22 votes

Antony Blinken warned lawmakers Azerbaijan may invade Armenia in coming weeks

3 comments

  1. [2]
    stu2b50
    Link
    I don't think it would be crazy if they did so. Azerbaijan conveniently launched an offensive into Nagorno-Karabakh when the war in Ukraine erupted, so if they do it here again it seems they value...

    I don't think it would be crazy if they did so. Azerbaijan conveniently launched an offensive into Nagorno-Karabakh when the war in Ukraine erupted, so if they do it here again it seems they value using other conflicts as cover for their own. The Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict is a rough one for Armenia, as their traditional allegiance to Russia, who quite clearly does not care right now, leaves them on an island in terms of international support. It doesn't help that Azerbaijan is a critical source of energy for Europe once Russian energy was cut off.

    10 votes
    1. streblo
      Link Parent
      I think there appears to be a growing risk of all this developing into a regional war. Armenia/Azerbaijan might not move the needle outside of their respective countries much but it's fuel for the...

      I think there appears to be a growing risk of all this developing into a regional war. Armenia/Azerbaijan might not move the needle outside of their respective countries much but it's fuel for the fire. Iran is also making vague threats about the upcoming ground offensive, something that could very well spiral out of control quickly.

      3 votes
  2. streblo
    Link
    ... ...

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned a small group of lawmakers last week that his department is tracking the possibility that Azerbaijan could soon invade Armenia, according to two people familiar with the conversation.

    ...

    But Nagorno-Karabakh is not the only territorial dispute between the two Caucasus countries. Baku has proposed a route to the Nakhichevan exclave that would cut through Armenia’s southern Syunik region, known in Azerbaijani as Zangezur, and enable road traffic to bypass Iran.

    Aliyev has said “we will be implementing the Zangezur Corridor, whether Armenia wants it or not.”

    ...

    In an interview on Wednesday, Hikmet Hajiyev, Aliyev’s senior foreign policy adviser, denied Azerbaijan has any claims on Armenian territory. He said that the risk of conflict was low because “the last two weeks had been the calmest weeks in the history of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations — there are no longer soldiers in the trenches staring at one another” in the wake of actions in Nagorno-Karabakh.