Aliyev Administration says “some debates” ongoing over legal mechanisms for Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s assistant Hikmet Hajiyev says there are ongoing discussions over additional legal mechanisms regarding the Russian peacekeeping mandate in Nagorno Karabakh.

Around 2000 Russian peacekeepers are deployed in Nagorno Karabakh in accordance with the Russia-brokered 2020 Nagorno Karabakh ceasefire agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Hajiyev, who is also the Aliyev Administration’s Head of Foreign Policy, told BBC that the ceasefire agreement defined “a political and in some sense also a legal framework” for the peacekeeping forces. “As far as the additional agreements and additional legal mechanisms regarding the peacekeepers’ mandate, the sides have had initial contacts over this issue and some debates are still ongoing,” Hajiyev said.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan