YEREVAN, March 28. /TASS/. The intrusion of Azerbaijani forces into the zone of responsibility of Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh is continuing. Yerevan expects that the Russian contingent will take concrete steps to stop it and secure the return of Baku’s forces to the original positions, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
"We are forced to state that the Azerbaijani forces’ intrusion into Nagorno-Karabakh in the zone of responsibility of Russia’s peacekeeping contingent is continuing, which is seen in the attached maps. We expect that Russia’s peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh will take concrete measures to stop the intrusion of Azerbaijani forces into the peacekeepers’ zone of responsibility and the secure the pullout of Azerbaijani forces," the Armenian Foreign Ministry says.
"We believe it is necessary to carry out proper investigation of the peacekeeping contingent’s actions throughout the period of the Azerbaijani forces’ intrusion and to give answers to a number of questions," the Foreign Ministry said. It stated with satisfaction that the co-chairs of the OSCE’s Minsk Group have made a clear assessment of the recent escalation of tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh, saying that it was a consequence of Azerbaijani troops’ movements.
Escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh
The Russian Defense Ministry said on March 26 that Azerbaijan’s forces entered into the zone of responsibility of the Russian peace-keeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh. On Sunday evening, it said that Azerbaijan had pulled its forces out of the community of Farukh (Parukh) in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Earlier, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said that Azerbaijani forces intruded into the village of Parukh, the Askeran District of Nagorno-Karabakh at about 15:00 Moscow time. Yerevan accused Baku of disrupting gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh in the area of Shusha, thus causing a humanitarian crisis for the region’s 120,000 population.
Tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh aggravated on September 27, 2020, when hostilities flared up there. On November 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a trilateral statement on the cessation of hostilities in the area of the conflict. The Azerbaijani and Armenian forces stopped at the positions they were holding at the moment, a number of districts were placed under Baku’s control and Russian peacekeepers were deployed along the engagement line and the Lachin corridor.