Breathe
By Brenda Estefan
At a time when humanity requires greater cooperation and dialogue between nations to address growing transnational challenges, the use of force as a method of conflict resolution is a very worrying sign.
On Tuesday, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military operation to retake control of Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-majority region in its territory. Three years after the last war with Armenia over control of this mountainous Caucasus strip, which has been disputed between the two countries for three decades, Baku is back in the fray.
Azerbaijan has taken advantage of the international chaos, provoked by the war in Ukraine, to advance militarily. For months it has maintained a blockade in the area of Upper Karabakh and, knowing that the winds are blowing in its favor, this Tuesday it began military attacks presenting them as an "anti-terrorist operation", with the justification that, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, four policemen and two Azeri civilians had lost their lives due to the explosion of mines.
In just twenty-four hours of bombing, hundreds of people lost their lives and thousands were evacuated. Baku issued an ultimatum demanding the dissolution of the separatist regime and that the Armenian troops lay down their arms. Faced with Azeri military superiority and the lack of international support, the authorities of the Armenian enclave opted to surrender.
Nagorno-Karabakh was completely alone. Armenia was weakened after the 2020 war and could not intervene this time. Europe has been unsuccessful in its attempts to mediate in the conflict and, since the start of the war in Ukraine, has had to turn to Azerbaijan to buy gas which calls into question its support for Armenia. Moreover, the UN has an increasingly symbolic role and lacks the capacity for real action. While the traditional "Caucasus police", a Russian military force of 20,000 elements, is limited in its action as the Kremlin, which paradoxically in this case supports the same country as Europe (i.e. Armenia), is busy in Ukraine.
Azerbaijan decided to ignore international condemnations, knowing that it has the diplomatic support of Turkey, that its economy has been strengthened by the increase in hydrocarbon exports and that today's troubled world would not react. The law of the strongest prevailed.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, force is once again being used to resolve an international conflict. Worse, amid the absence of global governance, this may not be the last case.
The UN General Assembly is underway in New York, and this edition will be marked by the absence of all the heads of the permanent member states of the Security Council, except for Joe Biden. Neither Narendra Modi of India nor Lopez Obrador will be present , although this is no longer surprising. These absences are a sign of a fractured world that needs dialogue between nations, but in which international organizations have fallen short of the challenges. It is worrying that international law is being trampled upon by countries such as Russia or Azerbaijan. The law of the jungle prevails.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of Opinion 51.
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