Peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan

  • Russia brokered a new peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
  • The two countries have been in a military conflict for over six weeks over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in the South Caucasus.
  • The deal was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev and Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan. 
  • Since the conflict started in September, multiple ceasefire agreements were signed between the two sides, but none proved successful.
  • Russia’s role in the conflict is seen to be somewhat ironic since it supplies arms to both countries.
  • It is also in a military alliance with Armenia called the Collective Security Treaty Organization. 
THE DEAL
  • As per the new peace deal, both sides will now maintain positions in the areas that they currently hold.
  • This mean a significant gain for Azerbaijan as it reclaimed over 15-20 per cent of its lost territory during the recent conflict.
  • Under the agreement, all military operations will be suspended.
  • Russian peacekeepers will be deployed along the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh and along the Lachin corridor that connects the region to Armenia. 
  • The Russian peacekeepers with a force of roughly 2,000 will be deployed in the area for a period of five years.
  • Refugees and internally displaced persons will return to the region and the adjacent territories.
  • The two sides will also exchange prisoners of wars and bodies. 
  • A new corridor will also be opened from Nakhchivan to Azerbaijan, which will be under Russian control.

CURRENT STATUS OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH REGION 

  • Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.
  • Most of its region, though, is controlled by Armenian separatists. 
  • The separatists declared it a republic called the “Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast”. 
  • While the Armenian government does not recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as independent, it supports the region politically and militarily.
HISTORY
  • Nagorno-Karabakh has been part of Azerbaijan territory since the Soviet era. 
  • When the Soviet Union began to collapse in the late 1980s, Armenia’s regional parliament voted for the region’s transfer to Armenia.
  • The demand, however, was turned down by Soviet authorities.
  • Years of clashes followed between Azerbaijan forces and Armenian separatists. 
  • The violence lasted into the 1990s, leaving tens and thousands dead and displacing hundreds of thousands. 
  • In 1994, Russia brokered a ceasefire, by which time ethnic Armenians had taken control of the region.

EFFORTS TOWARDS PEACE

  • After the 1994 peace deal, the region has been marked by regular exchanges of fire. 
  • In 2016, it saw a Four-Day War before Russia mediated peace. 
  • The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group, chaired by France, Russia and the US, has tried to get the two countries to reach a peace agreement for several years.
  • This October, both countries agreed to a ceasefire agreement, which was also brokered by Russia but was unsuccessful.
THE ETHNIC TENSIONS 
  • Ethnic tensions from decades ago have a crucial role in the dispute. 
  • Azeris claim that the disputed region was under their control in known history.
  • Armenians maintain that Karabakh was a part of the Armenian kingdom. 
  • At present, the disputed region consists of a majority Armenian Christian population.
  • It, however, is internationally recognized as a part of Muslim-majority Azerbaijan.
  • According to the Warsaw-based Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW), the current escalation was “most likely” initiated by Azerbaijan. 
  • Media reports have noted that the clashes were possibly a fallout of Azerbaijan’s bid to reclaim some territories occupied by separatist Armenians.


SOURCE: IE

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hamas V. PLO

The irony in the ongoing conflict is that Hamas, whose founding members were encouraged by Israel in the 1970s and 80s against Yasser Arafat’s secular national movement, has turned out to be Israel’s biggest rival in the Palestinian territories. HAMAS Hamas was established after the first intifada broke out in 1987, as an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.  Intifada was the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.  The first intifada lasted from 1987 to 1993, and the second began in 2000. As strife between Israel and Palestine continued to soar as the latter resorted to the First Intifada, or uprising, in December 1987, Hamas as an organisation led by Sunni-Islamic fundamentalists, began to take shape.  Hamas could gain immediate and immense popularity within the protesting Palestinians because it was ...
Read more

G7 global corporate Tax Deal

Image
The Group of Seven (G7) countries have backed the proposal to impose a common global corporate tax. It would be aimed at preventing multinational businesses from evading taxes and also squeeze the havens which attract tax evaders due to the low-rate jurisdictions.  The consensus to adopt a common tax rate was reached at the G7 finance ministers' meeting held in Buckingham (London) on June 5.  THE PROPOSAL The tax proposal endorsed by the US, the UK, France and other G7 countries has two parts.  The main part of the proposal states that countries around the world should tax their home companies' overseas profits at a rate of at least 15%.  The companies have multiple branches spread across various jurisdictions, they transfer the bulk of their profit in accounts set up in countries that offer the lowest tax rate.  Often, these tax havens are the Caribbean Islands such as Bahamas or British Virgin Islands, or at times, countries like Ireland where the corp...
Read more

The statue of Swami Vivekananda at the JNU campus

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually unveiled a life-sized statue of Swami Vivekananda at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus on November 12. JNUSU (JNU students' union), un response, planned to protest on campus.  They believe the Modi government “openly supported” violence on campuses and is attacking universities with the National Education Policy which will result in fund cuts and privatization of education. FUNDING CONTROVERSY It was on June 30, 2017 that JNU’s Executive Council (EC) first gave approval for the statue.  The administration said it was installing the statue to give the campus a more “pleasing look” as Vivekananda had contributed to “nation building”. The administration remained mum on who was funding the statue and how much it would cost.  Then JNU Students’ Union president N Sai Balaji filed several RTIs to know about the funding. In January 2018, he filed an RTI seeking the total cost of construction of the statue as well as the sour...
Read more