Who controls the village of Farrukh? Has the Azerbaijani army withdrawn from there?

Baku/28.03.22/Turan: The latest statement of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense (MoD) reads that there are points in the Russian statement of March 27 that do not comply with reality.

"There have been no changes in the positions of the Azerbaijani army in the village of Farrukh which is a part of the sovereign territory of our country, and in the surrounding heights.

The information about the withdrawal of Azerbaijani army units from these positions is not consistent with reality. Our army is in full control of the operational situation.

There is no administrative-territorial unit called "Nagorno-Karabakh" on the territory of Azerbaijan. The name of the village mentioned in the statement is not Furukh, but Farrukh," the statement reads.

Military expert Uzeyir Jafarov speaks about the situation in Farrukh village, as well as about the gas supply to Khankendi in the program "Complex issue".

According to him, the Russian Defense Ministry, failing in Ukraine, does not want to publicize the fact that the Russian peacekeeping contingent deployed temporarily in Karabakh hit the ground running.

"In order not to lower its credibility further, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that its appeal to the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry was heard and allegedly the servicemen of the Azerbaijani armed forces left the Farrukh hill and the village of the same name," Jafarov said. 

The expert said that the post near Farrukh village was one of 27 posts deployed by the Russian peace-keeping contingent since November 2020. He added that there had been repeated firing from the areas under the control of the RPC against construction workers and soldiers of the Azerbaijani armed forces.

"The Azerbaijani MoD has repeatedly warned of the consequences of such actions. One of such warnings was issued in November 2021, when "peacekeepers" "released in peace" a certain Norayr Mirzoyan who threw a grenade at Azeri servicemen stationed near the Dashalty village (located near Shusha)," the expert said, noting that the grenade was thrown at the Azerbaijani soldiers in the area, The peacekeepers all this time closed their eyes to the fact that the remnants of the Armenian armed forces, contrary to the trilateral agreement of November 10, 2020, signed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, have not been withdrawn from the Armenian-populated part of Karabakh. Moreover, reinforcements were arriving from Armenia for the separatist regime.  

Approximately a fortnight ago, the separatists began digging trenches and building fortifications near the village of Farrukh. At the same time the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry announced to the peacekeepers and the separatist regime in Khankendi that 16 months had passed since the signing of the trilateral agreement of November 10 and it was high time to fulfill its conditions. However, this did not trigger action.

"After that, right in front of the RPC troops, Azerbaijani special forces conducted a local operation, following which the village of Farrukh and the hill of the same name passed under our control," Jafarov said, stressing that this hill is of paramount strategic importance.

As for Azerigaz's supply of natural gas to Khankendi, he said Armenians refuse it. "They demand "Armenian" gas, they say - "we don't want to depend on Azerbaijani gas. Well, it is their choice, their problem," Jafarov concluded.-0-