Does Armenia have reasons to rebuke Russia?

The forces and means of a special-purpose medical unit of the Eastern Military District are being transferred to Nagorno-Karabakh. The detachment includes doctors, middle and junior medical personnel, who will be in constant readiness to provide first medical aid. 

As war raged this autumn over Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, some Armenians expressed a sense of betrayal that long-standing ally Russia wasn't providing more support to ethnic Armenian fighters in the conflict, Radio Free Liberty writes in the article Armenians See Russia As 'Savior' Not 'Scapegoat' In Nagorno-Karabakh War. But any ill will in Yerevan toward the Kremlin appears to have subsided since Moscow brokered a truce that brought an end to the fighting on November 10 and cleared the way for the deployment of nearly 2,000 Russian peacekeepers in the conflict zone.

Political analyst Richard Giragosian told RFE/RL that many Armenians now viewed Russia as a "savior" rather than a "scapegoat" to be blamed for the territorial losses of the Armenian forces. "It's an interesting paradox because during the 45-day war itself, there was a degree of resentment and frustration within Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh that Russia was uncharacteristically passive and pensive," said Giragosian, director of the Yerevan-based Regional Studies Center. "Russia did make it clear that its security obligations [to Armenia] stop at the Armenian border itself," Giragosian said. "Russia is bound to defend, protect, and assist the Republic of Armenia proper, and not Nagorno-Karabakh per se."

Arman Grigorian, a professor of international relations at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, said he also heard the complaints of Armenians who expressed "frustration that Russia didn't do as much as many thought it should have during the war." "But you can also hear the views of different segments of the population saying that had it not been for Russia, the situation would have been completely doomed for ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh," Grigorian said. Grigorian also said that those who accuse Russia of failing the Armenian fighters in Nagorno-Karabakh "should ask themselves which other country came to the aid of the Armenians or did more than the Russians did to stop this war." Besides a failed truce deal on October 26 that was arranged by Washington and some "sympathetic statements" by France and the United States, "I haven't seen any effort [from them] or any other country to extend military aid to Armenia in order to stop that war," Grigorian said.

Giragosian noted that Pashinian made a "flurry of near-panicked phone calls to the Kremlin" on five separate occasions after fighting broke out on September 27 that were "almost pleading”" for Russian assistance. Armenia's government also sought clarification from Russia about what support it might provide during the conflict under their treaty of mutual support and cooperation. That's an important change of tone from Pashinian, who was initially seen as a pro-Western leader seeking greater ties with the European Union when he came to power through a popular uprising in 2018.

The Russian-brokered truce calls for all remaining Azerbaijani districts around Nagorno-Karabakh that are occupied by Armenian forces to be returned to Azerbaijan by December 1.
 Russian peacekeepers have already overseen the first part of that handover -- the evacuation of ethnic Armenians from the occupied district of Agdam east of Nagorno-Karabakh and the return of that district to Baku on November 21. The mountainous district of Kalbacar (Karvachar in Armenian) west of Nagorno-Karabakh was handed over to Azerbaijani forces on November 25. Territory still under Armenian control in the district of Lachin is to be returned to Azerbaijan by December 1 -- with the exception of a 5-kilometer-wide transit route through southwestern Azerbaijan known as the Lachin Corridor. Security in that vital corridor -- the only postwar overland route linking Armenia with Nagorno-Karabakh -- is also the responsibility of Russian forces.