Azerbaijani MoD did not confirm information about withdrawal of troops from heights in Karabakh

There are no changes in the operational situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Azerbaijan reports today, without confirming the information that the Azerbaijani troops left the occupied heights. The reliability of reports about the withdrawal of troops is questionable, military expert Telman Abilov points out.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 3, Azerbaijan announced a "Retribution" operation in Nagorno-Karabakh in response to the murder of an Azerbaijani serviceman. The MoD also reported that the Azerbaijani Army had captured a number of dominant heights. Baku demanded an immediate removal of Armenian militaries from Nagorno-Karabakh and threatened "even more destructive countermeasures" in case of provocations on the contact line. The authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh called for the world community to respond to Baku's actions. In the evening on August 4, the Russian MoD announced that the peacemakers registered four violations of the ceasefire regime in Nagorno-Karabakh during the day.

Commanders of the Russian peacekeepers held meetings with the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides, during which, in order to de-escalate the conflict, it was decided that the Azerbaijani troops would withdraw from the occupied heights, Nagorno-Karabakh would withdraw its post from Mount Sarybaba a kilometre inland, and the peacekeepers would set up an observation post at the height of Sarybaba and send additional forces “to prevent the passage of Azerbaijani vehicles to the Lachin corridor,” the Russian publication “Russkaya Vesna” reported on the evening of August 4.

Today, an official of the press service for the MoD of Azerbaijan has not confirm the above information to the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent. According to the Azerbaijani MoD’s press officer, after the completion of operation “Retribution” on August 3, “there are no changes in the operational situation.” The press officer refrained from other comments.

Telman Abilov, an Azerbaijani military expert, the head of the “Military Lawyers” NCO, doubted the reliability of the information about the withdrawal of the Azerbaijani troops. According to the military expert, the reports could be not about the withdrawal of the Azerbaijani troops, but about the placement of additional posts of peacekeepers at the positions where the Armenian militaries are stationed.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 5, 2022 at 12:58 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.