Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with foreign ministers from Armenia and Azerbaijan in Washington on Friday as clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh continued. Since fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenian forces broke out on September 27th, about 1,000 people have been reported killed.
Two Russia-brokered ceasefires have been attempted to cool the fighting, but they both quickly failed. The truces were meant to foster more substantive talks monitored by the US, France, and Russia, who co-chair the Minsk Group. The group was set up in 1992 to help resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.
Both ministers held separate meetings with Pompeo on Friday. Details of the meetings are scant. President Trump told reporters “good progress” was being made on the issue without elaborating.
Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said he had a “very productive meeting” with Pompeo. “We have been assessing the way in which we can immediately, without delay, achieve the establishment of a ceasefire and go back to the peaceful resolution. I think what we’ve been hearing from the United States was very encouraging,” he said at a virtual event hosted by the Atlantic Council.
In an interview with Fox News on Friday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev reiterated his demands for a ceasefire, which is for Armenian forces to leave all territory within Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized borders.
Nagorno-Karabakh reported another 53 military casualties on Friday, bringing the total number of soldiers killed from the ethnic Armenian enclave to 927. As of Thursday, Nagorno-Karabakh reported 37 dead civilians, and Azerbaijan reported 63 civilians killed in the conflict. Azerbaijan has yet to disclose its military casualties.
Russian President Vladimir Putin believes the death toll is much higher than being reported. On Thursday, Putin said he thinks the number is closer to 5,000, saying over 2,000 have been killed on both sides.
Given that this problem will not go away any time soon — it would be helpful to have a GOOD MAP.
This map shows ONLY Nagorno-Karabakh borders within Azerbaijan. It should show ALL Armenian-held territories inside Azerbaijan, which are TWICE the size of Nagorno-Karabakh.
And it would be helpful to see exactly the areas Azerbaijan has targeted.
Moon of Alabama has a good map. We must see what the dispute is all about.
The dispute is meant to draw the U.S. into a ‘peacekeeping’ mission on the doorstep of the Eurasian heartland.
The dispute is meant to draw the U.S. into a ‘peacekeeping’ mission on the doorstep of the Eurasian heartland.
I agree — but doubt we agree on who is doing the “drawing”!
In 2018 there was an un-colored colored revolution in Armenia. Prime Minister Pashnyan was then leading the charge — urging “reduction” of Russian influence. President is — against Constitution — UK citizen. Since, US Armenian lobby has been very involved in directing Armenian future. US advisors from nearby Georgia are huddled in Yerevan,
The plan was indeed to get somehow US involved, to create another Georgia in the region. And in July this year — Armenia staged a two strings of attacks on Azerbaijan proper. One in the north, and another in the south, towards the barely armed Azerbaijan.
Up until now — Armenia was shielded from Azeri retaliation through Moscow influence. But July 2020 attacks were the turning point — I believe that Moscow was no longer committed to status quo.
Armenia held — besides NK, a territory taken from Azerbaijan of equal or greater size. Those areas were depopulated. Should Armenia continue on the path of separation from Moscow — it became more important from Moscow to protect Caspian state. It appears that in September, Azerbaijan understood that it was time to take back territories outside NK — as Armenia was NOT going to call for Moscow for help. And to insure that it is not alone and friendless — Turkey is noisily on its side. This allows Moscow to be a neutral peace negotiator.
So far, Azerbaijan has focused on liberating its southern regions, and in fact took over its border to Iran. From here, it is anybody’s guess. Azerbaijan can move up and endanger supply line between Armenia and NK. Or can endanger Armenia proper along Iranian border to connect to its exclave.
Either way, Armenia cannot militarily prevent Azerbaijan to recover former Azeri populated areas. It has to focus on NK — and other areas lost, may be lost forever,
The question remains — what will US do to protect Armenia from suffering more loses. And whether the new leadership in Armenia loses support, as their pro-American gamble resulted in loses. US has no foothold in Azerbaijan — other then typical “opposition” that has zero popular support. Now, they are silenced.
Trump did not help. He talked about Armenia and wonderful Armenian lobby, and did not even mention Azerbaijan.
Trump being friendly to the American Armenian lobby is not a problem. If Trump wanted to create problems, he’d play up the wonderful American-Azeri lobby against the Armenians.
In any case, both ethnic lobbies are expected to be America first, not old-country baggage first.
The South Caucusus conflict is not an American conflict, not an Anglo-Western conflict, its a continental European energy war, and European machinations drawing America in because they don’t want to confront Eurasia themselves.
From your lips to God’s ears!
Ethnic lobbies are anything but America First, They first define their interest, then formulate it to sound as wholesome as possible and in American interest.
And which lobby is on the winning side — while others just waste money, depends exclusively on the predominance of lobby power.
America First is unfortunately the net result of the giant struggle of interests. If indeed we could look objectively at the state of our economy, military technology, industry, computing and networks, science, space, etc. — we would see the enormity of challenge in front of us.
Energy corridor at present is functioning between Azerbaijan and Turkey. So is between Russia and Turkey. So is between Iran and Turkey. Then there is Turkmenistan.
More energy will be going to Asia — as their demand for industrial production is increasing demand for energy.
Then there is US favored Israeli gas to Greece for Europe. Everything is done to block gas to Europe transiting through Turkey or directly from Russia.
Go figure.
In the meantime, Turkey and Libya are claiming Mediterranean shelf — and blocking Israeli pipeline to Greece.
Europe has zero say in the matters of their energy security.
Most born Americans ancestrally came from somewhere else, and most left old feuds behind to start a new life under a new nationality – Citizen of the United States.
So, apart from the Israel lobby, its not an American thing to pine after the old country to the point of having your supposed friends and neighbors fight for it. Especially even to the offense of friends and neighbors who might have dibs on the other side.
The U.S. entered WWI and WWII despite having a large German population. To the chagrin of German propagandists, German Americans readily abandoned their ancestral nationality. So did Japanese Americans during WWII, although that didn’t go as smoothly, but Japanese American soldiers still served loyally despite their families being interned.
Europe does have zero say in their energy security as places like the North Sea run dry; that’s why they want in on Azebaijan. However, they need to pretend to be America’s NATO vassals ‘led’ into the fight by America, not their own shadow political and economic ‘lobbying’.
Americans dragged into a South Caucsaus war for European energy security, sold under the disarming name of Nagorno-Karabakh – a place most Americans have never heard of – is the very definition of being taken advantage of by allies that Trump complains about.
Sigh. Biden in, more Mackinderan wars in. They are well into planning the post-Trump era; looks like Operation Grab Baku.
https://www.nationsonline.org/maps/Caspian-Sea-map.jpgBaku.
Most Westerners don’t know what a Caucasus is.
https://www.insideover.com/war/brzezinskis-shadow-over-the-nagorno-karabakh.html
“We” are on Azerbaijan’s side, and can be no more neutral brokers in that patch of Rimland than honest brokers between Israel and Palestine in the Middle East.
Think of the Caucasus as the North Korea of the Western hemisphere.
Instead of straddling three major countries (China, Russia, and Korea (+Japan), straddling three major regions (West Asia, Southeast Europe, and North Middle East + the Central Asian ‘Stans.
Instead of straddling major seas of the Pacific, the Black Sea lies to the West and Caspian Sea to the East. NATO is presently all but locked out of the Caspian, but Azerbaijan’s Baku is to the Caspian, what Crimea is to the Black Sea..
A particularly fun region of the Spykmanian Rimlands anyone seriously antiwar should want to keep meddle-free from Western European imperials and at peace. By default, this meas USA keep out plz.