WAR Main Armenia Versus Azerbaijan War Thread - Open Hostilities Underway Now

This is kind of a no-win tangled mess for the USA as far as I can tell, at least for the next few days until things sort on in one direction or the other.

I gather (and this is so not my area of the world) that Azerbaijan has at least one US Military base (they like the West for a given degree of like) and Armenia is a mostly Orthodox Christian nation (like Greece or Russia) with a huge diaspora population in the US.

Not only that but look up "Armenian Genocide" but not while eating dinner or right before bed, neither is a good idea.

So the US either keeps its base and sides with Turkey, who has also been Sabor rattling against Greece or it turns it back on one of the only largely Christian nations in the area (and Russia also gets stuck in the middle here).

No good options other then try to stay out of the fray as long as possible, if things go really hot maybe evacuate the US base for now if they can't make a stronghold out of it, getting seriously involved in this is going to be a nightmare for any nation.
Team Trump may simply let Team Putin do whatever needs to be done, to quiet this confrontation - much like Team Putin cleaned out much of the Syria-area of problem. U.S. MIC (military industrial complex) may supply war tech gizmos, anti-drone defenses, look-down/fly-over intel, maybe some merc advisors, etc.


intothegoodnight
 

jward

passin' thru
Nagorno-Karabakh: old tensions erupt again into violence
By Reuters Staff
3 Min Read

(Reuters) - Nagorno-Karabakh is a mountainous and heavily-forested patch of land that sits inside the territory of ex-Soviet Azerbaijan.


People attend a meeting to recruit military volunteers after Armenian authorities declared martial law and mobilised its male population following clashes with Azerbaijan over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region in Yerevan, Armenia September 27, 2020. Melik Baghdasaryan/Photolure via REUTERS
Under international law, Nagorno-Karabakh is recognised as part of Azerbaijan. But the ethnic Armenians who make up the vast majority of the population reject Azeri rule. They have been running their own affairs, with support from Armenia, since Azerbaijan’s troops were pushed out in a war in the 1990s.

Long-standing ethnic tensions in the region between Christian Armenians and their mainly Muslim neighbours flared in Nagorno-Karabakh in the late 1980s. Hostilities this year have been the worst since 2016, when intense fighting killed dozens and threatened to escalate into all-out war.
Such a conflict could drag in the big regional powers, Russia and Turkey. Moscow has a defence alliance with Armenia, while Ankara backs its ethnic Turkic kin in Azerbaijan.


In the 1980s, the territory was within the borders of the then-Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, though most decisions were made in Moscow.
As the Soviet Union began to break up, it became apparent that Nagorno-Karabakh would come under the direct rule of the Azeri government. The ethnic Armenians did not accept that.

Sectarian conflict erupted, escalating into war in 1991 between Azerbaijan’s troops and Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia. Thousands of people were killed and hundreds of thousands were displaced.
Authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh declared independence that year but it was not widely recognised internationally, leaving the ethnic Armenian administration there in a state of legal limbo and under blockade from Azerbaijan’s government.

By 1994, when an internationally brokered ceasefire was agreed, ethnic Armenians controlled almost all of Nagorno-Karabakh, plus some surrounding Azeri districts that gave them a buffer zone and land bridge connecting their region to Armenia.
Azerbaijan vowed to take back control over the territory, using military force if necessary.

International efforts over the years to find a lasting peace settlement, involving France, the United States and Russia as mediators, have failed to clinch a deal.
Reporting by Moscow bureau, Editing by Mark Bendeich and Timothy Heritage


 

Ragnarok

On and On, South of Heaven
Oddly enough, Azerbaijan is I believe, the ONLY Islamic state that is friendly with the west. I think they were also a republic before the Soviet empire too. Armenia is a Christian state that mostly dislikes the west.

No Islamic state's are friendly with the west.

There are only those who are better at putting up the face of the Treaty of Hudaibiyah...
 

Housecarl

On TB every waking moment
Posted for fair use.....
United States of America, Department of State U.S. Embassy in Georgia


Escalation of Violence between Armenia and Azerbaijan

MORGAN ORTAGUS, DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON

The United States is alarmed by reports of large scale military action along the Line of Contact in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone that has resulted in significant casualties, including civilians. We extend our condolences to the families of those killed and injured.

The United States condemns in the strongest terms this escalation of violence.  Deputy Secretary Biegun called the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, Jeyhun Bayramov, and the Foreign Minister of Armenia, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, to urge both sides to cease hostilities immediately, to use the existing direct communication links between them to avoid further escalation, and to avoid unhelpful rhetoric and actions that further raise tensions on the ground.

