The deployment of peacekeepers or observers in the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is possible only with the consent of Armenia and Azerbaijan, said on Thursday, October 15, the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov.
“The primary question here is whether the opposing sides, namely Azerbaijan and Armenia, are ready for this. Any deployment of any peacekeepers, observers – whoever it may be – is possible only with the consent of both sides, ”the Kremlin spokesman said.
A day earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for the deployment of Russian observers in the NKR. At the same time, the minister noted that the decision remains with Baku and Yerevan.
On October 9, following negotiations held in Moscow at the initiative of the Russian side, Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed on a ceasefire from 12:00 local time (11:00 Moscow time) on October 10 for humanitarian purposes to exchange prisoners and bodies of the dead.
In addition, the parties agreed, through the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, to begin substantive negotiations for the earliest possible achievement of a peaceful settlement of the situation in the self-proclaimed NKR and confirmed the invariability of the format of the negotiation process.
However, on October 10, the Armenian Defense Ministry announced the use of drones by the Azerbaijani armed forces on the contact line in Karabakh and the death of another 28 NKR servicemen.
The press secretary of the Armenian Defense Ministry Shushan Stepanyan wrote on Facebook that on Saturday the Azerbaijani armed forces fired rockets at villages in the vicinity of the city of Kapan, there are casualties and wounded.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry denied this information, calling it a provocation, and also announced the shelling of the Terter and Aghdam regions around Karabakh from the Armenian side.
The aggravation of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh happened on September 27. Baku and Yerevan, which dispute the ownership of the region, blamed each other for escalating the conflict.
The conflict in Karabakh began in February 1988, when the Nagorno-Karabakh autonomy, in which mainly Armenians lived, announced its secession from the Azerbaijan SSR. During the armed confrontation in 1992-1994, Baku lost control of the region.