Bergkarabach

Russian peacekeepers on Wednesday completed their withdrawal from Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Baku recaptured last year from Armenian separatists, officials in Baku said. 

Armenia will leave a Russia-led security bloc, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan confirmed on Wednesday for the first time, accusing members of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation of having planned a war against his country with Azerbaijan.

[…] Russia shut down a military base in Azerbaijan on Wednesday where nearly 2,000 of its troops had been deployed, after Azeri forces recaptured the area last year despite a two-year Russian mission to 

Armenia said on May 8 that it has stopped making financial contributions to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) after effectively suspending its membership in the Russian-led military alliance.

Azerbaijan and Armenia’s foreign ministers plan to meet in Almaty sparking fresh hopes for a peace treaty between the two adversaries and a reset in relations with the European Union. … Although a date for the meeting has not yet been disclosed, officials from both sides have reportedly confirmed their participation.

The Russian and Turkish flags were lowered on Friday to mark the closure of a centre set up to monitor a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh, as Russian peacekeepers ended a multi-year deployment in the strategic South Caucasus region.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Tuesday a peace deal with Armenia was closer than ever before, as teams from both countries began demarcating the border in a bid to end decades of territorial disputes and clashes.

The Kremlin has confirmed that Russian peacekeepers are leaving Azerbaijan's once-breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. On April 17, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists Azerbaijani media reports saying that Russian troops had started leaving the region were true.  

The standoff continues between Armenia and Azerbaijan over several border villages, and Baku seems determined to restore sovereignty over them soon. … Baku believes the status of the four villages can be determined relatively quickly, but solving the exclave issue will likely be more complicated.

The European Union on Friday pledged a €270 million financial package for Armenia as Brussels and Washington push to boost ties with Yerevan while its relations with Russia crumble.