Azerbaijan

The federal government allowed an Azerbaijan national to secure naturalized American citizenship as he was molesting his children, the Department of Justice (DOJ) reveals.

Drones are the hot new item in the Middle East’s perpetual warfare, deployed by national armies, militias, and terrorist groups with increasing confidence and proficiency. 

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said Tehran “will not tolerate geopolitical change in the Caucasus” while visiting Moscow on Wednesday, adding that Iran has “serious concerns about the presence of terrorists and Zionists in this region,” Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Azerbaijan began joint military exercises with Turkey on Tuesday, a week after Iran held its own border exercises and accused the Azeris of joining Israel’s “Zionist regime.” Azerbaijan also pushed back by shuttering a mosque linked to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran held military drills near its border with Azerbaijan on Tuesday, dismissing complaints from its neighbor by invoking Iranian “sovereignty” and declaring it “will not tolerate the presence of the Zionist regime near our borders.” Azerbaijan is a majority-Muslim nation that has warm relations with Israel, which evidently makes it part of the “Zionist regime” in the eyes of Iran.

(AP) — Stadium security in Baku appeared to confiscate a rainbow flag from two Danish fans ahead of the European Championship quarterfinal match between the Czech Republic and Denmark.

BERLIN (AP) – A lawmaker with German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party has died after collapsing on a plane during a flight home to Germany.

The local government in south-central Konya, Turkey, announced this week that it would turn a fully renovated 19th-century Armenian church into a “humor art house” after barring worshippers from using the church for years, multiple reports revealed Thursday.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday that Azeri forces appear to have deliberately bombed a Christian church in the Nagorno-Karabakh town of Shushi during recent fighting over the breakaway territory between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

An Iranian lawmaker threatened Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Twitter over the weekend after Erdoğan recited a poem last week allegedly promoting separatist sentiment among Iran’s Azeri minority.

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenian officials and Azerbaijan on Saturday accused each other of breaching a peace deal that ended six weeks of fierce fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, and Azerbaijan’s leader threatened to crush Armenian forces with an “iron fist.”

Anti-government demonstrations once again took place in Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, on Friday demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan after Azerbaijan held a victory parade to celebrate its seizure of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the Armenian people on Thursday that the unspecified “struggle” against them will “continue from now on many other fronts” in remarks at a victory parade in Azerbaijan.

A video allegedly showing an Azerbaijani soldier beheading an elderly Armenian man surfaced online in recent days, the Armenian news site panarmenian.net reported on Tuesday.

Azerbaijan held a victory parade in the capital of Baku on Thursday — with close military ally Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in attendance — celebrating the nation’s capture of territory in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported Thursday.

A video circulating on social media this week appears to show Azerbaijani soldiers desecrating Armenian graves in Nagorno-Karabakh, adding to growing accusations of similar crimes.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday that Turkey sees itself as a part of Europe, but he called on the European Union to “keep your promises” on issues such as the country’s membership bid and refugees.

New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick urged the U.S. government to “take action against Turkey” on Wednesday for its “unprovoked and deadly attacks on Armenians” in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Lawmakers in Turkey voted on Tuesday to allow Turkey to send troops into Azerbaijan for “peacekeeping” purposes, despite Azerbaijan and Armenia reaching a peace agreement independently of Turkey over a week ago.

Villagers living in Nagorno-Karabakh burned down their houses before fleeing to Armenia this weekend to prevent Azerbaijan, which will soon control the territory, from using them.

MOSCOW (AP) — The president of Azerbaijan is promising that Christian churches will be protected when the strongly Muslim country takes possession of areas formerly controlled by Armenians.

Dozens of cars leaving Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, lined a country road leading out of the war-torn territory on November 11.

KALBAJAR, Azerbaijan (AP) — In a bitter farewell to his home of 21 years, Garo Dadevusyan wrenched off its metal roof and prepared to set the stone house on fire. Thick smoke poured from houses that his neighbours had already torched before fleeing this ethnic Armenian village about to come under Azerbaijani control.

The Turkish ultranationalist Grey Wolves attended a protest in the multicultural city of Malmö, Sweden after the group was banned in France.

Thousands of Armenians have taken to the streets of the capital Yerevan since Monday to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian following the agreement of a peace deal with Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Armenians nationwide have draped hundreds of black banners in their local communities bearing the names and ages of soldiers and volunteer fighters killed in the recent conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.

The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a peace deal on Monday to end their recent fighting over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Regional power Russia brokered the agreement, which is expected to take effect starting November 10.

Armenian protesters stormed a government building in the capital of Yerevan on Tuesday after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan declared a ceasefire with Azerbaijan in the ongoing conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

A Syrian mercenary recently captured while fighting for Azerbaijan against Armenia in its ongoing war over Nagorno-Karabakh said on Wednesday that his recruiters instructed him and fellow mercenaries to “slaughter all civilians and soldiers” of an Armenian village they attempted to capture.

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia’s leader urged Russia on Saturday to consider providing security assistance to end more than a month of fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, and both sides in the hostilities accused each other of breaking a mutual pledge not to target residential areas hours after it was made.

French police used tear gas to disperse a large gathering of dozens of Turkish ultra-nationalists who were chanting anti-Macron and anti-Armenian slogans in Dijon.

The Prime Minister of Armenia has warned the European Union on Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasing aggression, saying that it “should expect Turkey near Vienna” in a “not so distant future”.

Armenia’s foreign affairs ministry said that Azerbaijani forces bombed a maternity hospital in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, on Wednesday.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpoor said on Wednesday that Tehran will not tolerate any threat to the security of Iran’s border areas from ongoing clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said on Sunday it deployed troops along Iran’s border with Azerbaijan and Armenia.

The U.S. State Department on Sunday said it had “reaffirmed” Armenia and Azerbaijan’s commitment to abide by a ceasefire previously agreed to in Moscow this month.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg insisted during a press conference Thursday that the military alliance is not playing and will not play a role in the ongoing conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, a conflict NATO ally Turkey has reportedly flooded with imported Syrian mercenaries.

Armenia and Azerbaijan’s foreign ministers will meet U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington, DC, on Friday to discuss ongoing fighting between the countries in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The government of Armenia accused the Azeri military on Monday of beheading an Armenian soldier in Nagorno-Karabakh, taking photos with his severed head, posting them on social media, then using the dead soldier’s mobile phone to call his brother and mock him with “hate speech.”

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Wednesday that his country’s military forces have suffered “numerous casualties” in clashes against Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory in recent weeks.