“Due to the [2020] war, a number of units of Armenia’s Armed Forces entered Nagorno-Karabakh to help its Defense Army,” Armen Grigorian, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, told the Armenpress news agency. “They have been returning to the Republic of Armenia since the ceasefire took effect [in November 2020.]”
“This process is close to completion and will end in September,” he said. “As for the Defense Army, it has been in Nagorno-Karabakh and will remain there.”
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev claimed last Friday that Armenia still has troops in Karabakh in breach of the ceasefire accord brokered by Russia. He said a senior Russian military official assured Baku early this year that the Armenian troop withdrawal will be completed by June.
“It’s already the middle of July and the issue has not been resolved,” complained Aliyev.
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov apparently raised the matter with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan when they met in Tbilisi on Saturday. According to the Foreign Ministry in Baku, Bayramov called for a full implementation of Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements, singling out “the withdrawal of Armenian forces from Azerbaijani territory.”
Domestic critics of the Armenian government deplored Grigorian’s announcement, saying that Yerevan is continuing to appease Baku at all costs.
“Thus the Armenian authorities are continuing to duly comply with all demands and preconditions of Aliyev and the Turkish authorities,” wrote Gegham Manukian, an opposition parliamentarian.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s administration, Manukian claimed, has made clear that Karabakh will be left “unprotected.”
Grigorian downplayed security implications of the troop withdrawal, arguing that Karabakh will retain its armed forces and will also be protected by Russian peacekeeping forces deployed there following the 2020 war.
“The peacekeeping forces are of key importance in guaranteeing the security of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenians,” said the official.