Nagorno-Karabakh: Long history of conflict over disputed territory

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00:00 in with reports of a ceasefire that has been clinched between

00:04 Azerbaijan and Armenia after the latest round of clashes in

00:08 Nagorno-Karabakh. Now, according to Interfax, Armenians from

00:13 Nagorno-Karabakh have agreed to lay down their weapons and a

00:17 meeting is set for tomorrow. We can now bring in France 24's

00:23 Ketevan Ghojistani from our International Affairs Desk.

00:27 Ketevan, great to see you. Talk us through how exactly we got

00:31 here because we do have a lot of international calls for peace.

00:35 We had Paris, we had the Pope, as well as the Americans and the

00:38 Russians, in fact, who told both sides to lay down their weapons.

00:42 Yes, well, these tensions had been simmering really for months

00:47 and really for decades, for three decades, basically going

00:50 back to the Soviet Union. This has been a flashpoint. Nagorno-

00:55 Karabakh is a small enclave. It's ethnically Armenian, but

00:58 the international community recognizes that region as being

01:02 part of Azerbaijan, as we see on this map. Now, back in 1991,

01:08 Nagorno-Karabakh self-declared its independence and had de

01:11 facto ruled itself. Since then, this led to the first war in

01:16 Nagorno-Karabakh, which ended in 1994. Back then, the Armenian

01:20 separatists basically controlled most of that region. Then there

01:24 was a second war, the one closest to us, back in 2020,

01:28 where Azerbaijan regained control of some parts of

01:31 Nagorno-Karabakh. And there was a ceasefire agreement

01:34 implemented with 2,000 Russian peacekeepers there to oversee

01:39 that the ceasefire holds. Then in December 2022, Azerbaijan

01:44 began blocking the only road between Nagorno-Karabakh and

01:48 Armenia called the Lachin Corridor. And this was followed

01:52 in April of this year by Azerbaijan setting up an actual

01:56 security checkpoint on that road, basically blockading

02:01 Nagorno-Karabakh. And so this has been really brewing for

02:06 months now. And there was a call this morning by the president

02:09 of Azerbaijan saying the only way we're going to stop our

02:13 operation, the anti-terrorist operation, as he called it, was

02:16 if the separatists laid down their arms. It seems at least

02:20 according to those Russian media sources, that this has

02:24 happened and could bring to an end at least this latest round

02:28 of violence.

02:29 So we do have information coming and this story is of course

02:32 developing as we speak with Karabakh separatists who are

02:36 set to hold integration talks with Azerbaijan on Thursday.

02:40 Let's talk about this angle, Ketivan. What does Russia want

02:44 in all of this? Because they have also issued calls for

02:47 peace.

02:47 Yes, and Russia is a key player in this conflict really in

02:52 Nagorno-Karabakh, not only because they have those

02:55 peacekeepers after that ceasefire, but because Russia

02:59 has always been an ally traditionally of Armenia dating

03:03 back to the fall of the Soviet Union when Armenia decided to

03:05 go the route of being protected by the Russian state, really

03:11 solely relying on Russia for its protection, joining a military

03:15 alliance of post-Soviet states. But in recent years, you've

03:19 sort of seen Russia and Armenia sort of drift apart. Russia

03:24 unable or unwilling or both to really protect Armenia, protect

03:29 the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, which has angered

03:33 Armenia and Armenia under the leadership of the Prime

03:37 Minister, Nikol Apashinyan, starting to turn towards the

03:41 Europeans, which of course, and to the West, which of course

03:44 has angered the Russians. One Russian, very angry, posting on

03:50 social media, is the former president Dmitry Medvedev, who

03:53 can see part of what he said. He was referring, it seems, to

03:58 Nikol Apashinyan, saying that he decided to flirt with NATO

04:03 and his wife defiantly went to our enemies with cookies. Guess

04:07 what fate awaits him? He's referring to Armenia joining

04:12 exercises, military exercises with the Americans. He's also

04:16 referring to the visit by Apashinyan's wife to Kyiv,

04:20 meeting with President Zelensky, Armenia sending aid to

04:25 Ukraine, which Russia sees as their enemy, of course. And

04:29 there is a growing relationship between the leaders of Russia

04:35 and Azerbaijan. There's also some gas deals there. So Russia

04:39 also sort of doing a balancing act between Armenia and

04:43 Azerbaijan. And finally, there is the war in Ukraine, which

04:47 means that the Russians are very busy somewhere else, not

04:51 maybe paying as close attention to Armenia as the Armenians

04:54 would like. And so the Russians really, it seems, according to

04:59 Nikol Apashinyan, are not doing their job, not helping out as

05:03 much as they would want. And it seems that this position by the

05:08 the Russians to sort of play both sides is not sitting well with the Armenians.

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