Armenia: these military exercises which revive the conflict – L’Express

According to her, Armenia is under threat of an invasion from Azerbaijan, which is carrying out military maneuvers with Turkey on its border, in the province of Nakhchivan. The accusations are denied by Azerbaijan, which promises that these exercises are without consequences.

While the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh still remains worrying, diplomatic tensions now extend to many actors and allies in the region, from Turkey to Russia, including France. “Geopolitical upheavals are favorable moments for authoritarian countries who want to take advantage of them,” Armenian Ambassador Hasmik Tolmajian warned Tuesday to AFP, suggesting that Azerbaijan could take advantage of the fact that the international community is concentrated on other fronts to advance pawns in Armenia.

This conflict was rekindled a little over a month ago. On September 19, 2023, Azerbaijan, a country bordering Armenia, took, during a lightning offensive, control of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave located between the two countries and at the heart of a long-term separatist struggle. date. Before that, Azerbaijan and Armenia had already clashed in two wars for control of this mountainous enclave, one in the 1990s when the USSR broke up, the other in the fall of 2020. , won by Baku. More than 100,000 Armenians from Karabakh, almost the entire population, have since fled to Armenia.

This latest attack once again destabilizes the region and blurs historic alliances. Because to the great dismay of the Armenian government in Yerevan, Moscow, its most powerful ally, did not react to Baku’s military offensive. For the Russian giant, Armenia has abandoned control of Nagorno-Karabakh since it recognized Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over this region during negotiations, and refused to come to the aid of the separatists.

Tension is therefore at its height between the two traditional partners: on Tuesday October 24, the Armenian government went so far as to summon the Russian ambassador to accuse the Federation of having made “insulting and totally unacceptable statements against senior Armenian officials”, in a television program on the Russian federal channel Pervy Kanal. The channel broadcast a program the day before criticizing Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian for his management of the conflict with Azerbaijan, and his desire to get closer to the West.

Armenia now fears that its neighbor, richer, better armed and supported by Turkey, will be tempted to connect the Nakhichevan enclave by force to the rest of its territory by attacking southern Armenian regions. A fear rejected by the Azerbaijani ambassador, who told AFP that “exercises at different levels take place regularly between the armies of Azerbaijan and Turkey”. “The joint tactical exercise “Mustafa Kemal Atatürk 2023”, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Republic of Turkey, is taking place in accordance with the cooperation agreement in the military field concluded” between the States, explained the diplomat .

In recent months, she told AFP that Azerbaijan had no interest in launching a war because it had invested a lot economically. “War is not Azerbaijan’s choice. Our choice is peace, our choice is diplomatic negotiations,” she also said in mid-September.

Fearing for its security in the face of the inaction of its usual protector, Yerevan has recently sought to get closer to the West by organizing joint exercises with the United States and obtaining promises of arms deliveries from France.

Armenia also ratified its membership in the International Criminal Court, a gesture perceived as hostile by Moscow since the body issued an arrest warrant against President Vladimir Putin. A series of decisions which add fuel to the international geopolitical blaze, while Moscow has been denouncing European and American interventionism in the region for several days.