Armenia, Azerbaijan cease hostilities, but Russia accuses US and allies of inciting them – Telam

Armenia gave Azerbaijan seven Nagorno-Karabakh cities

The towns of Nor Maragha, Nor Aygestan, Nor Seisulan, Nor Karmiravan, Nor Haikayuir, Hovtashen and Nor Jraberd, which are part of the Martakert region in Nagorno-Karabakh, have been handed over to Azeri authorities, the digital newspaper reported. Mediamax.

The authorities of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh republic confirmed that the handover was made “in accordance with the trilateral declaration” signed on November 9 by the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinian, the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and the president of Russia. , Vladimir Poutine.

The agreement sets out a timetable for the return to Azerbaijan of a series of territories that have remained under Armenian control since the end of the last war in 1994.

The Aghdam region, an Azerbaijani territory bordering Nagorno-Karabakh, is due to return to Azeri control by November 20, according to the cease-fire agreement.

Authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh claim that “properties of more than 2,000 inhabitants” have been moved from the seven cities ceded to Azerbaijan and that those affected have been offered “temporary places of residence and other means” , reported the DPA news agency.

The pact includes the cessation of hostilities, the deployment of 1,960 Russian servicemen as peacekeepers on the separation line in Nagorno-Karabakh, the creation of a truce monitoring center controlled by Russian and Turkish observers and located on Azeri soil, and the return of Azeri territories controlled since 1994 by Armenia, including Shusha, the second largest city in the disputed region.

The agreement was rejected by the Armenian opposition political formations because they saw it as a capitulation to Azerbaijan and for fear that it would end up endangering the Nagorno-Karabakh region, with a majority of the Armenian population and de facto controlled by its authorities since the end of the last war.

Hours later, Russia, through the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergei Narishkin, denounced that the United States and its allies are trying to incite enmity between the warring nations.

“Neither Washington nor the united Europe wants to tolerate the balance of power reached in the region. To dismantle it, they had no better idea than to try again to incite discord between the peoples of Armenia and Azerbaijan “, Narishkin convicted, quoted in a statement released by the SVR press service and reproduced by the Sputnik news agency.

The senior official was convinced that the “main countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)” were trying to “hide their irritation” at the ceasefire.

“The United States and its allies are disgusted that the war has ended with Moscow’s mediation. Because that, in effect, has undermined their long-standing efforts to expel Russia from the South Caucasus,” he said. he declared.

He added that Russian intelligence has data that “some Western countries, through their channels, are pushing Armenian and Azerbaijani nationalists to discredit and break” the ceasefire.

“These actions show once again that the United States and its European friends, as always, are solving their problems to the detriment of the interests of ordinary citizens. They do not care that their provocations can lead to further bloodshed and overwhelm the region in a serious military conflict ”, he lamented.