Armenians had been using the road to bypass a blockade on the main road, the Lachin Corridor. The move drew a rare rebuke from the Russian peacekeepers.
The U.S. and Russia have both made high-level contact with Armenian and Azerbaijani officials as the rhetoric from Baku is getting increasingly bellicose.
It was unclear on whose behalf the former secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, was visiting, and what it portended for Armenia’s geopolitical orientation.
Armenians declared victory in the case, but Azerbaijan already denies that it is blockading the road to Karabakh and it's not clear how the ruling will be enforced.
Baku appears to be retreating from the grand vision of a corridor connecting the Turkic world for the sake of a more local strategic goal: cementing control over Karabakh.
As the Georgian government entertains the idea of allowing Russia to resume direct flights, Washington and Brussels have issued warnings about complying with international sanctions.
Officials in Moscow and their allies in Abkhazia and South Ossetia all canceled meetings with international diplomats brokering the discussions, casting the future of the talks into question.
Kyiv has long taken a pro-Azerbaijan position vis-a-vis the conflict with Armenia. Now officials say that Armenia and Russia are using the blockade to try to steal attention from Ukraine.
Azerbaijan's blockade of the Lachin Corridor comes as it accuses Armenia of dragging its feet over the fate of another critical route, the would-be Zangezur Corridor.
Armenia says the plan amounts to a territorial claim, while domestic critics say it is meant as a nationalist distraction to the country’s real problems.
Azerbaijan has long opposed reestablishing air transit to and from Karabakh, though, and argues that it is Armenians who are refusing its offers to allow traffic on the road to resume.
The drills included a crossing of the river that forms the Azerbaijan-Iran border, mirroring the threat that Iran’s armed forces had made weeks earlier.
Yerevan cut relations 10 years ago following Hungary’s extradition of an Azerbaijani soldier who murdered an Armenian counterpart. But the post-war reality has pushed Yerevan to reconsider.
Questioning the territorial integrity of the neighboring country, once a taboo topic, is increasingly entering official discourse both in Baku and Tehran.
Tens of thousands gathered the day before the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia were meeting to work on a peace agreement that many Armenians oppose.