BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 29. The situation in the area, which is now under control of Russian peacekeepers, the situation for one year and a half is stable, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said addressing the international conference under the motto “South Caucasus: Development and Cooperation”, Trend reports.
"With respect to the presence of Russian peacekeepers, it is part of the trilateral declaration, which was signed at the night of 10 November and in that declaration there is a precise number of their military personnel and a precise number of military armored vehicles. So, everything is based on that. And also, there is a timetable for their peacekeeping operations – 5 years. If any side of that agreement decides that five years is enough, then six months prior to the end of duration, that is publicly announced. So, this is, I think, an important factor to understand the future configuration. Also, there is a Turkish-Russian monitoring center, as I said, which monitors the situation and basically, in the area, which is now under control of Russian peacekeepers, the situation for one year and a half is stable. There have been some tensions on the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the past. Now, it is also stable. But, in the Karabakh area, if there have been some tensions, but that was very sporadic. In general, Russian peacekeepers provide very important transportation facilities for us, because we use that territory, which is under their control, to bring cargos to Kalbajar, because otherwise, the road through the Omar Mountains is very difficult. We are building a 12-kilometer tunnel, but it is not ready. Therefore, they provide also transportation through the Lachin corridor when we need. We also provide transportation of their cargos to their peacekeepers thorough Azerbaijani railroad. It goes from Moscow directly to Barda and then it is close to Kahnkandi. Otherwise, they have to fly by planes and then go many hours through the Lachin corridor. So, there is a good level of interaction between Russian peacekeepers and Azerbaijani military servicemen. I think that, and what we are doing now, for instance, with respect to corridors, is absolutely free from any kind of other involvement," the head of state said.