Day: September 25, 2023

It was hard to imagine any of Russia’s neighbors deciding this was a good time to start a war, given the bloody spectacle of Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. Yet Azerbaijan did exactly that on Tuesday, launching a “local anti-terrorist operation’’ against the separatist enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. And it may already have won. Fighters in the predominantly ethnic Armenian region within Azerbaijan in essence surrendered on Wednesday, agreeing to lay down their arms in a deal that was brokered by Russian peacekeepers. Handled right, this could be positive, ending more than three decades of often bloody conflict. But given the dispute’s brutal history, that will demand uncommon self-restraint on the part of the Azeris.

The struggle over Karabakh has been under way on and off since before the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991. There have been two wars, near constant skirmishes, tens of thousands of deaths and bouts of ethnic cleansing by both sides.

With Putin both preoccupied in Ukraine and hostile to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and the West struggling to cope with another ex-Soviet conflict, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev saw an opportunity to seize victory.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan is to meet his ally Azeri President Ilham Aliyev on Monday (25 September), as thousands of ethnic Armenians began an exodus from Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan defeated the breakaway region’s fighters last week.

Erdoğan will pay a one-day visit to Azerbaijan’s autonomous Nahichivan exclave – a strip of Azeri territory nestled between Armenia, Iran and Turkey – to discuss with Aliyev the situation in the Karabakh region, the Turkish president’s office said.

Turkey aims at establishing a corridor connecting Nahichivan to mainland Azerbaijan, which according to Ankara would constitute a Turkic axe spanning from Turkey’s mainland trough the Uigurs in China.

The Armenians of Karabakh, a territory internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but previously beyond its control, were forced into a ceasefire last week after a 24-hour military operation by the much-larger Azerbaijani military.

On Sunday, the Nagorno-Karabakh leadership told Reuters the region’s 120,000 Armenians did not want to live as part of Azerbaijan for fear of persecution and ethnic cleansing and started fleeing the area.

If 120,000 people go down the Lachin corridor to Armenia, the small South Caucasian country could face a humanitarian crisis.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Friday that space had been allocated for at least 40,000 people.

Russia’s RIA news agency cited early on Monday an Armenian government statement saying that more than 1,500 people had crossed into Armenia from Nagorno-Karabkah as of midnight (2000 GMT).

Those with fuel had started to drive down the Lachin corridor toward the border with Armenia, according to a Reuters reporter in the Karabakh capital known as Stepanakert by Armenia and Khankendi by Azerbaijan.

Reuters pictures showed dozens of cars driving out of the capital toward the corridor’s mountainous curves.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars over the enclave in 30 years — with Azerbaijan gaining back swathes of territory in and around Nagorno-Karabakh in a six-week conflict in 2020.

Erdoğan, who backed the Azeris with weaponry in the 2020 conflict, said last week he supported the aims of the Azerbaijan’s latest military operation but played no part in it.

Armenia says more than 200 people were killed and 400 wounded in last week’s Azeri operation, a hostility condemned by the United States and other Western allies of Armenia.

On Sunday, Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said it had confiscated more military equipment from Armenian separatists, including rockets, artillery shells, mines and ammunition.

The Karabakh Armenians are not accepting Azerbaijan’s promise to guarantee their rights as the region is integrated. Armenia called for an immediate deployment of a UN mission to monitor human rights and security in the region.

“Ninety-nine point nine percent prefer to leave our historic lands,” David Babayan, an adviser to Samvel Shahramanyan, president of the self-styled Republic of Artsakh, told Reuters.

It is not clear where 120,000 people could be housed in Armenia, whose population is just 2.8 million, ahead of winter.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had started registering people who were looking for unaccompanied children or who had lost contact with loved ones.

For Azerbaijan, the exit of Armenians from Karabakh is a major victory that brings an apparent close to many years of war and squabbling over the region.

President Ilham Aliyev said his iron fist had consigned the idea of an independent ethnic Armenian Karabakh to history and that the region would be turned into a “paradise” as part of Azerbaijan.

Upcoming EU mediation

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will hold a pre-arranged meeting in Spain next month despite Baku’s lightning offensive against Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh, Yerevan said on Sunday.

The talks on 5 October in Grenada will include French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and European Council chief Charles Michel, the Armenian security council said in a statement, adding that officials will meet to prepare the talks next week.

(Edited by Georgi Gotev)

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08:19, 25 September 2023

On the sidelines of 78th United Nations General Assembly, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar met the Armenian foreign minister Ararat Mirzoyan in New York on Sunday, September 24, as the two leaders affirmed a strong bilateral partnership. The meeting comes amid thousands of Nagorno-Karabakhs’s ethnic Armenians who have started crossing over to Armenia after Azerbaijan’s military offensive. 

Indian External Affairs Minister Dr Jaishakar took to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to announce New Delhi’s strong relationship with Armenia after meeting Mirzoyan. “On the sidelines of UNGA78, met with Ararat Mirzoyan FM of Armenia. Appreciate his sharing assessment of the current situation in the Caucasus. Affirmed our strong bilateral relationship,” said Jaishankar on X. 

On the sidelines of #UNGA78 , met with @AraratMirzoyan FM of Armenia.

