There are no significant advances in the implementation of the trilateral Statement

Baku/10.11.21/Turan: Today is the anniversary of the signing of the trilateral Statement by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

According to the statement:

- From 00:00 Moscow time on November 10, 2020, the agenda ceases fire and all hostilities in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

- Along the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh and along the Lachin corridor, a Russian peacekeeping contingent  - 1,960 servicemen with small arms, 90 armored personnel carriers, 380 units of automobile and special equipment is deployed.

- Over the Lachin corridor (5 km wide), which will ensure the connection of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia (without affecting the city of Shusha), the control of the Russian peacekeeping contingent is established.

- In order to increase the effectiveness of control over the implementation of the agreements by the Parties to the conflict, a peacekeeping center is being deployed to control the ceasefire.

- According to the statement, until November 20, 2020, Azerbaijan will return the city of Agdam and the occupied part of the Agdam region, until November 25 Kelbajar region, until December 1 Lachin region.

But have all the points of the statement been fulfilled? What has changed in a year since the signing of the application?

Elman Fattah, the  expert on international issues, answers this question in the program "Difficult Question".

In essence, nothing has changed. Perhaps, discussions have begun on the issue of demarcation and delimitation of borders. But here, too, there is no particular progress. In a word, a year after the Statement, no particular success is seen in its implementation. The only success is the liberation, albeit with a delay (later than the deadline specified in the Statement), from the occupation of the Kelbajar, Aghdam regions and part of the Lachin region. However, many points of the Statement were violated. Two days after the signing of the Statement, the text posted on the Kremlin's website has undergone many changes. So, on November 20, the liberation of the occupied villages of the Kazakh region was supposed, but these points were excluded from the statement. The same applies to the issues of ensuring the security of communications. There is no progress in unblocking communications between Nakhchivan and mainland Azerbaijan.

As for the restoration of Azerbaijan's sovereignty in the Armenian-populated part of Karabakh, this Statement not only does not serve this, but, on the contrary, is an obstacle to this. Clause 6 of the Statement states that within three years a plan for the construction of a new route along the Lachin corridor should be determined, providing communication between the mountainous part of Karabakh and Armenia, with the subsequent redeployment of the Russian peacekeeping contingent to protect this route. The context of this point does not imply the restoration of Azerbaijan's sovereignty, but just the opposite. In fact, we are talking about establishing a reliable, alternative connection between Khankendi and Yerevan. Therefore, I do not expect the restoration of Azerbaijan's sovereignty over Khankendi and the territories it controls.

As for reaching a peace agreement with Armenia, there is no progress in this direction either. –0—