Armenia Azerbaijan Conflict

[RETAC21]

Russia sided with Armenia since the USSR went down the drain. No reason to change that now.

[Wouter2]

Russia sided with Armenia since the USSR went down the drain. No reason to change that now.

Azerbeidjan has a surprising amount of relatively modern Russian (not just vintage Soviet) weapons, though. Russia was still a major, major arms supplier as of 2013, at least. That they also sell weapons to Armenia and maintain a MiG29 squadron there reminds me a little of the Kurdish-Turkish-US triangle.

 

Russia probably sells or sold weapons because the Azeri's are richer, but if they would intervene on Armenia's side (as they probably would want to, especially if things would go badly for Armenia) they may be forced to fight their own pretty sophisticated weaponry, in addition to everything else that the Azeri's have been buying recently.

[Josh]

I don't think Russia would have a problem with Azeris. Also I think once they made it clear they were on a side, I suspect the conflict would die down pretty swiftly.

[Roman Alymov]

I don't think Russia would have a problem with Azeris. Also I think once they made it clear they were on a side, I suspect the conflict would die down pretty swiftly.

I think this Azeri president statement is for internal consumption (as he is wise man, but in trouble following oil prices relative fall, Iran and Turkey more or less improving relations with Russia and Armenia strengthning linke with Russia). We got wery big ethnic representation of both Azeri and Armenians in Russia, so it is not in our interests to see them in another open conflict.

[Roman Alymov]

Russia probably sells or sold weapons because the Azeri's are richer, but if they would intervene on Armenia's side (as they probably would want to, especially if things would go badly for Armenia) they may be forced to fight their own pretty sophisticated weaponry, in addition to everything else that the Azeri's have been buying recently.

 

Azeri got land border with Rus region Dagestan, where right now massive "Clean hands"-style operation is under way, with local government arrested and airlifted to Moscow jails, and even local road police replaced with people from other regions. Local population, sick and tired of corruption, is happy (despite of having their ethnic co-groupers replaces by strangers - for example new region head is of mixed Kazakh-Rus ethnicity, first time not local from at least 1950th). Not surprising Azeri leadership, deep in own corruption, is worried and need drumming war drum to distract their people.

[Simon Tan]

Baku is jyst about everything that is wrong about a petro state. Only Caracas and Lagos are worse.

[AttilaA]

In January (2018) alone Azerbaijan's reserves increased by $2 billion.

Edited February 11, 2018 by AttilaA

[AttilaA]

.

Edited May 20, 2018 by AttilaA

[Wouter2]

 

I don't think Russia would have a problem with Azeris. Also I think once they made it clear they were on a side, I suspect the conflict would die down pretty swiftly.

I think this Azeri president statement is for internal consumption (as he is wise man, but in trouble following oil prices relative fall, Iran and Turkey more or less improving relations with Russia and Armenia strengthning linke with Russia). We got wery big ethnic representation of both Azeri and Armenians in Russia, so it is not in our interests to see them in another open conflict.

 

Glad to hear that, the world can miss yet another war of this caliber.

[Roman Alymov]

Azeri excercises

[Roman Alymov]

[Dark_Falcon]

 

 

Source?

[Simon Tan]

Bizzare. Stowing rifles with bayonets affixed.

[Roman Alymov]

 

 

 

Source?

 

https://maksalexandrov.livejournal.com/1119.html

[Roman Alymov]

Azeri presidential elections promo

 

Armenian international fundraising campaign

Edited April 15, 2018 by Roman Alymov

[Chris Werb]

Azeri presidential elections promo

 

 

Is that the latest Mahir Cagri video or the trailer for Borat 2?

[Simon Tan]

Borat is Kazakh you silly Briton.

[Chris Werb]

Cagri is Turkish 😁

[Simon Tan]

Azerbaijan is also the term used to describe Turkic speaking parts of Iran. Though in the current context it is effectively Soviet Azerbaijan.

[AttilaA]

Presidental elections promo? Where does it say so?

Edited April 24, 2018 by AttilaA

[Roman Alymov]

Presidental elections promo? Where does it say so?

 

It was described as this here https://bmpd.livejournal.com/3157635.html

but they were more interested in IAI Harop launcher shown

[AttilaA]

Not specified anywhere in the video description.

