Peacekeepers Fail to Fully Execute Their Tasks Against Azerbaijan, Says Norat Ter-Grigoryants

Peacekeepers are deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh with a specific mandate, serving as a buffer between the remaining parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan. This was said by the former Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Norat Ter-Grigoryants, during an interview with News.am on March 6.

"They are responsible, but they have allowed... several villages to be occupied, heights to be captured (referring to the Azerbaijanis - editor's note), while they did nothing and practically facilitated the Azerbaijani capture of the Lachin corridor. They did nothing, which means that the task is not set. The main culprit is the Russian Federation, as it is bound to the peacekeeping forces. Why aren’t they doing anything? And if they have, why haven’t they held that third party accountable? But everyone is silent," he stated.

Ter-Grigoryants described the Azerbaijani provocations in Nagorno-Karabakh as terrorism and called the entire Azerbaijani army a terrorist entity.

“When the peacekeepers were led by Rustam Muratov, I said that he was managing that brigade very poorly, there were no clear tasks, there was uncontrolled chaos. Then he was removed from his position, and now there’s another commander (Volkov - editor's note), but this is also almost... Some environmentalists, actually employees of the KGB and security forces, have seized the Lachin corridor, creating a blockade; they treated Ruben Vardanyan this way,” the general added.

He believes that this arrangement is not functioning at all, advising Prime Minister Pashinyan to submit a note of protest regarding the violations of the trilateral agreement and the area where “this brigade is not fully executing its task to take actions against Azerbaijan on behalf of the third party.”

It’s worth noting that on March 5, a sabotage group of the Azerbaijani armed forces fired upon the patrol car of the police's passport and visa department traveling from Stepanakert in an area called “Haypalou,” resulting in the deaths of three employees of the Artsakh police and injuries to another.

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