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What the Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire deal set in motion
Summary
A look back at the three-way agreement announced on 9 November 2020 and the sanctions on Belarus's leadership days earlier.
What did the region look like on 10 November 2020, the morning after a war was ended on paper? The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War had been halted by an agreement announced on 9 November, with the ceasefire due to take effect by Tuesday morning.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said he had signed the deal with Azerbaijan and Russia, and a Kremlin spokesman confirmed it. Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev, described it as a trilateral agreement. 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.
Pressure on Minsk
Elsewhere in the neighbourhood, the European Union had announced sanctions on 6 November against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. They also covered his son Viktor, police chief Ivan Tertel and Chief of Staff Igor Sergeenko. The measures came in the context of the 2020 Belarusian protests.
The two developments were separate, but both fell within days of each other: one reshaped a Caucasus conflict with Russia as a signatory and peacekeeper, the other tightened Brussels' stance toward Minsk.