It's Border Guards btw, not Army.

Edited April 24, 2018 by AttilaA

[AttilaA]

.

Edited June 13, 2018 by AttilaA

[AttilaA]

Khrizantema-S in action.

 

 

A Khrizantema-S battery on the move, 4 9P157-2 & 9P157-3 launch vehicles and a 9P157-4 battery command & control vehicle.

 

Edited May 20, 2018 by AttilaA

[BansheeOne]

I'm just putting this here. It's being noted that this is not your typical "color revolution", as Armenia has managed to keep good relations with both Russia and the West, and that policy doesn't seem in doubt. Or at least the opposition doesn't have an alternate plan beyond being fed up with political corruption and the bad economy. The fact that the head cheese resigned with an admission of "I was wrong, you were right" rather than doubling down on cracking heads indicates a certain level of democratic maturity despite everything, too.

 

‘I Was Wrong’: Armenian Leader Quits Amid Protests

 

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR and RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA

APRIL 23, 2018

MOSCOW — Ten days of demonstrations that escalated throughout Armenia forced the resignation Monday of the man who has led the country for the past decade, creating the latest crisis in a post-Soviet state trying to overcome a legacy of weak democratic rule.

The unexpected resignation prompted scenes of jubilation in the capital, Yerevan, and other cities. Tens of thousands of people flocked to the central Republic Square in Yerevan, where all afternoon and into the night they danced, cheered and waved the Armenian flag, a striped tricolor of red, blue and orange.

Serzh Sargsyan, president since 2008, reached his legal two-term limit earlier this month. A constitutional referendum in 2015 had transferred most presidential powers to the role of prime minister, however, and the Parliament, dominated by his right-wing Republican Party, swiftly voted him into the post with no other candidate given a chance.

“I was wrong,” Mr. Sargsyan said in a brief resignation statement carried by the official news agency. “The street movement is against my tenure. I am fulfilling your demand.”

The level of protest caught many by surprise. “The way that they proceeded was so arrogant that it triggered a rather intense reaction that nobody expected,” said Richard Giragosian, the director of the Regional Studies Center, a Yerevan think tank.

Thousands of incensed Armenians, most of them young, swarmed through Republic Square starting on April 13. The protests gradually spread to other major cities in the tiny southern Caucasus nation, including Gyumri and Vanadzor.

The pressure on Mr. Sargsyan, 63, to resign ratcheted up markedly on Monday after soldiers from one company of the country’s prestigious peacekeeping force, which had served abroad in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo, joined the march in Yerevan in their uniforms.

“All the momentum was with the street,” said Thomas de Waal, an expert on the Caucasus region at Carnegie Europe in Brussels.

Tuesday is Armenia’s Genocide Memorial Day, when many of the country’s more than 2.6 million people turn out onto the streets. It was expected to quickly turn into a vast anti-Sargsyan demonstration that would have been unthinkable to suppress by force, said Aleksandr M. Iskandaryan, the director of the Caucasus Institute in Yerevan.

Mr. Sargsyan had promised last year not to try to extend his tenure in office by becoming prime minister when his presidential term ended.

Karen Karapetyan, who had just left the post of prime minister to make way for Mr. Sargsyan, stepped in as acting prime minister.

The rapid events threw the country into disarray. The new Constitution invests considerable power in the Parliament, and some expected snap elections to be called.

The demonstrations were fueled by a new generation of Armenians disenchanted with the small elite of politicians and their oligarch allies who have long controlled the government and much of the economy, analysts said. The protesters dismissed the standard argument that Armenia needed unvarying leadership to negotiate an end to the conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan and to deal with the tense relations with Turkey on the other side.

“There is a new generation that wants change,” Mr. de Waal said. “The problem is that they do not really have a leader.”

Nikol Pashinyan, the opposition member of Parliament who led the protests, lacks a party and a large constituency.

Mr. Sargsyan agreed to meet with Mr. Pashinyan on Sunday but stormed out of the meeting within minutes, claiming he was being blackmailed. Then Mr. Pashinyan and two of his opposition allies were detained overnight, after scores of demonstrators were also detained. The three opposition leaders figures were released on Monday.

[...]

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/23/world/europe/armenia-prime-minister-protests.html