After two days of war, Azerbaijan has established military control over an Armenian enclave on its soil. It is a potentially crucial development in a dispute that has resulted in two wars since the fall of the Soviet Union, and could result in the displacement of thousands more people in areas where there are already hundreds of thousands of refugees.
The South Caucasus, a territory that for centuries has served as a nexus of the geopolitical interests of Russia, Turkey and Western countries, is expected to experience a change in power dynamics with the return of the enclave to Azerbaijani authority.
The conflict between the two former Soviet republics over Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave within Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized borders and home to tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians, has its roots in decades of brutality and geopolitical competition.
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Following an agreement by Armenian rebels to stop hostilities, Azerbaijan on Wednesday declared victory in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and recaptured the breakaway province.
There have apparently been 200 deaths in the fighting between the two countries.
Jump to
- What is the dispute about?
- What is Nagorno-Karabakh?
- How did the last fight turn out?
- There is a peace conversation
What is the dispute about?
Nagorno-Karabakh declared its independence with the goal of joining Armenia as the Soviet Union dissolved. Tens of thousands of people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced as a result of the fighting that followed the proclamation.
Armenia retained control of the region and seven neighboring regions after a ceasefire in 1994.
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In 2020, a second conflict broke out, displacing tens of thousands of people and causing thousands more deaths. This time, Azerbaijan used Israeli and Turkish assault drones to retake a large part of the area and its surroundings.
Moscow, which has historically served as Armenia’s protector, mediated a ceasefire and sent approximately 2,000 peacekeepers to the area. The government of Azerbaijan, whose economy has benefited from oil and gas exports, has been working to secure its military victories from 2020 by negotiating a longer-lasting peace deal and increasingly obstructing land travel between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
What is Nagorno-Karabakh?
Credit: NPR
The South Caucasus Mountains contain the mountainous area of Nagorno-Karabakh, often called Artsakh. Although it is widely recognized as part of Azerbaijan, the majority of its population is of Armenian descent.
Although the leadership of the region is close to Armenia, neither the UN nor any other nation has given it official recognition. Both the Christians of Armenia and mainly the Muslim Turks of Azerbaijan claim strong historical ties to the region.
The two populations have been at odds for more than a century.
How did the last fight turn out?
Credit: AFP
Azerbaijan began a major military campaign in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh on September 19 of this year.
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry claimed that Armenian landmines had killed two Azerbaijani citizens and four police officers in response to a terrorist threat. The Armenian government refuted this claim. One day after Azerbaijan began its military operation, Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian authorities agreed to a ceasefire mediated by Russian peacekeepers.
The AFP news agency quoted President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan as saying: “Azerbaijan restored its sovereignty as a result of successful anti-terrorist measures in Karabakh.”
There is a peace conversation
Credit: Press Office of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia Photo Pan
Today, Azerbaijan and the Armenian rebels will hold peace negotiations. More than 200 kilometers west of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, peace negotiations will take place in Yevlakh. The UN Security Council has called an extraordinary meeting to discuss today’s crisis, which is the background to the peace negotiations.
According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian peacekeepers will mediate talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn