Turkey and Russia have agreed to monitor atruce over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region from a joint peacekeepingcentre, Ankara’s defence ministry said on Tuesday.
The deal comes after days of talks between Turkish and Russian officialsabout how the two regional powers would jointly implement a Moscow-brokered ceasefire signed this month between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Technical details for setting up the joint centre were concluded and anagreement was signed, the defence ministry said in a statement, adding thatit would begin work “as soon as possible.” Turkey is a staunch ally of Azerbaijan and has fervently defended its rightto take back the Nagorno-Karabakh lands Baku lost to ethnic Armenianseparatists in a 1988-94 war.
The truce deal ended more than six weeks of fighting that claimed more than1,400 lives and saw ethnic Armenians agree to withdraw from large parts of the contested region of Azerbaijan.
The Turkish parliament voted this month to deploy a mission to “establish ajoint centre with Russia and to carry out the centre’s activities”.
The deployment is set to last a year and its size will be determined byPresident RecepTayyipErdogan.
Russia has said repeatedly that Turkey will have no troops on the groundunder the truce deal’s terms.
