Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev believes that some forces in the West are inciting Armenia to a new war in the South Caucasus.
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“I believe that the results of the Second Karabakh War (escalation in Karabakh in the fall of 2020), the anti-terrorist operation today are sufficient for Armenia to take the right steps. But there is an issue that should not be forgotten. Anti-Azerbaijani forces who do not want to put up with this situation, Islamophobes, Azerbaijanophobes sitting in some Western capitals are today inciting Armenia to a new war,” Aliyev said on Friday in his address to the people.
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Nagorno-Karabakh announced its unilateral secession from the Azerbaijan SSR 36 years ago. After the collapse of the USSR and the armed conflict with Azerbaijan (1992-1994), the region existed for many years as an unrecognized republic inhabited by Armenians. In September 2020, fighting resumed in Karabakh. With the mediation of Moscow, on the night of November 10, the parties agreed to cease fire. The Armenian side lost all areas around Nagorno-Karabakh and a number of territories that were part of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region during Soviet times. Russian peacekeepers are stationed in the region.
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Almost three years after the second war in the region, Baku launched a military operation in Karabakh on September 19, which lasted one day. As a result, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated that the country had restored its territorial integrity, and the de facto authorities of the region announced the “self-dissolution” of the unrecognized republic from January 1, 2024. From September 24 to the end of the month, more than 100 thousand residents left Karabakh for Armenia.
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In 2022, Yerevan and Baku, through the mediation of Russia, the United States and the EU, began discussing a future peace treaty. At the end of May last year, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Yerevan is ready to recognize the sovereignty of Azerbaijan within Soviet borders, that is, together with Karabakh.
