Bergkarabach

Four Armenian soldiers were shot dead and another one was wounded by Azerbaijani fire early on February 13 at one of the southern sections of the border between the two countries, the Armenian Defense Ministry said, in the first shooting incident in months.

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has won a fifth consecutive term in power with more than 92% of the vote, according to election authorities. However, international observers say he had no meaningful challenger.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Sunday that he has proposed the signing of a non aggression pact to Azerbaijan, pending a comprehensive peace treaty between the arch-foe Caucasus neighbours.

Azerbaijan on January 24 said it was suspending its cooperation with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) amid deteriorating relations with Brussels.

The Armenian PM says Aliyev's claims are a "blow" to the peace process.

On January 1, 2024, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), the entity at the heart of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, ceased - officially - to exist. The self-proclaimed republic's last leader, Samvel Shahramanyan, mandated its dissolution in a decree of September 28, 2023 that was a condition of the ceasefire ending Azerbaijan's lightning military operation to crush the NKR on September 19-20.

Azerbaijan sees no major obstacles to securing a lasting peace treaty with its neighbour Armenia and believes the question of defining their borders can be resolved separately, a senior Azerbaijani official said on Tuesday.

Armenia and Azerbaijan say they will move towards normalising relations, and will exchange prisoners captured during recent fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Sahin Mustafayev and his Armenian counterpart, Mher Grigorian, led a fifth meeting of the two South Caucasus countries' border-delimitation commissions on November 30 and agreed to intensify future talks.

The question of Nagorno-Karabakh is unlikely to be discussed any time soon after Azerbaijan took control of the region in September. Europeans should now diplomatically engage with all sides to prevent further escalation, while supporting Armenia’s domestic political stability and strengthening its defence capabilities