Deployment of peacekeeping forces is guarantee of Karabakh conflict settlement - Zurabyan
Deployment of peacekeeping forces is guarantee of Karabakh conflict settlement, Levon Zurabyan, the head of the opposition Armenian National Congress’ faction in the National Assembly, told journalists on Friday.
“If a settlement scheme acceptable to Armenia is adopted, deployment of peacekeepers will be one of its components,” he said. “The buffer zone will be occupied by peacekeeping forces, since when both sides withdraw their troops, a dangerous vacuum will appear. Buffer area should be filled with peacekeeping forces.”
Zurabyan also said that the Armenian National Congress had never been opposed to deployment of peacekeeping forces in the Karabakh conflict zone.
“Issue of peacekeepers has always been in the agenda,” he said. “Especially actual it was in 1994 and 1997. It implied deployment of multinational peacekeeping forces. The Armenian National Congress was naturally opposed to presence of Turks among the peacekeepers, since they are allies to Azerbaijan.”
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict broke out in 1988 February when the Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous region announced its secession from Azerbaijan. In September 1991, the region declared itself the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and, over the course of the enduring conflict, Azerbaijan subsequently lost control of the region.
In 1994, a Russia-brokered cease-fire was signed and peace talks have been held since, mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.
On April 2, 2016 Azerbaijan resorted to an "unprecedented provocation along the entire perimeter of the contact line" with Nagorno-Karabakh. According to the NKR Defense Army, during the three-day fighting they have destroyed 2 helicopters, 29 tanks, one missile system Grad, heavy flame-throwing systems TOS-1, 6 armored vehicles, including 1 infantry fighting vehicle, 1 unit of engineering machinery and 6 Azerbaijani drones killing also over 300 Azeri soldiers.
The Armenian side lost 14 tanks, 36 servicemen were killed, and 122 wounded. Four civilians, including one child, were killed as well. Armenians also have 21 missing people. A ceasefire agreement was reached Tuesday at 12:00. ---0---