The Armenian parliament is set to vote on a bill that would recognize the independence of Azerbaijan’s breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region. Azerbaijan rejects the vote, accusing Armenia of trying to derail international peace talks. The dispute follows years of animosity and fighting between the two countries.
It is considered one of the world’s longest running territorial disputes.
Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region physically located in the south west of Azerbaijan, but home to a majority ethnic Armenian population, who say they are defending their right to self-determination.
More than 20,000 people were killed during a 6-year long bloody war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. In the early 90’s a ceasefire was agreed but no peace treaty signed, leaving the area in a "frozen conflict".
Yet the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh is far from frozen. In the two decades since the 1994 ceasefire between Georgia’s southern neighbours, as many as 3,000 people are believed to have died in fighting between Armenia & Azerbaijan.
But last month renewed fighting marked the worst violence in 22 years, rattling the region.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his country’s support for Azerbaijan, with whom they hold strong economic, religious and cultural ties.
"I would like to reemphasise our support for our Azerbaijani brothers' fight for Nagorno-Karabakh that has been under Armenian occupation for a very long time. But despite a U.N. resolution in favour of our Azerbaijani brothers and the formation of the Minsk Group, Russia, the United States and France could not solve this problem," Erdogan said.
Russia, Turkey's friend gone foe, has criticized Erdogan for making comments Moscow says, appeals not for peace, but for war.
"Russia is an official military ally to Armenia. First of all from the CSTO treaty, Collective Security Treaty organization, which Armenia is a part and Azerbaijan is not. And also they do have a bilateral military cooperation treaty, which has an obligation of direct military assistance in case of conflict," said Nikolaz Vashakidze, former Georgian deputy defense minister.
Russia also has a military base in Armenia and has extended a USD 200 million loan to Yerevan for weapons purchases, but it's arms deals with Azerbaijan is 25 times that!
"This conflict demonstrated that Azerbaijan managed to gain some support in Russia as well. I mean Russia’s support was very mild and very disappointing for Armenians. Russia directed Azeris to stop at the end of the day unofficially but it was after a certain period of time when Azerbaijanis already achieved a very important psychological success," said Nodar Kharshiladze, senior fellow of Georgian Foundation for Strategic and Int'l Studies.
The Armenian government's recognition of an independent Nagorno-Karabakh would do little to resolve the issue. The area is still considered under Azerbaijan's sovereignty by the International community and the United Nations.
"This conflict has been poisoning this region, politically, economically, culturally and so on for more than two decades and if you try to imagine what the region would look like if this conflict did not have a place, you would see an absolutely different picture of course," Vashakidze said.
Meanwhile, neighbouring Georgia has offered to mediate between the two countries in an effort to boost regional prosperity.
