TARTAR, AZERBAIJAN - For years, the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia had agreed to postpone discussion about the status of the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, to avoid inflaming passions.
"The final nail in the coffin of the negotiation process was when he said that Nagorno-Karabakh was Armenian," said Mr Hikmet Hajiyev, foreign policy adviser to the Azerbaijani President. These were the terms agreed upon 10 years ago but never implemented, and analysts say that Armenia became less ambiguous this year about claiming Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts seized during the war.
"It's logical that Azerbaijan wanted to start this, not the Armenians, who merely want the status quo," said Mr Thomas de Waal, a senior fellow with Carnegie Europe and author of Black Garden, a book on Nagorno-Karabakh.The Armenian government has accused Azerbaijan of mounting a planned offensive and of instigating the clashes that led to all-out war, and says it is acting entirely in self-defence.
The rearming effort seemed to bear fruit in 2016, when in four days of fighting Azerbaijani forces seized control of a village just over the ceasefire line. One of those killed, Major General Polad Hashimov, was a popular figure whose death stirred an outpouring of emotion. "It is a cliché that Turkey was instigating it," Mr Shafiyev, of the Centre for Analysis of International Relations, said of Azerbaijan's venture into war.
Some who had cars left in the night. Those who stayed described a barrage of Armenian rockets at 7am the following day.
What's in it for France and Armenia? Pres. Macron's open bigotry against Islam made Pres. Erdogun a folk hero in the Islamic world and the Caucasus. Muslim countries have no choice but to follow his lead.
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