10/05/2021 Nagorno-Karabakh (International Christian Concern) –  Azerbaijan has grown increasingly critical and tense regarding Russia’s peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh (Armenian: Artsakh­) as they also seek to remove Armenia from discussions. “For Azerbaijan, as the Karabakh region is part of its internationally recognized territories, it makes little logical sense to discuss the mandate of Russian peacekeepers with a third party (Armenia),” said one analyst to the Jamestown Foundation.

According to the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Moscow and Baku continue to discuss the ceasefire’s mandates with no involvement from Armenian representatives. Azerbaijan simultaneously engages in military fanfare and training exercises along the border. From September 6 to 10, Turkey and Azerbaijan held joint military training exercises in the Lachin region, the first time that Turkish forces operated in territories conquered during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War. Observers, and later confirmed by Azerbaijani media, noted that the exercises were held some 300 meters from the Lachin corridor, land controlled by Russia’s peacekeepers.

Just before the joint Turkish-Azerbaijani drills, Russia concluded drills in the Lachin corridor, seen as an alliance to Armenia to protect the corridor after several incidents that restricted Armenians’ movement through the region. Azerbaijani media suggested that their country’s joint military trainings were a “special warning”.

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