Foes Azerbaijan and Armenia agree ‘historic’ return of villages
Baku, Azerbaijan Reuters Armenia has agreed to return several villages to Azerbaijan in what both sides said on Friday was an important milestone as they edge towards a peace deal after fighting two wars since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aykhan Hajizada posted on X that Armenia would return four […]
Russian peacekeepers start withdrawing from Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region
Reuters Russian peacekeepers have begun withdrawing from Azerbaijan’s Karabakh and other regions, ending a multi-year deployment which gave Moscow a military foothold in the strategic South Caucasus region. The step, confirmed by the Kremlin and Azerbaijan on Wednesday, comes as Russia faces pressure in the wider region with neighbouring Armenia demanding Russian border guards leave […]
Azeri President says peace with Armenia is closer than ever
Reuters Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said on Sunday his country is “closer than ever” to a peace with Armenia, half a year after Azerbaijan recaptured its Karabakh region from its ethnic Armenian majority, prompting a mass exodus of ethnic Armenians. “Today, we are in an active phase of peace talks with Armenia,” Aliyev said in […]
Azerbaijan demolishes former Karabakh Armenian parliament building
Baku, Azerbaijan Reuters Azerbaijani state television broadcast footage on Tuesday showing mechanical diggers destroying the building that once housed the breakaway ethnic Armenian parliament of Nagorno-Karabakh. The televised demolition, with giant metal claws tearing at the masonry of the gutted edifice, demonstratively underlined the restoration of control by Azerbaijan since its forces recaptured Karabakh last […]
Armenia says it’s ready for peace deal if Azerbaijan shows political will
Antalya, Turkey Reuters Armenia is ready to sign a peace agreement with Azerbaijan if Baku shows the same political will, and is keen to make progress on normalising relations with Turkey, a senior Armenian official said the weekend. Yerevan and Baku said in December they wanted to reach a peace deal after decades of being […]
Armenia and Azerbaijan exchange prisoners at border
Azerbaijan-Armenia borderReuters Azerbaijan and Armenia traded prisoners-of-war at their border on Wednesday in a step towards normalising their relations after Azerbaijan achieved a decisive breakthrough in their decades-old conflict. An Azerbaijani national flag is seen next to the ancient Khodaafarin Bridge near the border with Iran in the area, which came under the control of […]
Azerbaijan’s Aliyev calls snap election after Karabakh victory
Reuters Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, riding high on a wave of support for his recapture of the breakaway territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, on Thursday called an early presidential election for 7th February. Aliyev, 61, was last re-elected in 2018 for a seven-year term, with a declared 86 per cent of the vote, in a poll boycotted […]
Karabakh refugees in Armenia face uncertainty and poverty in exile
Masis, Armenia Reuters For the third time in her life, Elada Sargsyan is a refugee. Born in the Azerbaijani capital Baku, Sargsyan fled her hometown in 1988, aged 19, as the Soviet Union began to fall apart. Elada Sargsyan, 54, a refugee from Nagorno-Karbakh region, poses for a picture in a disused kindergarten, where she […]
Iran to host Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process talks amid Middle East tensions
Dubai, United Arab Emirates/Moscow, RussiaReuters Foreign ministers from Iran, Turkey and Russia will meet their counterparts from Azerbaijan and Armenia in Tehran on Monday and discuss progress towards a peace agreement between the two South Caucasus neighbours, Iranian and Russian state media said. The first meeting of foreign ministers of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan after […]
Azerbaijan’s President says France will be to blame if new conflict starts with Armenia
Moscow, RussiaReuters Azerbaijan’s President scolded the European Union and warned that France’s decision to send military aid to Armenia could trigger a new conflict in the South Caucasus after a lightening Azerbaijani military operation last month. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev last week pulled out of an EU-brokered meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at […]