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On June 12, the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan officially announced the completion of the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
“The personnel, weapons and equipment of the peacekeeping contingent have completely left our territory,” reads the statement of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan. The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan also published a video showing Russian vehicles leaving the base near the Stepanakert airport.
For 3.7 years, the Russian peacekeeping contingent were carrying out a mission in Nagorno-Karabakh based on the Armenia-Russia-Azerbaijan tripartite statement of November 9, 2020.
Fact Investigation Platform introduces evidence of the incidents in the area of responsibility of the peacekeepers during these years following which the Armenian side suffered more than a dozen casualties and territorial losses.
The Russian peacekeeping contingent was deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh along the contact line and in the Berdzor (Lachin) corridor, which connected the region with Armenia. According to the agreement, 1,960 soldiers with firearms, 90 armored personnel carriers, 380 units of automobiles and special equipment were sent to Nagorno-Karabakh. The peacekeepers were supposed to stay in the region for five years, until 2025. The period of deployment of the peacekeepers could be extended for another 5 years unless one of the parties demanded that the mission be withdrawn from Nagorno-Karabakh at the end of the period.
On May 15, during the ceremony dedicated to the completion of the mission of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Ivanyan, First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces of the Russian Armed Forces, Chief of the General Staff of the Ground Forces, Colonel-General Yevgeny Nikiforov, touching upon the operations of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, declared,
“More than 350 humanitarian actions were carried out to provide assistance to the local population, more than 90,000 people received targeted assistance, more than 1,000 civilians were provided with quality medical care. The peacekeeping contingent actively participated in ensuring the security of access to religious sites, created conditions for the normal life of the population, and carried numerous of activities aimed at infrastructure restoration. As a result of active cooperation with the parties to the conflict, a exchange process of captives was also organized. More than 100 people were successfully returned from captivity. The remains of more than 1,900 servicepersons were found and transferred by the search teams of the Russian peacekeeping contingent,” he said.
However, in the period between the deployment of peacekeepers in the zone of responsibility of Russian peacekeepers and the depopulation of Artsakh, the Azerbaijani side repeatedly violated the ceasefire regime, the consequences of which were mostly adverse for the Armenian side.
Thus, the first serious incident in Artsakh was recorded just one month after the deployment of peacekeeping contingent, on December 12, 2020. The units of the Azerbaijani armed forces attacked in the direction of Khtsaberd and Hin Tagher villages of Hadrut region. As a result of renewed hostilities due to Azerbaijani provocation, the Armenian side had six injured. On December 16, the Armed Forces of Artsakh reported that on the evening of December 15, under unknown circumstances, contact was lost with the personnel of several combat posts of the Armed Forces of Armenia located in the direction of the villages of Hin Tagher and Khtsaberd in Hadrut.
As a result of the attack of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces units in the direction of Khtsaberd and Hin Tagher villages of Hadrut region, two villages were captured, 62 Armenian servicepersons were captured, 9 were killed and 8 more were injured.
The following incident in the peacekeepers’ mission zone took place on October 9, 2021, when a report was received from the Martakert regional police department that 55-year-old Aram Tepnants, a resident of Martakert, was fatally wounded by a sniper shot of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces in a pomegranate garden in the vicinity of Martakert city. There was also a peacekeeper in nearby as well as in the cab of the tractor of Aram Tepnants killed by a sniper’s shot.
A few days later, in the evening of October 14, the Azerbaijani armed forces opened fire at the Defense Army’s combat base located in the eastern border zone of the Republic of Artsakh, as a result of which six servicepersons received gunshot wounds.
On November 8, around 3:00 p.m., at an intersection near the city of Shushi, shots were fired by an Azerbaijani soldier at the employees of “Water and Sewerage” CJSC, who were carrying out repair work on water pipes. As a result of the shooting, one employee died on the spot, and three people were taken to the Republican Medical Center with gunshot wounds.
On March 24, 2022, the units of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan, grossly violating the 2020 the requirements of the tripartite statementn of November 9, invaded the area of responsibility of the peacekeeping contingent in NK, taking control of the village of Parukh in the Askeran region and the adjacent posts, and then tried to advance in the eastern border zone of NK. The hours-long negotiations by the Russian peacekeeping contingent and the competent bodies of Nagorno-Karabakh did not yield significant results, and the enemy did not return to the baseline positions. Moreover, on the night of March 25, the Azerbaijani units opened fire on the Defense Army units, using both small-caliber firearms and assault drones. As a result of the skirmish provoked by the units of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, five contract servicpersons of the Defense Army were injured to varying degrees.
