“The main reason for the serious increase in tension in the Karabakh zone of Azerbaijan is Armenia’s failure to fulfill the terms of the tripartite statement dated November 10, 2020,” Director of the Russian Institute for Political Studies, political scientist Sergei Markov told APA’s Moscow correspondent.

According to him, the main reason for the incident on August 3 is the non-demilitarization of the part of Karabakh, which is under the control of Russian peacekeepers: “There are still illegal Armenian armed units, which are currently fighting there. Besides, the process of delimitation and demarcation is still not conducted on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border, which creates tension in the region. Another important point is that the Zangezur corridor has not been realized. The Azerbaijani side realizes the part of this corridor that passes through its territory. These conditions have created conditions for a potential conflict.”

The Russian political expert emphasized that Yerevan’s failure to fulfill the conditions of the November 10 declaration will lead to further expansion of the military conflict: “If Armenia does not fulfill the conditions of the tripartite declaration, the military conflict will continue and even expand. Under these conditions, Azerbaijan’s decision to demilitarize Karabakh and Lachin region on its own is welcomed by everyone, both the population of Azerbaijan and the international community. Unfortunately, Russian peacekeeping forces do not have a full mandate to implement demilitarization by force. “Russia can only lead and call Armenia to fulfill the terms of the tripartite declaration.”

Source: Azeri-Press News Agency