Appreciate his sharing assessment of the current situation in the Caucasus. Affirmed our strong bilateral relationship. pic.twitter.com/T10QFK2RKg

— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) September 24, 2023

The Armenian foreign minister also informed that he discussed the security situation in South Caucasus, referring to the region comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. He said that during the meeting he asserted that ethnic cleansing needs to be prevented in the region. “On sidelines of #UNGA78 met w/my colleague, FM @DrSJaishankar. Discussed security situation in #SouthCaucasus & Azerbaijani aggression in #NagornoKarabakh. Stressed imperative for clear steps to restrain efforts to destabilize the region & prevent another ethnic cleansing,” said the Armenian Foreign Minister in a post on X. 

India’s growing ties with Armenia 

India and Armenia share a bilateral relationship, after New Delhi recognised the country in 1991. In recent times, New Delhi has been strengthening its relationship with Armenia as an attempt to look beyond its traditional allies like Russia and Iran in the region. India has been supplying weapons to Armenia, thus, strengthening its defence against Azerbaijan, with which it has been locked into a conflict in the Nogorno-Kharabakh region. 

In July this year, India exported the Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher System (MBRLS) Pinaka, designed and developed indigenously. Pinaka strengthens Armenia, given Azerbaijan’s constant use of drones. In addition to the Pinaka system, Armenia acquired four indigenous Swathi weapons-locating radars from India in 2020.

New Delhi-Armenia ties raises eyebrows 

However, India’s growing ties with Armenia have evoked strong reactions from Azerbaijan. In January 2023, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev had criticised India’s burgeoning military cooperation with Armenia calling it an unfriendly step. Further, Azerbaijan is a part of an informal arrangement with Pakistan and Turkey where all three vow to support each other. 

Jaishankar also held separate bilateral meetings with his counterparts from other countries including Mexico, Bosnia, Herzegovina. The Indian external Affairs Minister is on a nine-day visit, beginning from the UN General Assembly.  The minister is scheduled to address the General Debate from the UN General Assembly hall on Tuesday. He would also be hosting an event on Global south as well.

STEPANAKERT, Azerbaijan, Sept 25 (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will meet Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Monday as ethnic Armenians fled the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh after a lightening military operation that has changed the contours of the South Caucasus.

The Armenians of Karabakh, a territory internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, were forced into a ceasefire last week after a 24-hour military operation by the much-larger Azerbaijani military.

The leadership of the 120,000 Armenians who call Karabakh home told Reuters on Sunday that they did not want to live as part of Azerbaijan and that they would leave for Armenia because they feared persecution and ethnic cleansing.

As of 5 a.m. (0100 GMT) on Monday, more than 2,900 people from Nagorno-Karabakh had crossed into Armenia, the government of Armenia said as it rushed to prepare for thousands of refugees.

Erdogan will pay a one-day visit to Azerbaijan’s autonomous Nakhchivan exclave – a strip of Azeri territory nestled among Armenia, Iran and Turkey – to discuss with Aliyev the situation in the Karabakh region, the Turkish president’s office said.

“Bilateral relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan will be discussed, and views on current global and regional matters, particularly the latest developments in Karabakh, will be exchanged,” the presidency said.

They will attend a ceremony for a gas pipeline that will bring gas to Nakhchivan and inaugurate a newly modernised military installation in the exclave, the Turkish presidency said.

In the Karabakh capital, known as Stepanakert by Armenia and Khankendi by Azerbaijan, those with fuel started on Sunday night to drive down the Lachin corridor toward the border with Armenia, according to a Reuters reporter.

Reuters pictures showed dozens of cars driving out of the capital toward the corridor’s mountainous curves.

The Azerbaijani victory changes the delicate balance of power in the South Caucasus region, a patchwork of ethnicities crisscrossed with oil and gas pipelines where Russia, the United States, Turkey and Iran are jostling for influence.

KARABAKH

Nagorno-Karabakh, known as Artsakh by Armenians, lies in an area that over centuries has come under the sway of Persians, Turks, Russians, Ottomans and Soviets.

It was claimed by both Azerbaijan and Armenia after the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917. In Soviet times it was designated an autonomous region within Azerbaijan.

As the Soviet Union crumbled, the Armenians there threw off nominal Azerbaijani control and captured neighbouring territory in what is now known as the First Karabakh War. From 1988-1994 about 30,000 people were killed and more than a million people, mostly Azerbaijanis, displaced.

Azerbaijan gained back swathes of territory in and around Nagorno-Karabakh in a war in 2020.

Erdogan, who backed Azerbaijan with weaponry in the 2020 conflict, said last week he supported the aims of the Azerbaijan’s latest military operation but played no part in it.

Armenia says more than 200 people were killed and 400 wounded in last week’s Azeri operation. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who is facing calls to resign from protesters in Yerevan, has blamed Russia for failing Armenia.

Pashinyan has warned that some unidentified forces were seeking to stoke a coup against him and has accused Russian media of engaging in an information war against him.

The United States has said it was deeply concerned by Azerbaijan’s military operation, which Baku launched on Sept. 19 after what it said were terrorist attacks on its civilians by Karabakh fighters.

On Sunday, Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said it had confiscated more military equipment from Armenian separatists, including rockets, artillery shells, mines and ammunition.

Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh said the fighters had given up 1,200 weapons and 130,000 units of ammunition, and that 125 tonnes of food and 65 tonnes of fuel had been delivered.

Armenia called for an immediate deployment of a U.N. mission to monitor human rights and security in the region.

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