Mint Explainer: Why India is affected by Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh takeover
After a short, sharp military campaign, Azerbaijan has claimed victory over separatists in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. The territory, which was recognised as part of Azerbaijan but was controlled by Armenian separatists for decades, has been at the centre of a major geopolitical conflict for decades. Due to Azerbaijan's close ties with Pakistan, India has been strategically backing Aremnia via sales of military equipment.
Russia, NATO, Turkey, and Israel also are major players with stakes in this crisis. Mint breaks down what’s going on. Armenia and Azerbaijan have been quarrelling over this territory for over a century.
Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognised as a part of Azerbaijan, which is a Muslim–majority state. However, the territory is dominated by ethnic Armenians, who retain cultural and political ties to Armenia. Nagorno-Karabakh, and some swathes of territory around it, had been controlled by Armenian separatists since Armenia won a war with Azerbaijan in the 1990s.
However, in 2020, Azerbaijan turned the tables on Armenia by fighting and winning a war that allowed it to reconquer most territories earlier lost to Armenia. It also acquired a chunk of Nagorno-Karabakh. Thousands are estimated to have died in the fighting.
After the war in 2020, Russia stepped in to negotiate a peace agreement. Armenian troops withdrew from all territories adjacent to Nagorno Karabakh. Parts of the region remained administered by Armenian separatists but Russian peacekeepers were also deployed there.
A ceasefire monitoring centre was also set up. That was where things stood until last week, when Azerbaijan declared the start of an “anti-terror" campaign against ethnic Armenian separatist troops. The immediate
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