has already started setting up a humanitarian response center in Stepanakert, a statement by the Defense Ministry read. Scheduled to be fully operational in a week's time, the center will see the military, the emergency services, and other Russian agencies working hand in hand to ensure civilians can move around safely as the terms of the Azerbaijani-Armenian truce come into effect.

The Russian troops in Nagorno-Karabakh's largest city will also be boosted by border guards, and rescue personnel from various federal agencies in the coming days.

Nagorno-Karabakh leader Arayik Harutyunyan said that he welcomed the creation of a Russian humanitarian response center, considering the situation in the breakaway region that result from what he described as "Azerbaijan's aggression."

The first units of peacekeepers that arrived in Nagorno-Karabakh earlier this week have already been working to assure the safe return of those who fled the hostilities in the region, which is populated by ethnic Armenians but considered by Azerbaijan to be part of its territory.

The area has been a bone of contention between the South Caucasus neighbors for decades, and they had already fought a bloody war over it between 1988 and 1994.

On Saturday, Russian troops accompanied nine buses carrying 250 people through the Lachin Corridor, with some 450 more refugees expected to make the same journey on Sunday.

With control over some areas in Nagorno-Karabakh being passed to Azerbaijan as part of the armistice, the 6km-long mountain pass is the only remaining route connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia. The Russian peacekeepers will be protecting this vital artery for at least the next five years.

The ceasefire was upheld along the entire contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh on Sunday, the Defense Ministry said. Russian peacekeepers have been monitoring the situation from 18 observation posts set up across the region, it added, sharing a map of the two "areas of responsibility" (in green and orange), in which the Russian troops are active. Seven more temporary observation posts have been set up along the Lachin Corridor.

© Russia's Defense Ministry

The current lines in Nagorno-Karabakh, November 2020. Russis now in control of he two “areas of responsibility” (in green and orange)

Comment: From RFE/RL: Azerbaijan extends deadline for Armenia to withdraw from key district Kalbacar

"Azerbaijan agreed to prolong the deadline for the withdrawal from Kalbacar of Armenian armed forces and of illegal Armenian settlers until November 25," Hikmat Hajiyev, an aide to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, told a news conference in Baku on November 15.

He said Aliyev had agreed on "humanitarian grounds" to grant an Armenian request for the delay following mediation by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Hajiyev said the timetable for the Armenian withdrawal from the Aghdam region on November 20 and the Lachin district by December 1 remains unchanged.

Residents of Kalbacar, a district in Azerbaijan that was controlled for decades by ethnic Armenians, have been leaving their homes since the peace deal was signed on November 10.

© Wire Services/ Deutsche Welle

Armenians torch their homes outside Nagorno-Karabakh

Some residents set their homes on fire before leaving, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported.

Kalbacar was populated mostly by ethnic Azeris before they were expelled by Armenians in the 1990s war following the breakup of the Soviet Union, and a majority of the homes being abandoned previously belonged to Azeris.

A key part of the Russia-brokered peace deal includes Armenia's return of Kalbacar and two other districts over the next 2 1/2 weeks. Like Kalbacar, those districts have been held by Armenian separatists since a war that ended in 1994.

While ending fighting that killed more than 2,000 soldiers and civilians on both sides, the deal announced on November 10 was rejected by many Armenians because it allows Azerbaijan to keep a sizable chunk of Nagorno-Karabakh, along with surrounding areas captured during the fighting.

The deal includes the deployment of 2,000 Russian peacekeepers in the region. Several hundreds have already arrived since the announcement of the truce, and Russia's Defense Ministry said on November 15 that they had set up 25 "observation posts" in the Lachin Corridor -- a mountain road pass that links Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia -- and two other areas to monitor the cease-fire.

Nagorno-Karabakh is recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but its majority Armenian population has governed its own affairs since Azerbaijani troops and Azeri civilians were pushed out of the region in the war in the 1990s.