The Economist explains

Why Azerbaijan and Armenia are fighting again

An uneasy truce has broken down just weeks after peace-treaty discussions

An Armenian soldier stands guard next to a road outside a house in the village of Shurnukh on March 4, 2021. - Up until a few months ago the nearest Azerbaijani presence east of the village of Shurnukh was dozens of kilometres (miles) away. Between the two sides lay the territory of the self-declared state of Nagorno-Karabakh that Armenian fighters seized in a war almost 30 years ago after the Soviet Union's collapse. But the balance of power was upended by six-weeks of fighting that exploded last September 2020 and saw Armenia bludgeoned into agreeing the return of swathes of territory to Azerbaijan. Today in Shurnukh the border has been staked out more or less along the road that runs through this impoverished farming village of 28 families. Across it, the Armenian and Azerbaijani forces now eye each other nervously. (Photo by ARIS MESSINIS / AFP) (Photo by ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty Images)

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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