What’s happening between Armenia & Azerbaijan?
By: Evelyne Kuo
Tags: Azerbaijan, Writing, Armenia, International Relations, Armed Conflict

The Nagorno-Karabakh War this year was an armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The war started on September 27th, 2020, and ended on November 10th, 2020. The war ended with the agreement signed by both countries. Turkey and Russia have also been involved in this conflict. Turkey supports and sends the army to help Azerbaijan due to the same religion (both are Islamic countries) while Russia supported Armenia — a Christian-dominated country. The conflict zone — which is also known as Nagorno-Karabakh, is internationally recognized as a part of Azerbaijan, but it’s also partially governed by Artsakh, which is an Armenian ethnic majority.

This area has long been a conflict zone due to its strategically crucial mountainous region in south-east Europe. For centuries, both Christian and Muslim powers have tried to take control over there. In the modern days, Armenia and Azerbaijan both joined a part of the Soviet Union in the 1920s. Nagorno-Karabakh was an ethnic-majority Armenian region, but the Soviet Union handed the power and control over to Azerbaijani authorities. Until the Soviet Union collapsed in the late 1980s, Nagorno-Karabakh officially voted to become a part of Armenia. Azerbaijan, on the other hand, planned to suppress the movement under International Law. This eventually led to the clashes. The conflict caused tens of thousands of casualties. Armenian government gained control over the region, but because of a ceasefire by Russia in 1994, the control over the region went back to Azerbaijan. However, since then, the region has been mostly governed by a group of ethnic Armenians which is backed by the Armenian government.

Over the three decades, there were multiple violations and ceasefire that happened in the region, and the most serious one was in 2016. OSCE Minsk has been attempting to mediate and the survey in this region indicated that the residents do not wish to be a part of Azerbaijan.

The recent clashes happened on September 27th, where Armenia claimed that Azerbaijan fired the first shot. On the flip side, Azerbaijan said they launched a counter-offensive in response to Armenia’s aggression. The total casualties on both sides may be around thousands. There were drones, sensors, long-range heavy artillery, and missile strikes involved in the war. Outside of these military powers, both governments also used state propaganda and official social media to spread the word. As the war was worsening, several countries in the United Nations were calling both sides to de-escalate the tensions and resume the negotiation. Later on, a humanitarian ceasefire led by Russia and facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross was agreed upon by both Armenia and Azerbaijan. They both decided to halt the war on October 10th, 2020 but then they disagreed again and decided to pause the plan to exchange wounded prisoners.

Following the battle of Shusha, both sides agreed to sign the peace agreement. The agreement was signed by the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. This peace agreement ended the hostilities and also according to the agreement, both sides could remain to maintain currently held areas and Armenia will withdraw troops.

The origin of this conflict is not just because of these two countries, it’s also because of the countries behind the scene — Russia and Turkey. Turkey has a long hostile relationship with Armenia because of the Armenian Genocide during the Ottoman Empire between 1914 to 1917. Until now, the Turkey government never admitted to massacres. This has been a rooted problem between Turkey and Armenia. On top of this issue, Turkey is an Islamic country and Armenia is a Christian country. This also added more confrontations between them and that’s also part of the reasons why Turkey supports Azerbaijan. Russia, on the other hand, maintains mutually good relationships with Armenia and Azerbaijan. Even though during this conflict, Russia leans more towards Armenia, it still keeps good relations with Azerbaijan.

Even though it’s a so-called “peace” deal, people in Armenia are furious about this decision and even broke into the parliament to protest. From what I see from different media outlets, some blame Armenia for continuously invading Azerbaijan’s territory, some defend for Armenian people who live in Nagorno-Karabakh. In my opinion, the most innocent are the residents in the Nagorno-Karabakh area. The residents are now forced to leave the area, with their personal belongings and livestock. Right before they left, they set fire to their own houses, watched them burn, and then headed on an unknown journey.

It’s hard to predict when the next conflict will happen. But if both governments aren’t willing to negotiate peacefully, and the countries behind the scene still try to manipulate this war, it will not only harm Armenia and Azerbaijan, but the entire Caucasus will also remain unstable.

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