Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow appears to have learned to live with increasingly hostile relations with the West. Thousands of kilometers east of Ukraine, however, relations with one country in the South Caucasus have become increasingly cold, in the aftermath of an entirely different
Belarus delivered advanced weapons to Azerbaijan for years, despite being in a Russia-led security alliance with Armenia, Politico reported on June 13, citing a cache of leaked documents.
Several thousand Russian "peacekeepers" were deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh in the fall of 2020 following another escalation of the years-long Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over the region. The withdrawal began in April.
Russia has begun withdrawing its "peacekeeping" contingent from Nagorno-Karabakh, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed on April 17, according to Russian independent media outlet Meduza.
As of 8:00 p.m. on Sept. 29, 98,625 people have left Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia, a spokesperson for Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Nazeli Baghdasaryan, said.
The president of the self-declared Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Samvel Shakhramanyan, signed a decree on Sept. 28 dissolving all official institutions of the breakaway state from Jan. 1, 2024, Karabakh authorities announced. The government of the self-declared republic will "cease to exist" as an entity from that day, the decree said.
Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov accused Armenia of revanchism and military provocations in an address to the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 23.
In the aftermath of the capitulation of ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, a number of protesters were detained in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, on Sept. 22, RF/ERL’s Armenian service reported.
Azerbaijani authorities project a situation in which ethnic Armenian fighters in Nagorno-Karabakh will receive amnesty in exchange for laying down their arms, said Hikmet Hajiyev, a foreign policy advisor to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, in an interview with Reuters.
The Azerbaijani military has violated its ceasefire agreement and is continuing to attack Stepanakert (Khankendi in Azerbaijani), the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenian media claimed on Sept. 21, citing the breakaway region's Interior Ministry.
On Sept. 19, just under three years after the end of the last major war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Baku moved decisively to finish what it started in 2020. Shortly after the announcement of the launching of “anti-terrorist” measures by the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry,
Azerbaijan has launched a military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh with the claimed "goal of restoring the constitutional order," the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan said on Sept. 19. In Stepanakert (Khankendi), the de-facto capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, air raid sounded and there are reports of gunfire and explosions.
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