Armenia will withdraw its troops from Karabakh by September - sensational acknowledgement by the head of the Armenian Security Council

Nearly two years after the start of the Second Karabakh War, Yerevan has admitted that the Armenian armed forces have not been withdrawn from Karabakh, as set forth
in the trilateral statement of November 10, 2020.

Armenian Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan said this in an interview with Armenpress news agency.

"During the war, a number of units of the Armenian armed forces came to the aid of the Defense Army of Nagorno-Karabakh. After the ceasefire was established and Russian peacekeepers were stationed in Karabakh, the withdrawal of Armenian armed forces is quite natural," he said.

Does it mean that Nagorno Karabakh will remain defenseless? Grigoryan gave a negative answer to this question. According to him, the function of Karabakh security was and is carried out by Karabakh army. However, the guarantee of security "must be" the Russian peacekeepers.

Replying to the objection that peacekeepers couldn't be a guarantee when Azerbaijanis "seized" Farrukh hill, Grigoryan said that it was "rough violation" of tripartite statement of November 2020.

He said Russia assured that Azerbaijani forces would be withdrawn and hoped that peacekeepers would ensure this.

"As a result of the war, a number of units of the Armenian armed forces entered Nagorno-Karabakh to help. After the ceasefire they are returning to Armenia. This process is close to completion and will end in September. As for the defense army, it was in Nagorno-Karabakh and continues to remain there," Grigoryan said.

He added that they won't send conscripts from Armenia to Karabakh, as well as contract servicemen.

The acknowledgements by the head of the Armenian Security Council can be considered sensational since until now official Yerevan claimed that all the units of Armenian armed forces were pulled out of Karabakh as it set forth in the trilateral statement of Russian, Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders. Moreover, Armenia has been illegally sending its citizens to serve in Karabakh since November 2020.

A couple of days ago, this topic was again raised by Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev, accusing Russia of not complying with the agreements on the withdrawal of Armenian forces from Karabakh. He made it clear that if that does not happen, Azerbaijan will do it on its own.

19 July 2022 / 13:08