Your trusted source

One day after President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan threatened war with neighboring Armenia via Twitter, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry issued a statement saying that the country is prepared for war in Nagorno-Karabakh, writes Washington-based journalist Reid Standish in his Foreign Policy blog.

The article notes that exchanges of sniper shots at border are common but the recent fighting has raised the stakes. Ilham Aliyev visited the frontlines and the next day launched a sabre-rattling Twitter tirade, announcing Azerbaijan's preparedness for war.

The author notes that the conflict started when Nagorno-Karabakh, home to a large ethnic Armenian population was included into Soviet Azerbaijan. In 1988, the Armenians of Karabakh, encouraged by the support of Yerevan, demanded unification with Soviet Armenia. After Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh declared unification a war broke out. Following the 1994 cease-fire Armenia was able to hold control over Nagorno-Karabakh, while following its defeat Azerbaijan launched an arms race to break Armenia’s economy.

With tensions high after the recent clashes, both Russia and the United States have made calls for calm along the border and for reviving the OSCE Minsk Group process. Russian President Vladimir Putin has set up meetings with the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in a bid to broker a cease-fire.

“But a lasting solution will require more than just Russian pressure. Moreover, with U.S.-Russia relations at an all-time low, international cooperation on Nagorno Karabakh looks confined to the trenches for the immediate future,” the author writes.