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What the Karabakh deal meant by 11 November 2020
Summary
A look back at the ceasefire agreement and the EU sanctions on Belarus's leadership announced in the days before 11 November 2020.
What had changed in the region by 11 November 2020? Two developments from the preceding days shaped the picture, one in the South Caucasus and one on the EU's eastern border.
On 9 November 2020, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that he had signed a deal with Azerbaijan and Russia to end the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War by the following Tuesday morning. A Kremlin spokesman confirmed the deal. Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev, described it as a trilateral agreement, and Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russian peacekeepers would be deployed.
The terms were significant. The agreement ceded several districts to Azerbaijan, including the Lachin District. It also provided for a transport corridor through Armenia, linking Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan.
Separately, on 6 November 2020, the European Union announced sanctions against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, his son Viktor, police chief Ivan Tertel and Chief of Staff Igor Sergeenko. The measures came in the context of the 2020 Belarusian protests.
Taken together, the two announcements showed Russia taking a direct role as peacekeeper in the Caucasus, while the EU turned to sanctions on named Belarusian officials.
