Russian-Turkish Aghdam monitoring center in Azerbaijan concludes mission

The Joint Russian-Turkish Monitoring Centre located in Aghdam, Azerbaijan, has officially ended its operations. The closure was marked by a ceremony attended by military officials and media representatives, including Colonel General Karim Valiyev, the First Deputy Minister of Defense and Chief of the General Staff of the Azerbaijan Army. Established in 2021, the center was designed to oversee the ceasefire in the Garabagh region and deter any violations, following a memorandum signed between Türkiye and Russia.

The cessation of the center's activities comes after the Azerbaijani Army carried out a counter-terrorism operation in 2020 and a second Karabakh war, which concluded with the Azerbaijani forces reclaiming control over the disputed territories. With the recent withdrawal of the Russian peacekeeping contingent from the region, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense declared that the objectives of the center had been accomplished. Consequently, the need for its continued operation has ceased.

The closure aligns with broader developments in the region, including the deportation of the Armenian population from Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023 and Azerbaijan's assertion of full territorial sovereignty after the departure of the Russian peacekeepers. The Ministry of National Defense of Türkiye had previously announced on April 18 that the Turkish-Russian Joint Monitoring Center would be suspended, signifying a shift in the post-conflict management of the area.