He also said State isn't planning to renew a long-standing waiver that allows the U.S. to provide military assistance to Baku.

Highlights:

Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned a small group of lawmakers last week that his department is tracking the possibility that Azerbaijan could soon invade Armenia, according to two people familiar with the conversation.

Azerbaijiani President Ilham Aliyev has previously called on Armenia to open a “corridor” along its southern border, linking mainland Azerbaijan to an exclave that borders Turkey and Iran. Aliyev has threatened to solve the issue “by force.”

  • randon31415@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1015·
    1 year ago

    Oh, I didn’t even know that. I assumed that they were Muslims from the region. Interesting that we haven’t heard anything from the “Christians are being persecuted” crowd about them.

    • CapgrasDelusion@kbin.social
      262·
      1 year ago

      The “Christians being persecuted” crowd only care about Target selling shirts with rainbows.

      They were actually the first Christian nation in 301 AD/CE. Not that state religion is great, but it’s an interesting history given they were sandwiched between the Romans and the Parthians at the time and were pretty much a football between the Romans and whoever was nextdoor throughout the entirety of the Roman empire. If they aligned with “nextdoor” the Romans often ignored them as long as they didn’t allow armies from nextdoor through. And when the Romans had their own puppet king over there, well, bully for them.

      Not much has changed. Now they’re sandwiched between Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Georgia, with Georgia being a Russian conduit at least militarily if not politically. And Turkey and Azerbaijan are effectively one and the same with Azerbaijian having a dash of Russian influence. That’s not a great place to be if you’re a tiny country served as an appetizer to the surrounding powers.

      Anyway, welcome to my TED Talk.