The Armenia and Azerbaijan war, explained

on september 27th explosions shook nagorno-karabakh it's a mountainous region between armenia and azerbaijan and the center of a relentless dispute between these countries nagorno-karabakh is internationally recognized as part of azerbaijan though was occupied by armenia in a war almost 30 years ago both countries armies have been dug in along this line ever since fighting occasionally broke out but usually died down this time was different fierce fighting erupted in september 2020 and quickly became a full-scale war both sides were accused of bombing civilian areas in the region thousands of people died including a hundred civilians then in a sudden and dramatic turn in this decade's old conflict armenia surrendered a ceasefire was signed on november 9th and azerbaijan declared victory so what sparked this war and what does the ceasefire mean for this fiercely contested place nagorno-karabakh is in the caucasus between europe and asia historically its population has been mostly ethnic armenian with a substantial azeri minority it's dotted with medieval armenian churches has always had this strong armenian population and to complicate things that in the 18th century a kind of very big important azerbaijani town the citadel of shusha was founded right in the middle of this territory so this was a region that was incredibly important both to armenians and to azerbaijanis but for most of the 19th century it was ruled by the russian empire after the empire fell in 1918 i think armenians and azeri's formed new countries armenia and azerbaijan and they immediately fought over this region but just three years later russian soviets captured the entire caucasus the soviets eventually made armenia and azerbaijan republics within the soviet union and drew new borders and they made nagorno-karabakh a semi-autonomous region in the azerbaijani republic despite its majority armenian population ethnic armenians they are frequently asked to join the armenian republic but were denied this was the soviet union there was no democracy there was no dialogue that kind of problem festered for all those years still there weren't signs of war until the soviet union began to loosen its grip in the late 1980s the soviet union announced a new policy called glasnost that gave its people more political freedoms change but it had unintended consequences a peaceful soviet union seems increasingly at risk glasnost has given people freedom not only to create but to hate ancient feuds erupting such as the one between azerbaijan and armenia in 1988 ethnic armenians enda garner karabakh passed a referendum to leave the azerbaijan republic reviving the conflict in armenia people rallied for unification while in azerbaijan people responded with counter protests violence soon erupted into garner karabakh as the soviet union fell apart armenia and azerbaijan declared independence escalating the conflict into a war about 20 000 people died and over a million were forced to flee their homes in the region fighting raged for three more years until armenia finally won in 1994 both sides signed a ceasefire agreement freezing the conflict armenia occupied several pieces of azerbaijan as well as nagorno-karabakh which was still legally recognized as part of azerbaijan even though it had declared itself an autonomous region at the start of the war this occupation displaced hundreds of thousands of azeries from their homes the deal was broken by russia who was a formal ally to armenia but also had a good relationship with azerbaijan russia's role has always been a bit ambiguous here because although they are the main mediator they've had their own agenda which is to keep their influence in the region and if possible get russian troops back on the ground while russia was not able to send troops as part of the deal in 1994 it did end up leading a new international group with france and the us to try and find a permanent solution to the conflict but armenia and azerbaijan refused to settle instead armenia renamed formally as zeri towns and repopulated them with ethnic armenians while its leaders called for it to be officially unified with armenia meanwhile azerbaijan planned to come back from 2008 to 2019 it spent 24 billion dollars on its military six times more than armenia all the while reiterating its claim to nagorno-karabakh on the ground both countries maintained a military presence along the front lines where skirmishes broke out occasionally in 2016 they fought a war that lasted four days people called this a frozen conflict but it was in no way a frozen conflict it was a smoldering conflict and it reignited when another country suddenly intervened in the past few years turkey has increasingly intervened in conflicts around the region in order to tilt the outcomes in its favor by sending troops into the syrian civil war it captured a swath of territory along its border in 2019 and in 2020 its troops have turned the tide of the libyan civil war in favor of the government who is helping turkey claim valuable natural gas deposits in the mediterranean these are also ways for turkey to push back against its major rival russia who is also fighting in both conflicts so in july 2020 when skirmishes broke out into garner karbak turkey saw an opportunity and threw its support behind azerbaijan whose majority of zeri population is a turkic ethnic group azerbaijan is probably the closest country there is to turkey the two languages are extremely close there was even talk of you know one nation and two states in august the two held joint military exercises in azerbaijan and turkey's supply of weapons to azerbaijan dramatically surged which included advanced drones i think this conflict has been planned for many months jointly in ankara and in baku and so with turkey support azerbaijan launched its attack in just over a week azerbaijani soldiers had pushed at least 20 kilometers into armenian-held territory a few weeks later they advanced further into nicaragua and also got close to the armenian border it wasn't a fair fight armenia fought back but was nearly defenseless against azerbaijan's deadly drones then on november 8th azerbaijan won its biggest victory it captured the historic city of susha just 15 kilometers from the capitals to panicurt that's when armenia agreed to surrender the ceasefire agreement that ended the war dramatically reshapes who controls nagorno-karabakh azerbaijan will keep what it captured and take over this part from armenia this part remains under control of ethnic armenians but they won't be alone russia didn't intervene in the war but brokered this deal which calls for 2 000 of its troops to serve there as peacekeepers russia obviously had its ideas about how to end this conflict with russian peacekeepers and certainly didn't rush to help armenia turkey also gains a foothold here the deal calls for the construction of a road here which would give turkey access to azerbaijan plus in agreement with russia turkey will now send its own peacekeeping troops to the region so while azerbaijan is celebrating and turkey and russia won strategic rewards armenia is in turmoil after the deal was announced mob stormed government buildings in the capital and called for the removal of the prime minister i think armenia's in a huge state of trauma it's going to take a long time for it to occur off on this and the political crisis i think is going to be ongoing for a long time in in armenia in nagorno-karabakh i think armenians and newly captured areas may be forced out some have already burned their homes before leaving while azeri's who fled during the previous war can make their way back ultimately though the agreement does nothing to end the hostility between the two countries and until that happens this conflict could have another round this is much more a deal than it is a piece you

Channel: Vox

Views: 2,158,923

Rating: 4.8246694 out of 5

Keywords: armenia, azerbaijan, nagorno-karabakh, world, Vox.com, vox, explain, explainer, turkey, russia, erdogan, putin, artaskh, armenians, azeris, war, conflict, poltiics, politics, geopolitics, international, civil war, ussr, soviet, history, glasnost, drones, warfare, weapons, military

Id: YU2v38hRRbg

Length: 9min 26sec (566 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 03 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Jupitorrr]

Kinda generic, was hoping they would go into more detail