On March 25, as a result of the enemy’s provocations in the eastern border zone of Nagorno-Karabakh, in particular, the use of Bayraktar TB-2 type of attack drones, 3 servicepersons of the Armed Forces were killed.
In the messages released on March 26, the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Foreign Ministry emphasized that the Azerbaijani side violated the tripartite statement and invaded the area of responsibility of the peacekeeping mission [1,2].
Then, on August 3, starting at 09:00, the Azerbaijani units targeted the combat posts of the Defense Forces and the permanent location of one of the military units, using mortars, grenade launchers and assault drones, in addition to rifle weapons of various calibers, as a result of which 2 contract servicepersons of the Defense Army of Artsakh were killed and 14 were injured in various degrees.
on December 12, 2022, at 10:30 a.m., a group of Azerbaijanis who consider themselves environmentalists blocked the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia and the world, leaving the country under siege. The blockade continued until the final depopulation of Artsakh in September 2023.
During that time, on March 5, 2023, a sabotage group of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces targeted and opened fire on a personnel car of the Police Passport and Visa Department on duty from Stepanakert in the area called “Khaipaly,” as a result of which 3 police officers were killed and 1 officer was injured.
On March 25, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that the 25th unit of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, violating the tripartite statement of the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan on November 9, 2020, crossed the contact line of the Shushi region, occupied the height of 2054.0 points (2.9 km to the north-east from Saribaba mountain) and started engineering works at the post.
On April 23, at 12:00, on the Lachin-Stepanakert road, the State Border Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan installed a border checkpoint on the border with Armenia.
After the military provocation that took place on the morning of June 15 near the Hakari bridge, Azerbaijan announced the 2023 since April 23, it had blocked all types of humanitarian transportation, including people and goods, in both directions at the illegally installed checkpoint. And since July 11, the movement of the vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross, transporting seriously ill patients from Stepanakert to Yerevan, was prohibited through the Hakari bridge.
On June 28, from 01:30, the units of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces opened fire from artillery means in the direction of the Armenian positions of Martun and Martakert, also using ATS. The Armenian side had 4 victims.
On September 19, from 1:00 p.m., the Azerbaijani military began to violate the ceasefire along the contact line by launching rocket artillery attacks.
One day later, on September 20, the NK authorities accepted the proposal of the command of the Russian peacekeeping mission regarding the cessation of fire. From September 24, the forced deportation of Artsakh residents began, more than 100,000 people were forcibly displaced to Armenia.
According to the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia, as a result of Azerbaijani aggression on September 19-20, 2023, more than 200 servicepersons and civilians were killed in Nagorno-Karabakh, in the zone of the Russian peacekeeping mission. About 12 civilians and 30 servicepersons are considered missing. Cases of torture of at least 14 persons were recorded, 12 of them were servicepersons and 2 were civilians. As a result of hostilities, 3 children were killed, 231 servicepersons and 80 civilians were injured in various degrees.
By the way, the last President of Nagorno-Karabakh, Samvel Shahramanyan, testified about the inaction of the Russian peacekeeping mission during the Azerbaijani aggression. On October 28, in an interview to the Artsakh public television, he stated that during the Azerbaijani attack on September 19, 2023, Russian peacekeepers acted as observers. “Hours after the start of hostilities, I realized that we were alone against that Azerbaijani aggression. The Russian side was, one might say, in the status of an observer,” said Samvel Shahramanian.
It should be noted that although it was stated at the highest level in Russia that the presence of Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh was required and the contingent would formally remain there until November 2025, nevertheless, on April 16, 2024, the Azerbaijani media reported about the beginning of withdrawal process of Russian peacekeepers from Nagorno-Karabakh and the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan reported about the final completion of the process on June 12.
The First Deputy Chairman of the Defense Committee of the Russian State Duma, Alexey Zhuravlyov (“Rodina” party), told RIA Novosti that the mission of the Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh can be considered fully fulfilled, and the peacekeepers played an important role in preventing bloodshed. He also noted that peacekeepers are no longer needed because there are no warring parties in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“The Russian contingent was needed there as long as the conflict continued and played an important role in preventing bloodshed in 2023 by standing between the warring armies,” the Russian official said.
Syuzanna Hambardzumyan
