ArmInfo. The authorities, no doubt, need to dispel public doubts about the current processes in the region. In particular, processes involving Russia, Turkey and Azerbaijan. Head of the Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs Stepan Safaryan expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.
"Around the same pending process of demarcation and delimitation of borders with Azerbaijan, about which, by the way, the Armenian authorities have been talking so much lately, there are many questions, answers to which do not sound. And in light of the presence of many uncertainties, that are not at all originating from the interests of Armenia, in this issue, our government clearly should not be so active in pedaling this topic. In general, I consider the approach that links the establishment of a decent peace with the clarification of borders, as naive, "he said.
Commenting on the latest impulses in the relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan with the third party of the current processes around Artsakh - Russia, the analyst highlighted the formulation that found a place in one of the official documents of the RF Ministry of Defense - the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Noting that the mention of the NKR has already caused a uniform multi-level hysteria in Baku, Safaryan assessed the incident as an obvious challenge to Azerbaijan from the Russian Federation.
"The essence of what is happening is obvious. Baku is clearly making it clear that if it continues to evade the mandate that legitimizes the presence of Russian peacekeepers in Artsakh, Moscow will simply start writing in its internal protocols and documents where it is in reality. Thus, this hysteria of Baku is clearly in Moscow's interests, as evidenced by the rather restrained, apparently dry response of the Russian Defense Ministry to the Azerbaijani shouts, "he stressed.
Recently, the head of the foreign policy department of the Azerbaijani presidential administration, Hikmet Hajiyev, told the BBC that "certain discussions regarding additional legal mechanisms related to the mandate of the Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh are still ongoing."
A Russian peacekeeping contingent of 1,960 servicemen and 380 units of military and special equipment is deployed in Artsakh on the basis of a statement signed on November 9, 2020 by the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan on the cessation of hostilities in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
According to Safaryan, in such ways Baku is making it clear not only the need to sign a protocol on the peacekeepers' mandate as soon as possible, but also to comply with the rules of the game on the ground, as well as refrain from additional demands. For example, from the demand to disarm the Artsakh Defense Army. Meanwhile, all this, according to his forecasts, neutralizes, actually cancels, the declaration signed by Erdogan and Aliyev in Shushi. According to it, Ankara receives a mandate to defend Artsakh, if suddenly someone decides to attack it. Meanwhile, according to the analyst, the Turks signed this declaration precisely in order to prevent Azerbaijan from signing a mandate for the stay of peacekeepers in Artsakh.