Migrants and diasporas from the two sides have brawled around the world in a social media-fueled interethnic clash larger than this conflict has previously seen.
The country's president blamed the main opposition party for instigating violence at the rally, though the party denied it. Several activists have been detained.
The country’s social media has been filled with patriotism and cheering for the attacks on Azerbaijan, but many also are pushing back and calling for cooler heads.
The international response to the clashes – the worst since 2016 – has tended to treat both sides equally, while each side insists that the other is to blame.
The two presidents spoke following the violent breakup of a protest by Azerbaijani labor migrants in Dagestan. Details of a possible diplomatic resolution of the situation have been scant, however.
The labor migrants are trying to return home after losing their jobs in the coronavirus pandemic. Tensions are rising, and a protest on the border has been violently broken up by Russian police.
Eight years ago, the Azerbaijani government tried to make a hero out of a soldier who killed an Armenian soldier in his sleep. But now it wants to drop the subject.
This newest escalation of the history wars threatens to drag the Caucasus into the larger post-Soviet struggle over the memory of World War II that has poisoned ties between Russia and many of its neighbors.
