Russian President Vladimir Putin and Baku President Ilham Aliyev signed a declaration on allied cooperation between the two countries during negotiations on February 22.
How did this declaration affect the fate of the evicted Armenians of Artsakh?
The development of events in recent months has shown that Russia is the most slippery for Baku’s foreign policy… and the least understandable for external actors.
Azerbaijan’s political elite in shaping relations with Russia is exaggerated and underestimated, making political reality more uncertain.
In the declaration of interaction for 2022, there is a point where it is noted: the Russian Federation and Baku are joining their efforts in the field of international terrorism, extremism and separatism, transnational organized crime, illicit trafficking in weapons, drugs, human trafficking, crimes in the field of information and communication technologies, also combating and neutralizing other new security challenges.
A year later, the Baku Ministry of Defense issued a statement about the start of so-called “anti-terrorist measures” on the territory of Artsakh “with the aim of restoring constitutional order in the country.”
The Azerbaijani side claimed that over the past few months, units of the Artsakh Defense Army “periodically fired at the positions of the Azerbaijani army from weapons of various calibers, continued to mine the territories of Azerbaijan, carried out engineering fortifications of combat positions, and also increased the number of trenches and shelters, which led to an increase in tension.”
The Azerbaijani side reported that the command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent and the leadership of the Turkish-Russian observation center in Akne were informed about its actions.
After the latest events, we can clearly say that, according to the declaration signed by Azerbaijan and Russia in Moscow, relations between these states are moving to the allied level and the Armenian-Russian strategic allied relations, which are one of the most important components of the security systems of Armenia and Artsakh, are being consistently undermined.