The two lawmakers brought up the contentious history of the city’s most famous Islamic monument, and Azerbaijan’s president suggested they were in physical danger.
Every country in the region has its own relationship with self-proclaimed breakaway republics, forcing them to reckon in their own ways with Russia’s moves in Ukraine.
The government is promising to resettle residents displaced in the 1990s into “smart villages.” But the timeline for that resettlement keeps slipping as reports of worker mistreatment have emerged.
The Ministry of Culture issued a new statement responding to international criticism of an earlier announcement that it intended to “remove” Armenian “forgeries” from churches on its territory.
The minister of culture said that a working group will be set up to identify what he called “Armenian forgery” from churches, putting into practice a pseudoscientific theory that denies the churches’ Armenian origin.
Last year Baku took the surprising step of announcing the prosecutions of four soldiers for crimes against Armenians. But there is no word on what happened since – and no reciprocation from Armenia, either.
The International Court of Justice declined, however, to order more concrete measures related to Armenian prisoners and maps of land mines in Azerbaijan.
There was much to discuss just over a year after the end of the war, including ongoing border tensions, plans to reopen borders and transportation, and the fate of Armenian prisoners.
Repeated attempts from Baku to force Yerevan to negotiate may be having the opposite effect, as the government is now vulnerable to being seen as easily bullied.
Officials in Karabakh are remaining tight-lipped about Iranian fuel imports, and say that Baku is using the issue as a pretext to drive out the region’s Armenian population.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan released two truck drivers whose arrest sparked the tensions, while Iran agreed to forbid trucks from entering Karabakh from now on.
The government is heavily publicizing the concept, which could increase the economic efficiency of rural communities but also place them under greater central control.