WWIII; THE BALKANS

Azerbaijan to host military exercises with Turkey next week

Reuters
Tue, October 17, 2023 
(Reuters) - Azerbaijan said on Tuesday it would host military exercises with its close ally Turkey next week.

On its website, the defence ministry of the mostly ethnically Turkic south Caucasus state said the manoeuvres marking the centenary of the Turkish republic would take place on Oct. 23-25 in several regions.

These will include the capital Baku, the region of Nakhchivan, and Azerbaijani territories seized from ethnic Armenian control since 2020 in advances welcomed by Turkey.


Nakhchivan borders Turkey and Iran but is geographically separated from mainland Azerbaijan by Armenia.

Last month, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hosted talks with his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan in Nakhchivan, less than a week after Azerbaijani forces swept into the breakaway ethnic Armenian-controlled territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, the last area of Azerbaijan outside Baku's control.

At the meeting, Aliyev received Erdogan's support for the prospect of creating a land corridor between western Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan via Armenia, which opposes the idea.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Armenia says it is ready to make peace but Azerbaijan says process undermined
Felix Light
Updated Tue, October 17, 2023 

Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan addresses parliament in Yerevan

By Felix Light

TBILISI (Reuters) - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Tuesday said he was ready to sign a peace deal with Azerbaijan by the end of the year, even as Baku accused Yerevan of undermining the process of normalising their relations.

Russia's state-run TASS news agency cited Pashinyan as telling the European Parliament in Strasbourg that Armenia was ready to end more than three decades of hostilities, and to guarantee the safety of ethnic Azeris in Armenia.

But in a statement later on, Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry accused Pashinyan of undermining the peace process with "aggressive rhetoric". It said Armenia as a country had a reputation for "blunt falsification of facts and history".

The two countries have in recent weeks stated their willingness to sign a treaty to end decades of intermittent conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway region that Azerbaijan recaptured last month, prompting most of its population of some 120,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.

Armenia describes the Karabakh Armenians' flight as ethnic cleansing driven by the threat of violence after a nine-month blockade of essential supplies, the latest chapter in a conflict between Christian Armenians and Turkic Muslim Azeris that goes back more than a century.

Azerbaijan says the Karabakh Armenian civilians were welcome to stay and be integrated in Azerbaijani society, but left voluntarily.

Beyond Karabakh, the two countries' shared border is riddled with small exclaves surrounded by the other side's land - sovereign territory that is in effect occupied by the other side - complicating a final peace deal. Exchanges of fire across the frontier, sometimes fatal, are a regular occurrence.

Russian President Vladimir Putin last week said he believed a peace deal was achievable if both sides showed goodwill, playing down the difficulty of reaching an agreement on their shared border.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Monday made his first visit to the territories retaken by Azerbaijan last month, and was filmed raising Azerbaijan's flag in the region's capital and treading on the flag of Karabakh's dissolved ethnic Armenian authority.

(Reporting by Felix Light in Tbilisi and Nailia Bagirova; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Pashinyan says Armenia ready to sign peace treaty with Azerbaijan

Nate Ostiller
Tue, October 17, 2023 


Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said he's willing to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan by the end of the year.

"We must move steadily towards peace," Pashinyan said during an address to the European Parliament on Oct. 17. "To do this, political will is necessary, and I have that political will."

At the same time, he denounced Azerbaijan's recent recapture of Nagorno-Karabakh, saying that it was a "fulfillment of its long-standing policy of ethnic cleansing."

Pashinyan criticized the inaction of Armenia's supposed allies, adding that they had not only refused to help but had actually "made public calls for a change of power in Armenia, to overthrow the democratic government."

He mentioned the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), saying the organization and its members "did not help us at all, they left us alone." The organization comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.

Nonetheless, Pashinyan emphasized that he was ready for Armenia to seek a lasting peace with Azerbaijan.

Read also: Azerbaijani President raises flag in Nagorno-Karabakh capital

Nagorno-Karabakh, which is recognized as Azerbaijani under international law, surrendered on Sept. 20 after 24 hours of attacks by Azerbaijani forces. It was home to a predominantly Armenian population.

The breakaway republic agreed to dissolve its political institutions, and in the following weeks, most ethnic Armenians fled.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev decided not to attend peace talks planned in Grenada, Spain, on Oct. 5 but then offered Georgia as an alternative location on Oct. 8. It is still unclear when or if the talks will commence.

On Oct. 13, reports emerged that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was concerned Azerbaijan may invade Armenia proper, supposedly to secure a corridor between Azerbaijan and the landlocked exclave Nakhchivan.

However, the Armenian news agency said on Oct. 15 that U.S. State Department official Matthew Miller had contacted them and described the reports as inaccurate.

Read also: Russia’s ‘peacekeeper’ act crumbles as Azerbaijan overwhelms Nagorno-Karabakh