Azerbaijan and Armenia trade barbs following Yerevan's receipt of additional weapons from France.

James Colemam | 20th June, 2024.

After thirty years of warfare, Yerevan and Armenia traded fresh insults on Wednesday in an effort to progress towards a peace deal. This came after France promised to arm Yerevan with more weaponry.

In the course of their recent efforts to negotiate a treaty, the two South Caucasus countries agreed that Armenia would cede four disputed border villages to Azerbaijan.

We believe that France's strategy in the South Caucasus is ineffective. The main foreign policy advisor of Azerbaijan, Hikmet Hajiyev, President Ilham Aliyev, forewarned the Azerbaijani media of the policy's detrimental effects.

"This is a blow to regulating relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia."

Armenia's foreign ministry responded by declaring that it was "the sovereign right of every state" to keep combat-capable armed forces equipped with modern military equipment.

As a result, the Azerbaijani foreign ministry stated that Armenia's activities were "illegitimate and represent a threat to Azerbaijan".

Since the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars, with Azerbaijan regaining significant portions of territory in 2020.

Last year, its soldiers seized control of the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, the focal point of the protracted battle. Most of the region's ethnic Armenians emigrated to Armenia.

One of Yerevan's most reliable European allies, France is also home to a substantial Armenian diaspora.

Despite having formal ties to Russia, Armenia has distanced itself from Moscow in recent years, citing insufficient protection. Armenia has been advised by Russia not to play around with the West, and they disagree with the criticism.

A surge of recent demonstrations against Armenia's territorial concessions and the loss of Karabakh has forced Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to resign.