He also said State isn't planning to renew a long-standing waiver that allows the U.S. to provide military assistance to Baku.
Highlights:
Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned a small group of lawmakers last week that his department is tracking the possibility that Azerbaijan could soon invade Armenia, according to two people familiar with the conversation.
Azerbaijiani President Ilham Aliyev has previously called on Armenia to open a “corridor” along its southern border, linking mainland Azerbaijan to an exclave that borders Turkey and Iran. Aliyev has threatened to solve the issue “by force.”
Oh, I didn't even know that. I assumed that they were Muslims from the region. Interesting that we haven't heard anything from the "Christians are being persecuted" crowd about them.
Nobody really cares about Armenia, so this issue has flown under the radar in the past month:
On 19–20 September 2023 Azerbaijan initiated a military offensive in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region which ended with the surrender of the self-declared Republic of Artsakh and the disbandment of its armed forces. Prior to this offensive, Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but governed and populated by ethnic Armenians, had a population of nearly 120,000. Faced with threats of genocide and ethnic cleansing by Azerbaijan, over 100,400 ethnic Armenians, nearly the entire current population of Nagorno-Karabakh,[6] had fled by the end of September 2023.[2][3]
if Azerbaijan invades actual Armenia proper, then that's a different story.
The possibility of that happening is literally the linked article.
Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. Always has been.
Internationally recognized, fine. The population was about 120,000. 100,000 fled to Armenia after the attack. I'm sure they care about international lines on a map.
Always has been is categorically false. Armenia has been a country for about a thousand years before the ones who drew the lines on your map.
Azerbaijan and Turkey are monitoring the west's reaction to what Israel is doing before going ahead. Turkey has been such a good Western alley lately really provided help at pivotal moments. What could of possibly made Turkey fall in line as heavily as it has.
Which is yet another reason why the West will hang Armenia out to dry.
Turkey already endorsed a corridor between the two countries through the south of Armenia, immediately after the attack on Artsakh, literally 4 days, while 100,000 Armenians were fleeing.
Why would Armenia open this corridor voluntarily? Azerbaijan already pinky swore Artsakh wouldn't be attacked. Erdogan knows how this will be solved, and it won't be pen and paper.