Russia, Turkey set up joint peacekeeping center in Nagorno-Karabakh
Russia and Turkey have opened a joint center to monitor a ceasefire in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, under a truce that ended six weeks of fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the disputed south Caucasus territory.
The leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russia signed a statement on ending the war in Nagorno-Karabakh in November last year.
A memorandum on setting up a joint peacekeeping center by Turkey and Russia was signed later.
The center that was officially opened in the Agdam region of Azerbaijan will be staffed by up to 60 servicemen each from Turkey and from Russia, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday.
It said that the center was set up “to collect, summarize and verify information on the observance of the ceasefire and actions that violate the agreements reached by the parties.”
“The control will be carried out through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles and by means of evaluating data received from other sources," the ministry said.
Turkey, an ally to Azerbaijan, said on Friday that one Turkish general and 38 troops will work at the center.
Russia, which supports Armenia, has already deployed peacekeeper troops as as well as armored personnel carriers and other military equipment last year, to monitor the truce deal there.
Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but it has been held by ethnic Armenian separatists backed by Armenia since 1992, when they broke from Azerbaijan in a war that killed some 30,000 people.
Last year’s fighting, the worst in decades, started in late September and came to an end in mid-November, after Moscow brokered the ceasefire that leaves Baku largely in control of the territory.
Armenia handed over disputed territories to Azerbaijan, back then.
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