Why Azerbaijan and Armenia are fighting again
An uneasy truce has broken down just weeks after peace-treaty discussions
Armenia accused Azerbaijan of an unprovoked attack on September 13th, after its neighbour conducted overnight artillery and drone strikes against Armenian positions in the country’s east. Armenia’s prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, said at least 49 soldiers had been killed. Azerbaijan claims it was retaliation for “subversive acts” by Armenia and that 50 of its own servicemen have died. Clashes have broken out sporadically around the border over the past year. But the latest ones are the heaviest since the end of a war almost two years ago over Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave that is formally part of Azerbaijan but which has been held by ethnic Armenian forces since the 1990s. America, the EU and Russia have called for an immediate end to renewed hostilities. What are the stakes, and why has the fighting resumed?
This article appeared in the The Economist explains section of the print edition under the headline “Why Azerbaijan and Armenia are fighting again”
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