Nagorno-Karabakh

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s remarks to the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday focused on what he described as “the latest Azerbaijani unprovoked aggression.” Armenia and Azerbaijan are once again skirmishing along their contested border, each side accusing the other of violating a cease-fire negotiated after they fought a six-week war in 2020.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has never made a secret of his ambition to become a historic regional leader. His nostalgia for the Ottoman Empire long ago became a source of concern for observers who think he might seriously attempt to bring it back. His detractors mock him as “Sultan Erdogan,” but he might not find that name insulting. Erdogan flexed his military muscle in several recent conflicts. He might be warming up for something bigger, or he may have already overtaxed Turkey’s military strength.

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.

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.

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.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov categorically dismissed the classification of Turkey as an “ally” of Russia in an interview Wednesday after the two nations found themselves on opposing sides of yet another proxy war, this time in the Caucasus.

Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden asserted in a public statement on Tuesday that President Donald Trump “must get more involved” in the ongoing military crisis between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Azerbaijan on Sunday accused Armenia of attacking large cities overnight in violation of the cease-fire deal brokered by Russia that seeks to end the worst outbreak of hostilities in the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region.

MOSCOW (AP) — With Russia’s mediation, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh starting at noon Saturday following two weeks of heavy fighting that marked the worst outbreak of hostilities in the separatist region in more than a quarter-century.

Public advocacy on behalf of the Armenian media indicates that reality television star Kim Kardashian West may be using her relationship with President Donald Trump to urge the United States to support the country in its ongoing conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan, the Hill reported on Thursday.

Turkey-backed Azeri forces have been accused of inflicting heavy damage on the Armenian Apostolic Church’s Holy Saviour Cathedral in the historic city of Shusha, or Shushi.

BEIRUT (AP) — For the past two weeks, Raffi Ghazarian has been glued to the TV at home and at work watching news about the fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces. If it goes on, the 50-year-old Lebanese of Armenian descent says he´s ready to leave everything and volunteer to defend his ancestral land.

Armenian public radio published video footage on Thursday allegedly depicting an imam in Syria recruiting mercenaries to fight for Azerbaijan against Armenia in its ongoing conflict over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Turkish media aligned with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan enthusiastically supported Azerbaijan in its conflict with Armenia over control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region on Thursday, using language about “purges” that would be deeply disturbing to Armenians who fear Turkey might continue the genocide waged against their people by the Ottoman Empire a century ago.