Armenia vs Azerbaijan: why there is a war in Eastern Europe

A new escalation in a long-standing conflict in the Far East of Europe has put the region on alert.

Armenian and Azerbaijani troops have been fighting since Sunday (9/27), with at least a hundred killed since then, in the largest wave of violence in the region in decades.

While the trigger for the new escalation is unclear, the dispute revolves around the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, a small area that is officially recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but which has a majority of Armenian people.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Azerbaijan and Armenia, two former Soviet republics, fought a bloody dispute over the enclave, until a ceasefire was enacted in 1994. However, a ceasefire was never reached. permanent peace agreement.

Since then, Nagorno-Karabakh remains part of Azerbaijan, but it is ruled by Armenian separatists, supported by the Armenian government.

Decades of negotiations, mediated by foreign powers, have never reached a peace treaty.

Armenia is a country with a Christian majority, while Azerbaijan is predominantly Muslim.

Now, the bilateral dispute is beginning to attract major regional powers. Turkey, which has close ties with Azerbaijan, said on Tuesday that it is “fully ready” to help its ally regain control of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Russia, for its part, has stable relations with both, but it is an important ally of Armenia and maintains a military base there.

On Thursday (1/10), Azeri and Armenian troops defied the truce that Russia and France had requested the day before, and shelling and shooting continued to be heard in the region.

Both Emmanuel Macron, President of France, and Vladimir Putin, of Russia, spoke of the urgent need to reduce tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“We ask that the parties cease fire completely as soon as possible,” said a Kremlin statement.