Armenia and Azerbaijan agree on ‘historic’ return of villages

World News@lemmy.world – 163 points – 2 months ago

Armenia and Azerbaijan agree on ‘historic’ return of villages

Armenia has agreed to return several villages to Azerbaijan in what both countries say is an important milestone as they edge towards a peace deal after fighting two wars since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Armenia, having been absolutely abandoned by the Russians, is doing everything it can to keep Turkey (through Azerbaijan) from wiping it off the map.

To be fair, the Azerbaijani government hates Armenia plenty enough even without Turkey being involved.

Yes, but lack the material to move the needle without Turkish support.

Azerbaijan has more than x3 the population of Armenia, and also has oil wealth. This is very one sided.

The settlements are deserted but are strategically important because they are close to Armenia’s main highway north towards the border with Georgia. Much of Armenia’s trade travels on this road, and it goes to the pipeline through which it receives gas from Russia.

Not exactly a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh situation. They have been fighting over it for so long that I have a CD with an SD video AVI of a documentary about it somewhere.

The people of Karabakh remain ethnically cleansed from their homes, and it looks like no one is interested in ever fixing that.

Russia had posted peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh after the last major war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020 but said this week it had begun withdrawing them.

Russia's main loss in the war against Ukraine is their relationship with their de facto satellites. Both Caucasian and Central Asian countries have moved away diplomatically from Russia, being completely aware that it has their hands tied. China moves its influence into Central Asia, and the Caucasus dissolves into its myriad of historical conflicts. Only Belarus remains loyal.

So relations are improving after the Russian "peacekeepers" left?