Why Are Armenia and Azerbaijan Heading to War?

Azerbaijan declares cease-fire, but fighting continues in breakaway enclave. Armenia holds the heights, making Azerbaijani advances into the difficult mountain territory extremely hard.

The Soviet collapse caused a brutal conflict that’s remained unresolved for three decades. The two neighbours have been locked in conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan that has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a war … The world needs experts to engage with policy more than ever. 'Every house has bullet marks': living in one of Europe's frozen conflicts. But after Azerbaijan managed to get Safarov transferred from Hungary to Azerbaijan eight years into his life sentence for murder, the president immediately pardoned him, promoted him to major, gave him an apartment, and awarded him back pay. Why Are Armenia and Azerbaijan Heading to War? The heart of the war is Nagorno-Karabakh, a beautiful highland region—its name literally means “mountainous black garden”—that plays a powerful role in the romantic imagination of both countries.

Independent assessments still rank Azerbaijan’s military readiness poorly; the army is unhappy, corrupt, and inefficient, with the desertion rate running at close to 20 percent. In order to keep a stronger position in negotiations and avoid allegations of aggression, Armenia has maintained Nagorno-Karabakh as a nominally independent republic rather than incorporating it into its own territory. Firing and skirmishes on the border are common: The International Crisis Group has reported close to 300 incidents since 2015. Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar was quick to blame Armenia for the crisis Sunday. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called on the global community to prevent Turkey from intervening in the crisis. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, Moscow bureau chief and foreign correspondent. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, had separate calls with his counterparts in Armenia and Azerbaijan on Monday to call for an immediate ceasefire.

Each side blamed each other for the crisis Sunday; both declared martial law as tensions escalated. Turkey, which has close ethnic and cultural ties with Azerbaijan, has voiced strong support for its government in the conflict. The regime has restricted aid to those who fled Afrin in 2018, leaving them without test kits, basic supplies, or access to specialist care. The two neighbours have been locked in conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan that has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a war there ended in 1994. International efforts to settle the conflict have stalled. On July 12, skirmishes broke out on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Moscow was “deeply worried” about the fighting and stands ready to mediate. And after an initial retreat, Armenia took the upper hand, eventually resulting in a Moscow-brokered 1994 cease-fire that left Armenia in control of most of Nagorno-Karabakh. The defence ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan said one of the drones was shot down. Fighting between the two is normal, with hundreds of incidents over the last few years, but this round of violence threatens to spill over into a full-blown war, as it did in the 1990s.

The latest incident began when Armenian and Azerbaijani troops exchanged fire in the northern section of their border. An unexpected Azerbaijani surge could also prompt much more direct intervention by Moscow, most likely to enforce a rapid cease-fire. Earlier, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry claimed to have taken control of several villages in Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia announced the full mobilization of its military as the situation threatened to spiral out of control. The Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, on Monday accused Azerbaijan of provoking the clashes and warned that it would “bear responsibility for the unpredictable consequences”. Baku, which sees the region as its territory, accused Armenia of doing the shelling. An Armenian soldier on the frontline where fighting with Azerbaijan began on Sunday. Twitter: @BeijingPalmer. There’s also the worrying possibility of the conflict spreading—Turkey, for instance, has come heavily out in favor of Baku, thanks to strong ties between Azerbaijanis and Turks and Ankara’s long-standing antagonism toward the Armenians, who keep bringing up the matter of the still-denied Turkish genocide of Armenians in 1915.
Profits from oil brought massive investment in new equipment between 2008 and 2014, but the crash in prices has left the country struggling financially amid political tumult and brutal repression, and the army lacks the training and doctrine to make efficient use of the weaponry it has bought.
Source: Armenian Defense Ministry via AP Source: Armenian Defense Ministry via AP With weeks to go before Azerbaijan is due to start piping gas to the European Union, a decades-old conflict … But Armenia has no desire to give up its de facto control, and Azerbaijan has no incentive to relinquish its claim—especially as nationalism plays a critical role in keeping leaders in power in both countries, where both publics heavily oppose compromise. Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic ties. James Palmer is a deputy editor at Foreign Policy. (Some 2,000 former mujahideen fought for Azerbaijan, but for almost entirely mercenary reasons.) UN urges calm after Azerbaijani general killed in fighting involving artillery and drones, Last modified on Tue 14 Jul 2020 20.22 BST.

The Republican and Democratic Parties Are Heading for Collapse. The Soviet collapse caused a brutal conflict that’s remained unresolved for three decades. As the war progressed, Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former Soviet Republics, entangled themselves in a protracted, undeclared war in the mountainous … Both the United States and Russia have played a significant role in the long-running but largely futile attempts at finding a permanent resolution to the issue. Both Russia and Iran have offered to negotiate an end to this newest round of hostilities. Authorities in the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region said Sunday that Azerbaijan had shelled the capital, Stepanakert, and nearby settlements.

Stepanyan also claimed the Azerbaijani military used civilians as shields, placing artillery close to the village of Dondar Gushchu in the Tovuz district about 6 miles from the border.