Armenia's new source of tension

Saturday, March 11, 2023.

After Georgia and Moldova, Transnistria is now another source of tension in Russia's geopolitical and strategic soft underbelly.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are simply trying to buy time and allies guided by the great powers.

Turkey and Iran are directly involved in the region.

Especially Iran, which is now a strategic alliance with Russia, is in favor of Armenia, which it is willing to equip with Drones since it fears that the Azeris wish to incite riots in the significant minority of their compatriots living in Iran.

The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast map.

In such a case, Azerbaijan will lose the advantage in drones thanks to Turkey, which recently gave it a military victory against Armenia.

Specifically, in a recent statement, the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan states: "Armenia seeks tension in the region," announcing that the Armenian army opened fire on the positions of Azerbaijan and, at the same time, stating that the administration of Yerevan is trying to create artificial tension in the region.

The announcement of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that from 9:30 p.m. yesterday to 4:15 a.m. today, the positions of the Azerbaijani army on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border and in the Karabakh region were fired upon 23 times by the Armenian military and illegal Armenian forces.

The statement, which referred to the Azerbaijani military returning fire, included the following:

"The Armenian Armed Forces provoke our army to respond by systematically firing at our positions and trying to create false opinion among the European Union (EU) political mission representatives operating on the border to create artificial tension in the region.

 We state once again that the entire responsibility for the provocations carried out by Armenia and the resulting humanitarian losses rests with the Yerevan administration.

Armenian Armed Forces units fired from their positions against Yukhari Shorzha, Ashaghi Shorzha, Gunashli, and Azizli settlements of Basarkechar district, Istisu settlement, and Chambarak district, using weapons of various calibers.

In addition, members of illegal Armenian armed detachments on the territory of Azerbaijan, where Russian peacekeeping forces are temporarily deployed, fired at the positions of the Azerbaijani army stationed in the directions of Khojavend, Lachin, Khojaly region, and Shusha city.

Azerbaijan Army Units have taken adequate retaliatory measures in all the mentioned directions.

Tensions in the Karabakh region flared once again, as at least two Azerbaijani soldiers were killed last Sunday when Armenian forces opened fire on them after Azerbaijani troops tried to stop and search vehicles making "illegal military transport" through of the Khankendi-Khalfali-Turshsu road, where a Russian peacekeeping contingent has temporarily settled in the wake of the fall 2020 conflict in the Karabakh region and the January 2021 agreement with Baku and Yerevan.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been strained since 1991 when the Armenian army seized Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven neighboring regions.

New: landmark decision of the International Court of Justice of The Hague against Azerbaijan.

We have had critical recent developments from the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which, serving truth and justice, with its recent decision, calls on the government of Azerbaijan to stop the blockade in Artsakh and to do everything for the unhindered movement of citizens and goods in the Lachin Corridor with Armenia.

The ongoing blockade of the Lachin Corridor is not just an isolated case of Armenia-Azerbaijan confrontation but yet another evidence of systematic violence devised by the Azerbaijani authorities to carry out ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan's ultimate goal was to create all the conditions of humanitarian disaster necessary to break the spirit of the Armenian residents of Nagorno-Karabakh, forcing them either to leave their homes or to accept their final defeat and abandonment by all.

A restored Armenian T-72, knocked out of commission while attacking Azeri positions in Askeran District, serves as a war memorial on the outskirts of Stepanakert.

Chronology.

War and secession

On February 13, 1988, Armenians began demonstrating in the capital Stepanakert in favor of unification with the Republic of Armenia.

Six days later, there were mass marches in Yerevan.

On February 22, 1988, a large group of Azerbaijanis marched from Aghdam against the Armenian population in Askeran.

Large numbers of refugees fled their homes in Armenia and Azerbaijan as the violence began against the minority populations of the respective countries.

On December 10, 1991, in a referendum boycotted by local Azeris, Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh approved the creation of an independent state, and a full-scale war broke out between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh, with the latter receiving support from Armenia.

Ceasefire after 1994

Ilham Aliyev, Dmitry Medvedev, and Serzh Sargsyan in Moscow on November 2, 2008

Despite the ceasefire, deaths due to armed conflicts continued.

  On January 25, 2005, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted PACE Resolution 1416, which condemned ethnic cleansing against the Azeris.

The borders that emerged after the ceasefire remained untouched until 2020 when a new war led to the recapture of a significant part of Artsakh by Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan is South Eastern Europe's primary natural gas supplier.

And instability in the European Continent and the South Caucasus continues.

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