Moscow and Washington have accused each other of destabilising the South Caucuses region, as thousands of ethnic Armenians fled their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh over ethnic cleansing fears.

“We urge Washington to refrain from extremely dangerous words and actions that lead to an artificial increase in anti-Russian sentiment in Armenia,” Russia’s Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said on the Telegram messaging app on Tuesday.

Antonov’s comments follow the US State Department spokesman saying on Monday that Russia had shown it was not a reliable partner after Armenia blamed Moscow for failing to intervene in last week’s capture of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijani forces.

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Armenia had relied on a security partnership with Russia, but relations between the two countries have frayed badly since President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“I do think that Russia has shown that it is not a security partner that can be relied on,” U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

Thousands of ethnic Armenians fled the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh by Monday after their fighters were defeated by Azerbaijan in last week’s lightning military operation.

Baku has promised to protect the rights of the roughly 120,000 Armenians who call Karabakh home but many refuse to accept its assurances. Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan blamed Russia for failing to ensure Armenian security.

Washington and a number of its Western allies condemned the Azeri hostilities, which have changed the contours of the South Caucasus – a patchwork of ethnicities crisscrossed with oil and gas pipelines where Russia, the United States, Turkey and Iran vie for influence.

Moscow has said Armenia only had itself to blame for Azerbaijan’s victory over Karabakh because it flirted with the West rather than working with Moscow and Baku for peace.

On Monday, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) chief Samantha Power and U.S. State Department Acting Assistant Secretary for Europe and Eurasian Affairs Yuri, arrived in Armenia, in the first visit by senior U.S. officials since the Karabakh Armenians were forced into a ceasefire last week.

From 1988-1994 about 30,000 people were killed and more thana million people, mostly ethnic Azeris, displaced as theArmenians threw off nominal Azerbaijani control in what is nowknown as the First Karabakh War.

Azerbaijan gained back territory in and aroundNagorno-Karabakh in a second war in 2020, which ended with aMoscow-brokered peace deal and the deployment of a contingent ofRussian peacekeepers.

Turkey, who backed Azerbaijan with weaponry in the 2020conflict, said last week it supported the aims of theAzerbaijan’s latest military operation but played no part in it.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Azerbaijan on Wednesday claimed victory in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and reclaimed the breakaway region after Armenian separatists agreed to a ceasefire. The conflict between the two nations has reportedly resulted in 200 deaths.

What is Nagorno-Karabakh?

Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, is a mountainous region in the southern Caucasus Mountains. It is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, but its population is predominantly ethnic Armenian. The region has its own government, which is close to Armenia but not officially recognised by the United Nations or any other country.

Armenians, who are Christian, and Azerbaijanis, who are mostly Turkic Muslims, both claim deep historical ties to the region. The conflict between the two peoples dates back more than a century.

History of Conflict 

Armenia and Azerbaijan became constituent republics of the Soviet Union in 1922. As the Soviet Union dissolved towards the end of the 20th century, war erupted between Armenians and Azerbaijanis over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The conflict lasted from 1988 to 1994 and resulted in the deaths of around 30,000 people and the forced displacement of over a million more.

In 2020, Azerbaijan launched a military offensive, sparking the Second Karabakh War. Azerbaijan rapidly overwhelmed Armenian forces and secured a decisive victory in 44 days, regaining control of the seven surrounding districts and about one-third of Nagorno-Karabakh. An estimated 6,500 people were killed in the conflict. 

Peace finally prevailed in the region through a Russia-brokered ceasefire agreement. Russia deployed 1,960 peacekeepers to the Lachin Corridor, a vital road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, which was no longer under Armenian control.

2023 Escalation 

On September 19 this year, Azerbaijan launched a major military operation in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Claiming to be responding to a terrorist threat, the Azerbaijani defence ministry alleged that Armenian land mines had killed two Azerbaijani civilians and four police officers — an allegation disputed by the Armenian government.

Azerbaijan and the ethnic Armenian authorities agreed to a ceasefire brokered by Russian peacekeepers, one day after Azerbaijan launched its military operation.

“Azerbaijan restored its sovereignty as a result of successful anti-terrorist measures in Karabakh,” Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said, as quoted by news agency AFP.

Peace Talks 

Azerbaijan will hold peace talks with Armenian separatists today. The peace talks will take place in Yevlakh, more than 200 kilometres west of Azerbaijan capital Baku. The peace talks come against the backdrop of the UN Security Council calling for an emergency session over the conflict today. 

Russian peacekeepers to mediate Azerbaijan-Armenia peace talks, Russian President Vladiir Putin said.