Russian army deploys to two new sites in southern Armenia

Russian soldiers deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh, near the Armenian border, for a peacekeeping mission on November 14, 2020, four days after the ceasefire came into effect (illustrative image) .

REUTERS / Stringer

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

On Monday, Armenia announced that the Russian military base in Guioumri will open two “support positions” in the south of the country, on the border with Azerbaijan.

Six months after the end of the Karabakh war, won by Azerbaijan, the latter is threatening for the borders of southern Armenia.

This has led Armenia to seek further Russian support.

Publicity

Read more

With our correspondent in Tbilisi, 

Régis Genté

These will be two "support positions", deployed in the region of Syunik, in the south of Armenia, with elements of the 102nd Russian military base, that of Gyumri, in the north of the country.

The decision was made for two reasons.

First, because the Azerbaijani forces are deployed all along the border with Armenia, in the districts taken over after the Nagorno-Karabakh war last fall.

A high-risk deployment as the Armenian and Azerbaijani border guards literally find themselves face to face along what were only administrative boundaries in Soviet times.

► Read also: Armenia wants to strengthen its military cooperation with Russia

Then there are the speeches of the Azerbaijani president in which he expresses territorial claims about the Syunik region, which he calls Zanguezur and considers historically belonging to his country.

On April 21, Ilham Aliev further threatened to establish by force the road which, according to the

peace declaration

signed last November, should link his country to Nakhichevan, an Azerbaijani region landlocked between Armenia, Iran and Turkey.

►

See also: In Azerbaijan, discontent after Biden's recognition of the Armenian genocide

Newsletter

Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • Armenia

  • Russia

  • Nagorno-Karabakh

  • Defense

  • Azerbaijan