protests have erupted in armenia after
its prime minister agreed to a peace
deal with azerbaijan
the truce ends the fighting in the
disputed region of nagorno-karabakh
and allows azerbaijan to keep its
territorial gains
now at least a thousand people have been
killed since the long-standing conflict
erupted again in september
russia mediated the ceasefire which
moscow says
will enable a permanent end to the
bloodshed
thousands of armenians demonstrated
outside government headquarters in the
capital yerevan
to show their displeasure over the
country's peace deal with azerbaijan
that also includes russia as a
peacekeeper
hundreds of the protesters actually made
it inside the government building
where they were also able to ransack
some of the offices
just earlier armenian prime minister
nikol pashinyan had released a statement
on social media
saying that he had signed a declaration
with the presidents of russia and
azerbaijan to end the war
he also called the decision incredibly
painful
both for him and his people he said the
decision was based on what he called
a deep analysis of the combat situation
he called it the best possible ending
russian president vladimir putin also
announced the end of hostilities
and cited russia's role in the agreement
the republics of azerbaijan and armenia
are to stop at the positions they have
taken
peacekeeping forces of russia are being
set up along the line of contact in
nagorno-karabakh
and along the corridor connecting
nagorno-karabakh with the republic of
armenia
during six weeks of fighting azerbaijani
forces had been making steady
inroads into nagorno-karabakh they
claimed that they had taken many
settlements but armenia disputes that
the region had been in armenian hands
since it won a war with azerbaijan in
1994.
the territory is also mainly inhabited
by armenians
azerbaijan claims it has always been an
integral part of its country
and then on monday a russian military
helicopter at a russian base in armenia
was shot down
killing both occupants azerbaijan said
it was responsible
and that it had made a mistake russia
has relationships with both countries
however it's still not clear whether the
downing of the helicopter had played a
major role in the sudden peace agreement
and let's get more now we are joined by
dw's yulia hahn in istanbul yuri rashido
has the view from moscow and yulia i'd
like to begin with you
because you've been covering the
conflict you were recently in azerbaijan
how significant is this ceasefire
especially
given the territorial gains on the part
of azerbaijan
when we look at the images coming in
right now from azerbaijan we see
people celebrating on the streets waving
flags driving around
in motorcades and these people are not
celebrating
another ceasefire agreement they are
celebrating
victory and this is how it's being sold
by the leadership in baku the message
here is
we won and this is because under this
new deal
azerbaijan can keep the areas it has
right now
under its control so including the areas
it has
gained over the past weeks most
importantly maybe
the town of shusha in nagorno-karabakh
called
shushi in armenian language it's a very
strategic
location and we heard president alive of
azerbaijan talking last night and he
said
the armenian prime minister had no other
option
then to sign this deal and i quote mr
aliyev here
he said it was essentially a
capitulation
yeah and we want to get the reaction
also from armenia um i'll ask you about
that in just a moment but first yuri i
know you're going to
talk about the the wider regional view
um especially as you're sitting in
moscow right now because we know that
armenia has a defense deal with russia
azerbaijan meantime strongly backed by
turkey
given all of that what is the view from
moscow today
well sarah russia is considered as you
said as a protector of armenia but in
reality moscow refused for a long time
to do anything specific in this conflict
and this
let's say reluctant position was
obviously undermined
uh has obviously undermined russia's
prestige in the eyes of potential
partners and allies so that russia now
seems to change it
yes there will play peace talks in
moscow in the recent weeks that ended
with a peace deal but
that deal was broken just hours after
signing after
the signing and brought no peace as we
know russia's obvious
inaction culminated in a later uh letter
that prime minister nicole paschanian
wrote to vladimir putin a few weeks ago
asking the russian president to finally
decide
what kind of concrete aid russia is
going to offer should the conflict
escalate further even back then
this was a clear sign signal that
armenia didn't
didn't feel well enough protected by
russia which moscow now
is likely to change trying to be a
peacekeeper in the region
indeed armenia has been in a difficult
position throughout
um especially because now azerbaijan is
saying
that turkey will play a role in the
so-called peacekeeping process yulia
i'll turn to you now
will the armenians really accept that
well right now turkey's role in this
so-called peacekeeping process is
somewhat
ambiguous we don't know what kind of a
role we are talking about but i guess
it's safe to assume that any kind of
turkish presence in the area
is a very very painful to accept for
many armenians but azerbaijan has
been pushing for this for a stronger
turkish involvement when it comes
to the future of nagorno-karabakh turkey
as azerbaijan's most important supporter
especially
militarily they have been providing the
azeri army
with weapons and training and my
impression is
that this has really edged the
leadership in baku on to continue with
their military operation
in nagorno-karabakh in the past week so
it's hardly surprising azerbaijan is
pushing
for turkey to get involved and it's
hardly surprising
to see the reactions here from turkish
high-ranking officials the foreign
minister
for example today hailed the latest
developments as
a significant gain so turkey too
is framing this as a success as a
victory for azerbaijan
and turkey yuri meantime
a really big part of this deal and this
is something that we have not
seen before this is a big first russian
peacekeepers will be deployed
to this region just walk us through
how big a deal this is strategically
from moscow
well ferret seems so and russia indeed
is going to send about 2
000 peacekeepers lots of armored
vehicles lots of special equipment on
nagorno-karabakh for the next five years
that sounds like a really big deal but
don't forget that russia
already has a military pact with armenia
and a military base in the country
and now russia just finally seems to
wake up
so to say and to do something concrete
militarily
in this conflict
yulia um i'd also like to ask you um
because there have already been
three attempts at a truce here
um since this conflict escalated in the
late summer early fall
all have failed what are the prospects
not only that this
ceasefire holds but also that there is a
longer term
piece reached between these two sides
well i think this time the circumstances
are different
and um everything happened really fast
since last night and
as we hear hundreds of russian troops
so-called peacekeepers are already
being deployed to nagorno-karabakh so uh
new facts are being created on the
ground right now so
the last three attempts at a ceasefire
were actually brokered by the so-called
minsk group that is part of the
organization for security
and cooperation in europe and this men's
group consists of russia but also france
and the united states these two players
the two western players seem to be out
of the pictures
out of the picture now so now it's
basically russia
and turkey it's also going to be
interesting to see
how the situation in armenia develops we
see that many people are extremely
frustrated with the developments are
angry
or protesting or demanding uh prime
minister paschinya to step
down so you have the very different
emotions here right now
victory on the azerbaijani side but
anger and frustration on the armenian
side julia han with the view from
istanbul
yuri rashetto in moscow thank you so
much to both of you
you