The Russian peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh (the former unrecognized republic) is completing its work, and the withdrawal of units from the region has begun. Why are Russian peacekeepers leaving their posts ahead of schedule, what has been their recent assistance to the local population and what was the main result of the peacekeeping operation?
On April 17, 2024, the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Nagorno-Karabakh (the former unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, NKR) began. As stated in Baku, the relevant decision was made by the top leadership of Russia and Azerbaijan. The withdrawal of the contingent was also confirmed by the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov.
The withdrawal of the first two columns began on April 16, but it was on April 17 that Russian peacekeeping units closed posts in the Kelbajar region of Azerbaijan along the Terter River, located between Armenia and the former Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
The abandonment of the Dadivank monastery complex by peacekeepers (post No. 23) became a landmark. Since November 2020, it has been Russian troops who have been guarding the 13th-century monastery and ensuring the safety of monks and Armenian pilgrims. Since the middle of the day, the monastery has been controlled by the Azerbaijani police.
Posts along the former line of contact and in the Lachin corridor are being closed down. The contingent headquarters at the airport in Khojaly is still working. There is no exact final date for the withdrawal of the peacekeeping contingent, most likely, it will be carried out in stages as soon as it is ready.
The Russian peacekeeping contingent was deployed in and around Nagorno-Karabakh as a result of the trilateral agreement on November 9, 2020, which stopped the so-called Second Karabakh War. The task of the contingent was to ensure the safety of the local population and the political balance recorded at that time. The period for the deployment of the contingent was set at five years with an automatic extension for another five years, unless one of the parties to the agreement declares its intention to extend this agreement six months before the deadline. But this would have been preserved only if the military-political status quo established by the agreement had been maintained for a long time.
The number of the contingent ranged about 2 thousand people with 90 armored personnel carriers and 380 units of automotive and other equipment. It was based on units of the 15th separate motorized rifle (peacekeeping) brigade of the Central Military District. The tasks of the contingent included the protection of iconic sites, including cultural heritage, and the maintenance of a ceasefire.
The tools of the peacekeeping contingent were limited and often the fighters performed only observation functions. On the other hand, the peacekeepers had to solve social functions that were not peculiar to them, technically supporting the life of the Armenian population of the region, sometimes even to the point of ensuring the operation of Armenian schools. Yerevan has withdrawn from this work.
Nevertheless, until the last day, Russian peacekeepers played an extremely important role in the life of the region and in preserving its identity.
They fulfilled their tasks with honor, preventing escalation, preventing bloodshed, participating in the demining of the territory and preserving the opportunity for a further peaceful solution to the problem of the Armenian population of Artsakh.
The Russian military carried out their tasks to save the lives of the local population, risking their own lives every day. On December 17, 2020, a Russian officer was killed during mine clearance, and on September 20, 2023, six Russian peacekeepers, including the deputy commander of the contingent, were killed as a result of an ambush on the highway. Another soldier died on December 11, 2023, as a result of an armored personnel carrier accident.
Due to external circumstances, the potential of the peacekeeping contingent was not fully realized and not exactly as it was intended and envisaged by the trilateral agreement. In theory, the introduction of a Russian peacekeeping contingent could stabilize the situation in the region for a long time. However, the political balance was deliberately and unilaterally violated by Yerevan. The Armenian leadership has made a strategic decision to abandon Artsakh, the struggle for it and its Armenian population as a whole. There is no reasonable explanation for this, as well as no moral justification.
Yerevan's refusal to participate in the solution of the Karabakh problem, to protect the Armenian population of the region and the former Nagorno-Karabakh Republic inevitably led the NKR to a severe military defeat. This caused the liquidation of the unrecognized republic, and then the mass exodus of the Armenian population from the region. The mission of the peacekeeping contingent has lost its practical and political meaning, because there is no one else to protect.
No one's rights can be guaranteed anymore, nor can they contribute to any political process. The Armenian leadership, that is, those people whose interests, among others, the peacekeepers came to Karabakh to defend, did not allow the peacekeepers to implement the tasks originally set for the peacekeepers.
In fact, the only mission of the Russian contingent in the last six months has been to protect cultural heritage sites and ensure their vital activity. That is why such attention was attracted by post No. 23 in the Dadivank monastery, which is especially significant for Armenian history.
However, the potential of such peacekeeping operations as a whole is far from being exhausted.
The brilliant operation in Kazakhstan in January 2022 showed how effectively Russian peacekeepers can act, provided that the initial agreements with the host country are fully respected. "The presence of the CSTO peacekeeping contingent in Kazakhstan, including in Almaty, played a very important role in terms of stabilizing the situation in our country," President of the Republic Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said at the time.
The fact that both the own people in Karabakh and, as a result, the activities of the Russian peacekeepers were framed and betrayed by the Armenian leadership itself does not detract from the merits of the peacekeeping contingent. In difficult conditions and in an extremely ambiguous external environment, Russian peacekeepers demonstrated both military training and diplomatic skills to find a common language with the local population. In fact, this was the main result of the peacekeeping operation that lasted from 2020. Given the regular instability in the South Caucasus, and in general along the perimeter of the Russian borders, it is possible that this experience will still be useful to them.
Evgeny Krutikov