Baku, Azerbaijan

Nagorno-Karabakh falls: Azerbaijan launched a sudden, widescale attack against its ethnic Armenian enclave of NagornoKarabakh this week, forcing the 150,000 residents there to scramble into bomb shelters. After just a day of fighting that killed at least 32 people, Baku said Karabakh authorities had agreed to disband and disarm their separatist armed forces. The enclave is a legacy of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and Azerbaijan and Armenia have fought several wars over it, most recently in 2020, when Armenia lost control over most of the territory. Over the past year Baku blockaded the region, starving its people. Karabakh leaders said this week they are prepared to discuss the enclave’s possible “reintegration” into Azerbaijan, hoping to protect Karabakh Armenians’ rights “within the framework of the Azerbaijani Constitution”—an effective declaration of defeat. The announcement sparked protests in neighboring Armenia.