German news agency, ZDF, using as its sources the German news agency, dpa, and the French news agency, AFP, published an article on its internet site on November 3, 2023, concerning the invitation by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (of the Alliance 90/Green Party) to Armenia and Azerbaijan to renewed negotiations under her mediation to find a political solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This post is background information to the post https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/141166234/posts/5145575658 .

The article follows [translated from German by LOC]:

The mediation efforts by EU Council President, Charles Michel, “are a bridge which can point the fastest way to peace.” Baerbock voiced this opinion on Friday at a meeting with her Armenian colleague, Ararat Mirzoyan in the Armenian capital of Yerevan.

Mirzoyan: Armenia wants to go the “Way of Peace.”

Mirzoyan, with a view to the situation in the conflict region of Nagorno-Karabakh, said that Azerbaijan had broken its promise to not carry out any acts of war. “Armenia has the will to go the way of peace in the region,” according to the translation [assumed to have been from Armenian: LOC]. It is about the recognition of the territorial integrity of both countries.

Armenia could become a “crossroads to peace in the region,” not only for its neighboring countries but the whole world. Nagorno-Karabakh is located in the territory of Azerbaijan, however, the majority of inhabitants were Armenians.

Baerbock: A further 9.3 million Euros of aid

The area had broken away from Baku in the 1990s in a bloody civil war with the help of Yerevan. The Azerbaijan Army forced the capitulation of the local army in Nagorno-Karabakh on September 19, 2023. More than 100 thousand ethnic Armenians have fled from the region.

Baerbock said that since 2021, Germany has provided 22 million Euros in humanitarian aid for the people from Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Today we as the Federal Republic of Germany put an additional 9.3 million Euros for humanitarian aid.” Annalena Baerbock, Foreign Minister

In this way, the Workers’ Samaritan Foundation [according to Wikipedia, a German charitable aid agency founded in 1888] is able to quickly provide aid to the most needy. Also, the International Committee of the Red Cross can render more support than earlier. “That gives people hope and restores a small bit of normalcy for them.”

The History of Nagorno-Karabakh

The conflict around Nagorno-Karabakh is decades old. The territory, mostly settled by Armenians, was first under Armenian princes before it fell to the Russian czars at the beginning of the 19th century. With the founding of the Soviet Union, the territory was divided. In 1923 one part fell to the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, while the heartland became an autonomous region.

In 1988 the territory put forward the request to change from the Union Republic of Azerbaijan to the Union Republic of Armenia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Republic was called Nagorno-Karabakh. However, not one nation recognizes it diplomatically – not even Armenia.

Since then there have been repeated bloody battles with several tens of thousands of deaths. Both sides accuse the other of genocide. War for the region came once again in 2020, as a consequence of which Azerbaijan won control over more sectors. And in September 2020 Azerbaijan attacked the Armenian heartland – with more than 200 deaths on the Armenian side and documented war crimes.