Former US ambassador to Azerbaijan, former US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, and Jamestown Foundation Board Member Matthew Bryza commented on the ongoing protests of Azerbaijani NGOs in the area of responsibility of the Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh.
“Azerbaijani citizens, whether they are members of NGO’s or simply individuals, have a legal right to visit every bit of Azerbaijani territory. Russian peacekeepers, however, do not have a duty to enforce Azerbaijani laws and instead are responsible for maintaining peace and security. I can imagine that under current circumstances, Russian peacekeepers may have determined that any visit right now by Azerbaijani environmental activists might be seen as potentially destabilizing and therefore a risk to the peace they are supposed to be keeping,” he said.
Matthew Bryza further notes that while Russian peacekeepers have historically destabilized the security situation in Georgia and Moldova, and even provoked the fighting in August 2008 that was followed by Russia’s invasion of Georgia, Russian peacekeepers have performed well in Azerbaijan and helped restore and maintain stability at several crucial moments.
The protest by representatives of Azerbaijani non-governmental organizations in the area of temporary deployment of Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh has been going on for four days now.
It should be noted that representatives of Azerbaijani NGOs are holding a protest rally in the vicinity of the town of Shusha, near the post of the Russian peacekeepers, against their refusal to allow Azerbaijani experts to enter the territory to conduct monitoring regarding the situation of the illegal exploitation of Azerbaijani mineral deposits.
You may recall that following the talks with the command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent on December 3 and 7, 2022, a group of specialists of the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, the State Service for Property Issues under the Ministry of Economy of Azerbaijan, and AzerGold CJSC intended to start preliminary monitoring on December 10 regarding the situation with the illegal exploitation of mineral deposits as well as the resulting environmental and other impacts in the territory of Azerbaijan where the Russian peacekeeping contingent is temporarily deployed. The plans included inspection of the mineral deposits, in particular Gizilbulag gold mine and Demirli copper-molybdenum deposit, monitoring in various areas, cadastral registration of property, assessment of the potential environmental damage and risks, underground and surface water sources.
However, although the team arrived at the monitoring sites accompanied by Russian peacekeepers, it encountered provocations in both areas. Thus, the intended initial inspection and monitoring did not take place as the Russian peacekeepers not only failed to provide the necessary conditions for this, but also participated in the deliberate disruption of the process.
