MOSCOW (AP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday hosted his counterparts from Armenia and Azerbaijan to discuss the reopening of transport routes in the region, which has been paralyzed for nearly three decades amid a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.
The talks took place two months after a ceasefire mediated by Russia put an end to weeks of fierce fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces that left more than 6,000 people dead.
With the greetings of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the Kremlin, Putin said the peace agreement had been successfully implemented, creating the necessary basis for a long-term and complete format resolution of the old conflict. ‘
The November 10 peace agreement put an end to 44 days of hostilities in which the Azerbaijani army sent Armenian forces through and regained control of large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas.
Nagorno-Karabakh lies in Azerbaijan but has been under the control of Armenian ethnic forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war ended there in 1994. That war left Nagorno-Karabakh itself and the surrounding area in Armenian hands.
At the end of September, hostilities flared up and the Azerbaijani army pushed deep into Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas, forcing Armenia to relinquish control of an important part of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas.
Under the peace agreement, Russia has deployed about 2,000 peacekeepers to Nagorno-Karabakh for at least five years.
The peace deal was celebrated in Azerbaijan as a great triumph, but sparked outrage and mass protests in Armenia, where thousands repeatedly took to the streets to demand Pashinyan’s resignation. Numerous protesters on Monday tried to cross a highway connecting the Armenian capital to the airport to stop Pashinyan from traveling to Moscow, but police dispersed them.
The Armenian Prime Minister defended the agreement as a painful but necessary step that prevented Azerbaijan from crossing the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Azerbaijan and its ally Turkey have closed their borders with Armenia since the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict broke out decades ago, a blockade that paralyzed the country’s economy swallowed up by the country.
The Russia-mediated peace agreement envisages the reopening of transport routes, including a corridor connecting Azerbaijan and its Nakhchivan slave border with Armenia, Turkey and Iran. Armenia, in turn, will be able to use transit routes to Russia and Iran via Azerbaijan’s territory.
Putin noted on Monday that senior officials from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia would set up a working group to discuss specific moves related to the restoration of transport routes in the region.
“The implementation of the agreements will benefit both the Armenian and Azerbaijani people and the entire region,” Putin said after four hours of talks in the Kremlin before sitting down for separate meetings with Aliyev and Pashinyan.
Aliyev praised the importance of reopening transport links, saying it would help strengthen the stability of the region.
“It opens up completely new perspectives that we could not even imagine in the past,” he said, adding that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict had become history.
Pashinyan disputes the claim, arguing that the status of Nagorno-Karabakh has not yet been determined, but he also welcomed the plans to restore the transit routes.