The U.S. embassy’s decision not to visit Shusha followed soon after its reappointment of a representative to the Minsk Group, a body Baku has declared “dead.”
But just as Azerbaijani troops were entering the territory, however, it emerged that the new road that was the purported reason for the handover would not be ready for another week.
In 2020, Azerbaijan won back many of the water resources it had lost to Armenians in the 1990s. But the biggest source still eludes it, and farmers are still struggling.
A series of ceasefire violations has led to an unprecedented level of criticism, even as the Armenians of Karabakh still see the peacekeepers as their main guarantor of security.
Baku has been reforming its armed forces with a new education system, new weaponry, and a big increase in special forces units. And it is all being modeled after Turkey’s military.
Political movements based on Shia Islam have faced an uphill battle, as both the government and mainstream opposition are devoted to a secular, pro-Turkic national narrative.
Most who fled the area around Parukh, which four months ago saw some of the sharpest fighting since the war in 2020, have returned. But they say it’s become more dangerous.
At least 36 veterans are known to have died as a result of suicides since the end of the 2020 war. The opposition and government are sparring over who is to blame.
A new investigation has found that agricultural firms connected to powerful people, including the first family, were given non-transparent contracts to develop land in Karabakh.