Anarcha-feminists responded to the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by denouncing the nationalism which drove the conflict, arguing that the conflict was used as a distraction by the authoritarian regimes in Armenia and Azerbaijan to justify the continued oppression of their own people. They claimed that the only way to achieve peace was through the destruction of the patriarchal and militarist systems that perpetuate war, by means of non-violent methods of collective direct action. Furthermore, anarchists criticized the subsequent Yerevan hostage crisis as a product of nationalism, misogyny and statism, seeing no point in participating in the solidarity protests, instead hoping for anti-government protests to develop a distinct element of class struggle. Anarchists also described the Velvet revolution as mere "regime change", which changed little materially about the Armenian state. They analyzed how it would affect the country's alliance with Russia, as well as the potential for future clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh.