Nagorno-Karabakh

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Azerbaijan on Sunday for a two-day state visit, looking to bolster Russia’s relationship with the aggressive Islamist power even as relations with Armenia — Russia’s former best friend in the region — deteriorate.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Wednesday that his country will withdraw from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russia-dominated security bloc that includes the former Soviet territories in Central Asia.

Armenian organizations were outraged by President Joe Biden’s Armenian Remembrance Day statement on Wednesday because he did not mention modern genocide against Armenian Christians of the Nagorno-Karabakh region completed this year by the conquering armies of Muslim Azerbaijan.

Officials in Istanbul banned a ceremony attempting to mark the anniversary of the beginning of the Armenian genocide organized for Wednesday, an event perpetrated by the last remnants of the Ottoman Empire and continuously denied by Ankara to this day.

Freedom House rates the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Azerbaijan conquered in 2023, as the most unfree place on Earth.

United Nations relief personnel arrived in Nagorno-Karabakh on Sunday to discover that nearly all of the ethnic Armenian Christians who have lived in the region for centuries have fled, leaving only “ghost towns” for invading Muslim-majority Azerbaijan.

The separatist government of Nagorno-Karabakh announced its own dissolution on Thursday, ceding total control of the region to Azerbaijan after surrendering to a swift and overwhelming Azeri assault two weeks ago.

The congressional Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, chaired by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), held a hearing on Wednesday to discuss the plight of Armenian Christians trapped by an Azerbaijani blockade in the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region. The commission heard testimony from experts who said Azerbaijan’s actions clearly constituted genocide, with complicity from Turkey and the Islamist forces it has dispatched into the region.

Armenia on Sunday observed the 108th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide with a procession of 10,000 torchbearers marching through the capital city of Yerevan.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s remarks to the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday focused on what he described as “the latest Azerbaijani unprovoked aggression.” Armenia and Azerbaijan are once again skirmishing along their contested border, each side accusing the other of violating a cease-fire negotiated after they fought a six-week war in 2020.

2021 was a year of mounting apprehension about the next great power conflict – perhaps triggered by a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, or a Russian invasion of Ukraine – coupled with uncertainty about what the “next war” will look like. 

Drones are the hot new item in the Middle East’s perpetual warfare, deployed by national armies, militias, and terrorist groups with increasing confidence and proficiency. 

Azerbaijan began joint military exercises with Turkey on Tuesday, a week after Iran held its own border exercises and accused the Azeris of joining Israel’s “Zionist regime.” Azerbaijan also pushed back by shuttering a mosque linked to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday that Azeri forces appear to have deliberately bombed a Christian church in the Nagorno-Karabakh town of Shushi during recent fighting over the breakaway territory between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenian officials and Azerbaijan on Saturday accused each other of breaching a peace deal that ended six weeks of fierce fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, and Azerbaijan’s leader threatened to crush Armenian forces with an “iron fist.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the Armenian people on Thursday that the unspecified “struggle” against them will “continue from now on many other fronts” in remarks at a victory parade in Azerbaijan.

A video allegedly showing an Azerbaijani soldier beheading an elderly Armenian man surfaced online in recent days, the Armenian news site panarmenian.net reported on Tuesday.

Azerbaijan held a victory parade in the capital of Baku on Thursday — with close military ally Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in attendance — celebrating the nation’s capture of territory in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported Thursday.

A video circulating on social media this week appears to show Azerbaijani soldiers desecrating Armenian graves in Nagorno-Karabakh, adding to growing accusations of similar crimes.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has never made a secret of his ambition to become a historic regional leader. His nostalgia for the Ottoman Empire long ago became a source of concern for observers who think he might seriously attempt to bring it back. His detractors mock him as “Sultan Erdogan,” but he might not find that name insulting. Erdogan flexed his military muscle in several recent conflicts. He might be warming up for something bigger, or he may have already overtaxed Turkey’s military strength.

Lawmakers in Turkey voted on Tuesday to allow Turkey to send troops into Azerbaijan for “peacekeeping” purposes, despite Azerbaijan and Armenia reaching a peace agreement independently of Turkey over a week ago.

Villagers living in Nagorno-Karabakh burned down their houses before fleeing to Armenia this weekend to prevent Azerbaijan, which will soon control the territory, from using them.

MOSCOW (AP) — The president of Azerbaijan is promising that Christian churches will be protected when the strongly Muslim country takes possession of areas formerly controlled by Armenians.

Dozens of cars leaving Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, lined a country road leading out of the war-torn territory on November 11.

KALBAJAR, Azerbaijan (AP) — In a bitter farewell to his home of 21 years, Garo Dadevusyan wrenched off its metal roof and prepared to set the stone house on fire. Thick smoke poured from houses that his neighbours had already torched before fleeing this ethnic Armenian village about to come under Azerbaijani control.

Armenians nationwide have draped hundreds of black banners in their local communities bearing the names and ages of soldiers and volunteer fighters killed in the recent conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.

The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a peace deal on Monday to end their recent fighting over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Regional power Russia brokered the agreement, which is expected to take effect starting November 10.

Armenian protesters stormed a government building in the capital of Yerevan on Tuesday after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan declared a ceasefire with Azerbaijan in the ongoing conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

A Syrian mercenary recently captured while fighting for Azerbaijan against Armenia in its ongoing war over Nagorno-Karabakh said on Wednesday that his recruiters instructed him and fellow mercenaries to “slaughter all civilians and soldiers” of an Armenian village they attempted to capture.

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia’s leader urged Russia on Saturday to consider providing security assistance to end more than a month of fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, and both sides in the hostilities accused each other of breaking a mutual pledge not to target residential areas hours after it was made.

The Prime Minister of Armenia has warned the European Union on Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasing aggression, saying that it “should expect Turkey near Vienna” in a “not so distant future”.

Armenia’s foreign affairs ministry said that Azerbaijani forces bombed a maternity hospital in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, on Wednesday.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpoor said on Wednesday that Tehran will not tolerate any threat to the security of Iran’s border areas from ongoing clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said on Sunday it deployed troops along Iran’s border with Azerbaijan and Armenia.

The U.S. State Department on Sunday said it had “reaffirmed” Armenia and Azerbaijan’s commitment to abide by a ceasefire previously agreed to in Moscow this month.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg insisted during a press conference Thursday that the military alliance is not playing and will not play a role in the ongoing conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, a conflict NATO ally Turkey has reportedly flooded with imported Syrian mercenaries.