Some stories, newspaper articles, blogs etc. may be of interest to other posters but don’t really fit the “breaking news” tag…as they are not in themselves - breaking news stories.
Feels like one of “The Fly” movie, or someone out of “One Punch Man” anime.
Azerbadjan with Turkish support, has launched a general invasion of the contested territory of Karabag, which has been controlled b Armenia since the 90s. They have turkish UCAV support as well as at least 500 turkish controlled Syrian mercenaries. It is now a general war and not just military operations. This is very serious and may have grave consequences for the region.
War rages on , artillery strikes on the entire line of contact. Armenia has tried to take back some positions lost to Azerbadjan in the last 3 days. I am not sure of the outcome of this. Both sides seem to be taking heavy casualties. https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1311266356290093056
But as some of you may have heard, yesterday Armenia accused Turkey of shooting down a SU-25, killing their pilot, from Azerbadjani air space. This would be a giant escalation by Erdogan (who is the driving force behind Azerbadjans push to restore dominion of the Karabag). Today Armenia posted the wreckage: https://twitter.com/301_AD/status/1311228351638654976
Situation is a giant clusterfuck with Turkey pushing hard for an escalation.
The Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijan enclave inside Armenia are the flashpoints of the conflicts between these two countries since the dissolution of Soviet Union.
I think even longer. As far as I understand the Karabag region was part of the old Armenian kingdom and that they consider it cultural heartland. It has always been settled by the Christian orthodox denomination, and these consider themselves mostly Armenian from what I understand. I think it came under Azerbadjani jurisdiction in 1920. However, it is considered parts of Azerbadjan by most states today.But historically and cultually it is a bit more messy, which I guess is why there is a conflict in the first place.
Anyway, Armenia claims that Turkey is now taking operational command of Azerbadjan’s air force in the theater. I have no means to know if this is true, but it sounds plausible considering previous events and Turkish position.
Agreed, although Russia has yet to intervene, but it is worrisome since they have bases in Armenia and Turkey is so incredibly invested in Azerbadjan’s campaign. It makes clashes between the powers possible if it escalates further and you see Azerbadjani ground offensive against Armenian proper (un-contested territory ), since that may be easier (if you look at the frontlines, if Azerbadjan can’t push ahead in Karabag, may be tempting to go around through Armenia proper). I mean, the possibility is there, depending on Azerbadjani and Turkish moves and Russian response.