A large number of people gathered in the Armenian capital of Yerevan to register their protest against the signing of Russian brokered peace deal with Azerbaijan. The agreement signed on early Tuesday calls for the withdrawal of some areas Armenia controls outside the borders of Nagorno-Karabakh. These consist of the Lachin region which the main road from Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia passes through. According to the agreement, the road known as the Lachin Corridor will remain open and be protected by Russian personnel.
The deal also aspires for transport links to be established through Armenia that would connect Azerbaijan with its western exclave of Nakhchivan which is surrounded by the countries of Armenia, Iran and Turkey.
The deal was followed by celebrations in Azerbaijan obviously because it was seen to be slightly in its favour.
On the other hand, in Armenia, the opposition party organized a protest and called for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. Demonstrators could be heard chanting ‘Nikol, the traitor’ and ‘Nikol, go away’. Oppositon members also called an emergency session to explore the possibility of ousting Pashinian but it could not be materialized as the quorum was not achieved.
According to the provisions of the truce, a total of 1960 Russian peacekeepers are to be deployed in Nagorno Karabakh. Some of them have already arrived in the region.
It needs to be mentioned that Nagorno-Karabakh is a separatist region that lies within Azerbaijan. But actually, it has been under the control of ethnic Armenian militias backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in the year 1994.
