After the signing of the trilateral Russia-Azerbaijan-Armenia statement, Armenian servicemen illegally remaining on Azerbaijani territory organized already four attacks on Azerbaijani soldiers and civilians - on November 26, December 8, 11 and 27. These terrorist acts each time caused injuries and deaths, as their purpose was to destroy Azerbaijani citizens on the liberated lands in order to undermine the statement that ended the Karabakh war with Armenia's surrender.
The trilateral Declaration of Peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia was violated by the Armenian side four times, and not by saboteurs who made their way into the liberated regions of Azerbaijan from the Armenian territories, but still by the occupying forces of the Armenian Armed Forces staying in Khankendi, Khojavend, Khojaly, Askeran, Agdera and around them. These are the citizens of the aggressor country staying in a foreign land without any right to do so, while possessing weapons, including heavy offensive weapons.
In the first post-war period, when the withdrawal of the occupying forces of Armenia from the Aghdam, Kelbajar and Lachin regions was carried out, all the attention of the parties was focused on this process. It can only be welcomed that the Armenian troops withdraw from these regions. However, after it became clear that the military formations of the invaders left on the Azerbaijani territory threaten the preservation of peace in the South Caucasus, the problem of their disarmament and return to Armenia becomes urgent.
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev's well-known question to Armenia and the mediators "What is the Armenian soldier doing on the Azerbaijani soil?" is not off the table. These Armenian citizens, left with arms in their hands on the territory of Azerbaijan, cannot perform any positive functions and can only negatively influence the post-war state of the region: their saboteurs make sorties and kill Azerbaijani soldiers. In fact, we are talking about a terrorist bandit underground, but this bandit underground has a military infrastructure in the cities and villages of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Therefore, the next stage in the stabilization of the South Caucasus should be the withdrawal of this destabilizing element - the Armenian army - from Azerbaijan. The Republic of Armenia, which needs to recognize the changed realities and take an active part in consolidating peace in the region, is obliged to do this. The war is over, Yerevan has signed the peace document and must fulfill it; disarmament, disbandment and withdrawal of the armed formations of the Armenian Armed Forces remaining in Azerbaijan is what the republic can do today if it really wants the war not to resume and the Armenian population of Karabakh to live in safety.
