Earlier today, Armenian media reported that a pro-Russian Telegram channel had uploaded what it claims to be the text of what was agreed by Armenian Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan and Azerbaijani Presidential Advisor Hikmet Hajiyev on 27 September in Washington D.C. when they met with U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
On 3 August, 2022, following the death of an Azerbaijani conscript in clashes with local Armenian forces, Baku launched military operations in Karabakh on a scale not seen since the November 2020 ceasefire statement. Two Armenian soldiers were killed and 19 wounded in multiple Azerbaijani mortar and drone attacks while key strategic heights overlooking Karabakh were also captured. Days earlier, an Armenian soldier had been injured in the escalation that led up to the clashes.
On 22 August, representatives of the Azerbaijan Reclamation and Water Management OJSC visited the Sarsang Reservoir located in the Aghdara/Mardakert region of that part of the former Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) now under the control of Russian peacekeepers. Constructed in 1976, the Sarsang Reservoir has a capacity of 560 million cubic meters and was used to irrigate 96,000 hectares of arable land in Barda, Terter, Agdam, Agjabedi, Yevlakh and Goranboy.
At the beginning of April, LINKS Europe published its long awaited recommendations for confidence building measures (CBMs), drawn up by a Joint Armenian-Azerbaijani Liaison Group after six months of consultations in Baku, Yerevan, and Kakheti (Georgia). In its preamble, the authors particularly noted the need to build trust between the parties as well as promote dialogue in support of what appears to be a new peace process. The report was financed by the European Union’s EU4Peace project.
On 25th July, the Yerevan-based online news site Civilnet uploaded an interview with Armenian Political Scientist and LeHigh University Professor Arman Grigoryan. Below is a summary of what Grigoryan said and a rough translation. The full interview in Russian is embedded at the bottom of this post.
Arguably one of the most independent and unique voices on the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan for decades, Gerard Jirair Libaridian has been particularly on point since the end of the 2020 Karabakh war. Not only was he among the few of us that foresaw a new conflict between the two breaking out in the days and weeks preceding hostilities, but Libaridian was particularly concerned about such an eventuality, though it has to be said that these fears had been growing with each passing year since 2011.
Yesterday, European Council President Charles Michel facilitated talks between the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, and the Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliyev, in Brussels. It was the third such meeting held in this format. Its structure was the same too, with Michel meeting with each leader separately before all three convened for another trilateral meeting.
Today marks the 28th anniversary of the 1994 ceasefire agreement that temporarily halted fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabakh. Coming into force at 12.01 am on 12 May 1994, its terms, as dictated by the 5 May Bishkek Protocol were nonetheless left unimplemented for decades, ultimately leading to the 2020 second Karabakh war.
On 5 May 2022, Caucasus Edition, a publication of the Imagine Center for Conflict Transformation, held another Zoom webinar as part of it series of events aimed at Armenia-Azerbaijan dialogue, this time on the new context and challenges that both countries find themselves in following both the 2020 Karabakh war and the more recent Russian further invasion of Ukraine.