In September 2023, Azerbaijan launched military operations to recapture the Nagorno-Karabakh region leading to a mass exodus of ethnic Armenians who had been living there for centuries.
Last year in November, the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock met with her counterparts in the two countries to discuss a possible solution to the territorial conflict. In addition, the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Since then, both neighbours have shown interest in resolving the issues with a peace agreement. Baerbock said, both leaders are willing to go through the peace talks and solve the three-decade-long conflict.
The contested region, Nagorno-Karabakh, has been recognised officially as part of Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh’s majority population are the Christian Armenians. Azerbaijan, otherwise is a Muslim majority country. The religious divisions lead to divergent views on this region remaining a part of Azerbaijan.
Since the beginning of the so-called “anti-terrorist operations,” initiated by Azerbaijan’s military, about 120,000 ethnic Armenians have fled the region. However, Armenia called it as an ethnic cleansing of the native ethnic Armenians.
Baerbock expressed her concerns about the tremendous suffering caused by the 30-year-long conflict. Currently, smaller territorial issues between the two countries persist, for years the West has been trying to resolve them.
Further, detailed discussions are being held on the peace deal between the Caucasus neighbours in Berlin. Russia the strongest neighbouring power in the region have not had much success in resolving the three decade long conflict. Azerbaijan and Armenia are attempting to revolve their issues and reach to a durable peace deal.
With civilian casualties already being high in Europe due to the Ukrainian crisis, the region can barely withstand another violent confrontation. However, the political alignments of both Azerbaijan and Armenia seem to be in a flux, and have their own dynamics.
-Nitish Chavan
