Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Stanislav Zas has spoken about the prospects for establishing peace in the South Caucasus between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Zas on Wednesday, February 9 stressed that there is some "cautious optimism" about the settlement. According to him, after the signing of the trilateral statement of the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan on November 9, 2020 and the deployment of Russian peacekeepers into Karabakh, the situation has stabilized, the bloodshed has stopped.
“Of course, there are hotbeds of tension, and they are on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. I was there, I saw with my own eyes what was happening there. But in fact, there is no border as such, there is a line of contact, strongholds, observation posts. There are shootings from time to time. It shouldn't be like this," he said.
The CSTO chief believes the parties now face a serious task of delimiting and demarcating the border, which he said is a "complex amount of work" that will allow to strengthen the security of the region: “There is cautious optimism that a whole era of war is ending and another era is beginning. I may be wrong about such optimism, but in any event, steps being taken to establish peace should be welcomed."
Azerbaijani forces violated Armenia’s border in several sections in the provinces of Syunik and Gegharkunik on May 12 and 13, 2021 and are still refusing to withdraw their troops from the area. On November 16 of that same year the Azerbaijani side launched a fresh offensive in the province of Syunik, during which Armenian soldiers were killed and taken captive. Furthermore, several Armenian soldiers were killed in Azerbaijan's latest provocation on January 11.
