Residents of Stepanakert in the heavily disputed Nagorno-Karabakh Region of what is internationally recognized as Azeri territory, awoke to sounds of explosions and gunfire ripping through the city Tuesday morning as Azeri Forces launched what it calls an Anti-Terrorist Operation into the region.

The Nagorno-Karabakh territory has been in dispute ever since the collapse of the Russian Empire after the October Revolution in 1917. The disputed territory was mostly de-escalated during the Soviet era, with Nagorno-Karabakh given the status of Autonomous Oblast within the Azerbaijan SSR, giving it a measure of self-governance.

However, since the collapse of the USSR, the ethnic dispute has flared back up with two major wars fought over the Nagorno-Karabakh territory since 1988.

The first Nagorno-Karabakh War lasted from February 1988 until May 1994. While the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020 lasted for 44 days.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has been positioning himself to join the Western Bloc, taking an interest in joining the EU and NATO with US encouragement.

However, it is understood that NATO will not allow Armenia to join the Military Bloc as long as the risk of war breaking out in Nagorno-Karabakh remains high.

With this in mind, some analysts believe Armenia has been quietly instigating an Azeri incursion into the area with the idea of letting Nagorno-Karabakh fall completely under Azerbaijani control, relinquishing the territory and easing the associated tensions that might give NATO pause before admitting Armenia into the alliance.

Interestingly, Pashinyan accepted Azerbaijani sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh back in May, undermining its own negotiating position and upsetting the balance of power in the region. However, the population of the Nagorno-Karabakh territory is majority Armenian, and local authorities do not recognize Azeri sovereignty over the area.

Azerbaijan has warned Armenia against involving itself with NATO, suggesting it will lead to conflict in the region, and few of Armenia's neighbors are happy with the moves. However, Armenia has ignored the warnings, going so far as to host US Forces in the country for Military exercises which began on September 11th, 2023.

Many Russian analysts, media personalities and politicians see this as a major provocation and an attempt to open a new front in the Ukraine War as Russian peacekeepers had been tasked with maintaining the Status-Quo as per agreement between the two warring sides at the end of the second Nagorno-Karabakh War. Western analysts dispute this claim.

We will keep you updated as information comes in.

Meanwhile the rest of EU, especially Germany, speaks of a "conflict", expresses "deep concerns" and calls BOTH parties to peace and diplomatic solutions.

This IS what happens right now, in a different part of the world and different scale, but exact same scenario.

Azerbayjan, with help of Turkey, tries to exterminate armenian population of Artsakh (which they call Karabagh, black garden - turks have been attempting to conquer that region for centuries, but always had heavy losses - hence the name!), and then, ultimately, all armenians, finalizing their century-old genocidal plans.

And the world speaks of diplomatic solutions and ceasefire, meanwhile selling weapons to tyrannical agressor. You pretend this is our war, and you have nothing to do with that. You forgot, that the flood of syrian refugees to Europe was caused by Turkey-backed ISIS, didn't you? You pretend that killings and beheadings right in the heart of Europe do not concern you. Well, the war came to you, want it or not. You were deaf to our warnings and demands to stop arming Turkey and Azerbayjan. We'll fight our war alone, but will you be fighting yours?

#RecognizeArtsakh

#StopErdogan

#StopAliyev

#ArtsakhIsArmenia

#SanctionTurkey