As the president celebrates, the economic crisis deepened by a coronavirus outbreak he has refused to acknowledge has left his people in a state of Dickensian misery.
The handover of territory has brought Azerbaijani forces into close contact with several Armenian towns and a critical road, leading some locals to blame the central government for failing to protect them.
The new fighting was an early test for the Russian peacekeeping mission as it tries to manage a new, ambiguous de facto border that passes through populated areas.