Armenia accusing Azerbaijan of violating 2020 deal ‘nothing but hypocrisy’

ANKARA (AA) – Armenia accusing Azerbaijan of violating the 2020 agreement which ended the 44-day Karabakh War is “nothing but mere hypocrisy,” Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly pointed to Armenia’s failure to meet the provisions of the Nov. 10, 2020 agreement signed by the two nations plus Russia, especially how Armenian armed groups have not yet pulled out of Azerbaijan territories in Karabakh, said a ministry statement.

The ministry said under the tripartite agreement, “the peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation is deployed (in Karabakh) in parallel with the withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces.”

In addition to ample evidence of the presence of illegal Armenian armed forces on the territory of Azerbaijan, this fact has also been acknowledged by Armenian officials, it said.

“We emphasize that the reason for the recent tension is the presence of illegal Armenian armed troops in the territories of Azerbaijan and provocations instigated by them. The bloody incident and killing of an Azerbaijani soldier on August 3 is precisely the result of Armenia’s failure to fulfill its obligations,” the statement read, referring to an incident on Wednesday.

Relations between the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh (Upper Karabakh), a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

During the conflict in fall 2020, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and nearly 300 settlements and villages that had been occupied by Armenia for nearly three decades.

A Russian-brokered deal in November 2020 brought an end to the conflict.