The United States believes participation in the escalating violence by external parties would be deeply unhelpful and only exacerbate regional tensions. We urge the sides to work with the Minsk Group Co-Chairs to return to substantive negotiations as soon as possible. As a Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, the United States remains committed to helping the sides achieve a peaceful and sustainable settlement to the conflict.



By U.S. Embassy Tbilisi | 27 September, 2020 | Topics: History, News | Tags: Armenia, Azerbaijan

 

AlfaMan

Has No Life - Lives on TB
God, what a mess. I stay off the news threads for one day and a shooting war erupts.
I think the US may eventually side with Azerbaijan-we do have overfly rights and at least one air force base there as well. A lot of the logistics for the war in Iraq went through Azerbaijan.
This one may go very hot very quickly..
 

Housecarl

On TB every waking moment
God, what a mess. I stay off the news threads for one day and a shooting war erupts.
I think the US may eventually side with Azerbaijan-we do have overfly rights and at least one air force base there as well. A lot of the logistics for the war in Iraq went through Azerbaijan.
This one may go very hot very quickly..

And right now there's a report in the Middle East/Med thread of the Green Zone in Baghdad being evacuated and the US Embassy decamping to Erbil....
 

northern watch

TB Fanatic
Armenian, Azeri forces battle again, at least 21 reported killed

By Nvard Hovhannisyan, Nailia Bagirova
September 28, 20203:26 AM Updated 7 minutes ago

YEREVAN/BAKU (Reuters) - At least 21 people were killed on Monday in a second day of heavy clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh that reportedly involved air power, missiles and heavy armour.

The fiercest fighting in years between the two former Soviet republics has revived concern over stability in the South Caucasus, a corridor for pipelines carrying oil and gas to world markets
.

Any move to all-out conflict could drag in major regional powers Russia and Turkey. Moscow has a defence alliance with Armenia, while Ankara backs its ethnic Turkic kin in Azerbaijan.

Angela Frangyan, a documentary film maker living in the Nagorno-Karabakh capital Stepanakert, said residents had taken cover in bomb shelters and constant shelling could be heard. All shops were closed and hardly anyone was in the streets, she said.

Majority Christian Armenia and mainly Muslim Azerbaijan have come to blows periodically in their decades-long conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway region that is inside Azerbaijan but run by ethnic Armenians.

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan demanded Armenia immediately withdraw from Azeri lands he said it was occupying and said it was time to end the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis.

Armenia’s parliament condemned what it said was a “full-scale military attack” by Azerbaijan on Nagorno-Karabakh that was receiving Turkey’s help, adding Ankara’s involvement could risk destabilising the region. Azerbaijan denied Turkey was taking part in the fighting.

Azerbaijan declared a partial military mobilisation, and its foreign minister said six Azeri civilians had been killed and 19 wounded. An Armenian defence ministry representative said 200 Armenians were wounded, Interfax reported.

Nagorno-Karabakh reported 15 more of its soldiers had been killed, after saying on Sunday 16 of its servicemen had been killed and over 100 wounded when Azerbaijan attacked. Nagorno-Karabakh also said it had recovered some territory that it had lost control of on Sunday.

Interfax news agency quoted the press secretary of Azerbaijan’s defence ministry, Anar Evyazov, as saying the Azeri military occupied several strategically important heights near the village of Talish in Karabakh.

“Missile, artillery and air strikes are being applied to the enemy’s positions, which forces the enemy to surrender the held positions,” he said, adding that several important strategic heights around Talish village had been taken.

FLURRY OF DIPLOMACY

Evyazov also said Lernik Babayan, commander of the Armenian military’s airborne assault battalion, had been killed near Talish. It was not immediately possible to verify the report.

The clashes have spurred a flurry of diplomacy.

China urged both sides to show restraint. Russia called for an immediate ceasefire and Turkey said it would support Azerbaijan.

Under international law, Nagorno-Karabakh is recognised as part of Azerbaijan. But the ethnic Armenians who make up the vast majority of the population reject Azeri rule.

They have run their own affairs, with support from Armenia, since Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan in a conflict that erupted as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Although a ceasefire was agreed in 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia frequently accuse each other of attacks around Nagorno-Karabakh and along the separate Azeri-Armenian frontier.

Reporting by Nvard Hovhannisyan in Yerevan and Nailia Bagirova in Baku; writing by Tom Balmforth and William Maclean; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Gareth Jones

 
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