10-Nov-2020: Armenia, Azerbaijan agree to end weeks of fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh

Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on a deal with Russia to end weeks of fierce clashes over Nagorno-Karabakh, after a string of Azerbaijani victories in its fight to retake the disputed region.

The announcement of a full cease-fire from 1:00 am Tuesday (2100 GMT) sparked outrage in Armenia, with angry protesters storming the government headquarters in Yerevan where they ransacked offices and broke windows. Crowds also seized control of parliament, calling from inside the chamber for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan after he announced the “painful” deal to the end the fighting.

Pashinyan signed a statement with the presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan on the termination of the Karabakh war. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said Pashinyan had been left with no choice but to sign the “historic agreement.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that both Armenia and Azerbaijan had agreed to “a total cease-fire” that would create the conditions for a long-term settlement of the conflict. He said the two sides would hold on to areas under their control and that Russian peacekeepers would be deployed along frontlines and to secure a corridor connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenian territory.

Armenia had agreed to a timetable to withdraw its forces from large parts of the region and Azerbaijan’s ally Turkey would be involved in implementing the cease-fire.

The deal would end six weeks of fierce clashes over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian region of Azerbaijan that broke away from Baku’s control during a bitter war in the 1990s. The conflict — which has simmered for decades despite international efforts to reach a peace deal — erupted into fresh fighting in late September. More than 1,300 people have been confirmed killed, including dozens of civilians, but the actual death toll is believed to be significantly higher.

Azerbaijani forces made steady gains over the weeks of fighting, sweeping across the southern flank of Nagorno-Karabakh and eventually into the region’s heartland. A turning point came when Aliyev announced that his forces had captured Shusha, the region’s strategically vital second-largest town. Shusha sits on cliffs overlooking Nagorno-Karabakh’s main city Stepanakert and on the main road to Armenia, which backs the separatists.

Armenia insisted that fighting for the town was continuing but a local separatist official admitted that Shusha was “completely out of our control.” The cease-fire deal came just hours after Azerbaijan admitted to accidentally shooting down a Russian military helicopter flying in Armenia.

Moscow’s defense ministry said two crew members were killed when the Mi-24 helicopter was hit close to the border with Azerbaijan. A third crew member was injured and evacuated. Azerbaijan quickly apologized and blamed the incident on the “tense situation in the region and increased combat readiness” of its forces. The helicopter was shot down near the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, a landlocked exclave of Azerbaijan between Armenia and Turkey, far from Nagorno-Karabakh.

Russia has a military pact with Armenia and a base in the country, but had insisted it would not get involved in the conflict with Azerbaijan unless Armenian territory itself came under threat.

Karabakh declared independence nearly 30 years ago but the declaration has not been recognized internationally, even by Armenia, and it remains a part of Azerbaijan under international law.

Repeated attempts at cease-fires brokered by France, Russia and the United States — who together lead the “Minsk Group” that has sought for years to end the conflict — repeatedly failed over the last few weeks.

Azerbaijan has been pushing for Turkey’s involvement in a settlement and the new deal came after Putin spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Anger had already been mounting in Armenia ahead of the agreement, with 17 opposition parties calling on Pashinyan and the rest of his government to immediately resign. The parties said that Armenia’s leaders bore “the entire responsibility for the situation” in Karabakh.

27-Sep-2020: Fresh Armenia-Azerbaijan clashes over Nagorno-Karabakh, as UN chief urges an end to fighting

The UN chief is “extremely concerned” over renewed hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone that erupted on Sunday.

“He condemns the use of force and regrets the loss of life and the toll on the civilian population”, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement.

This latest skirmish between the two countries, which fought a war in the 1990s as the Soviet Union was dissolving, has heightened fears of instability in the South Caucasus, a region that provides crucial transit routes for gas and oil to world markets.

Both States have declared martial law and Armenia ordered the total mobilization of its military.

The Secretary-General strongly calls on the sides to immediately stop fighting, de-escalate tensions and return to meaningful negotiations without delay. The UN chief would be speaking to both the President of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia.

Back and forth

The two fought a six-year war over the region until a 1994 truce, but over the years, both countries have blamed the other for ceasefire violations in the enclave and along the border, including in July.

In recent months, more than a dozen soldiers and civilians have been killed in the struggle.

Mr. Dujarric underscored that the Secretary-General reiterated his “full support” for the important role of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group Co-Chairs and urged the sides to “work closely with them for an urgent resumption of dialogue without preconditions”.

3-Oct-2020: French Pacific outpost decides on independence

The French South Pacific territory of New Caledonia is set to vote in an independence referendum. The voters will choose whether or not to break away from France.

The referendum is part of a carefully negotiated de-colonisation plan agreed in 1998, known as the Noumea Accord. The agreement ended a deadly conflict between the mostly pro-independence indigenous Kanak population and the descendants of European settlers known as “Caldoches” in the 1980s.

The 2020 referendum is the second one. The first referendum in 2018 resulted in the maintenance of the status quo with 56.7% of the vote. If independence is rejected, there is the option of another referendum by 2022 so long as the poll is requested by at least a third of the local legislature.

France would, after a transition period, hand over control. Choosing independence would lead to full devolution of powers to the territory. It would also end of generous subsidies from France, which provides $1.5bn in financial support annually.

New Caledonia is situated between Australia and Fiji. It is a French South Pacific territory. It is called “The Pebble” and was seized by France in 1853. The economy largely depends on the production of metals, especially nickel of which New Caledonia is a major global producer. It gets tourism and financial support from mainland France.

The last former colonies to be given independence by France were Djibouti in 1977 and Vanuatu in 1980.