Armenia urges Russia to make Azeri troops leave in Karabakh flare-up

LONDON (Reuters) – Armenia said on Monday it expected Russia to take action to make Azerbaijan withdraw troops from an area of Nagorno-Karabakh policed by Russian peacekeepers where tensions are rising in a bitter territorial row.

Azeri troops in 2020 drove ethnic Armenian forces out of swathes of territory they had controlled since the 1990s in and around Nagorno-Karabakh before Russia brokered a ceasefire and deployed peacekeepers. On Saturday, Moscow said Azerbaijan had breached the agreement by allowing its soldiers into an area of the region near the village of Farrukh, but that Azerbaijan had withdrawn them by Sunday.

Armenia’s Foreign Ministry called on Monday for an investigation into the actions of Russia’s peacekeeping force during the incursion and published two Russian Defence Ministry maps that it said showed Azerbaijan’s troops were still present. “We expect Russian peacekeeping forces in Nagorno-Karabakh to take concrete measures to stop the incursion of Azeri units into the peacekeepers’ area of responsibility and the withdrawal of Azeri armed forces,” it said in a statement.

Azerbaijan said on Sunday that it had not withdrawn its forces and said the area was its sovereign territory.