Turkey, Russia set up joint centre to monitor situation in Azerbaijan's liberated lands

1 December 2020 13:56 (UTC+04:00)

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By Vafa Ismayilova

An agreement has been signed on the establishment of a joint Turkish-Russian monitoring centre, the Turkish National Defence Ministry has reported.

As part of the trilateral agreement signed by Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia on November 10, the centre is being set up on Azerbaijan's liberated territories.

The Turkish National Defence Ministry report recalled that on November 11,Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar and his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu signed the draft agreement in an online format.

Following the discussion of technical details regarding the activities of the Turkish-Russian joint monitoring center, a final agreement was signed. Currently, work is underway to commission this center, the ministry said.

On December 1, in his address to the nation on the liberation of Lachin region, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev recalled that under the third paragraph of the trilateral agreement Russia's peacekeeping contingent consisting of 1,960 military personnel armed with firearms, 90 armored vehicles, 380 vehicles and special equipment will be deployed on the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh and along the Lachin corridor. The fourth paragraph states that the term of the statement is five years. If the parties do not raise any objection six months before the expiration of the term, this agreement will be extended. To increase the effectiveness of control over compliance with the agreements reached by the parties to the conflict, a peacekeeping centre is being established to exercise control over the ceasefire. It was agreed that it would be a Turkish-Russian centre.

On November 10, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a Russia-brokered agreement to end fighting in Karabakh and work towards a comprehensive solution.

The November peace agreement ended the 30-years-old conflict between Baku and Yerevan over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region that along with the seven adjacent regions came under the occupation of Armenian armed forces in the war in the 1990s. For nearly three decades, Armenia failed to implement the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) demanding the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of its troops, which was the main obstacle to the resolution of the conflict.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France had been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Group’s efforts resulted in no progress as Armenia refused to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions.