This is another blow to the document signed on November 9, 2020, and Azerbaijan is advancing its policy of ethnically cleansing Artsakh. Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Ghazaryan announced this during an Armenian TV interview program, commenting on the setting up of an Azerbaijani checkpoint at the Lachin corridor.

The Artsakh FM said that with the establishment of this Azerbaijani checkpoint, the perception of the security environment is changing. According to him, Azerbaijan has adopted this policy a long time ago, putting forward various baseless accusations that as if arms and soldiers are being transferred from Armenia to Artsakh, and that is why it wants to install the checkpoint.

"Clause 6 of the tripartite statement of November 9, 2020 stipulates that the security of the Lachin corridor shall be ensured by Russian peacekeepers; and it is the most important element of the tripartite statement," said Ghazaryan.

And noting that the Artsakh side expects effective steps from the Russian side to ensure that clause, he added: "After the war [in 2020], our compatriots returned to Artsakh, seeing that the Russian peacekeeping contingent was stationed there. But now they have ended up in hostage status. We see that the Azerbaijani side is advancing by crossing the ‘red lines’ of the Russian peacekeepers, and various representatives from the Russian side are declaring that their attention is elsewhere [i.e., Ukraine]. We want to know whether there is a finish line, a boundary line, whether the Russian side has a patience limit in this regard."

Ghazaryan recalled that this was noted also in the statement of the Artsakh Security Council, where it was stated that the absence of active steps by the Russian side will enable the authorities and the people of Artsakh to decide what to do next.

The Artsakh FM did not rule out that the aforesaid explains the replacement of the commander of the Russian peacekeeping force in Artsakh, General Andrey Volkov, by General Aleksandrr Lentsov.