164 J. J. COYLE

“defense minister” Movses Hakopian said no one had asked Karabakh to withdraw from the Azerbaijani districts it occupied and the enclave’s leadership had no intention of giving them up.144

Diplomacy was turned on its head in November 2020 when Armenia accepted a Russian ceasefire proposal to halt the six week war. In return for allowing Armenian forces to withdraw from Karabakh, Armenia granted Azerbaijan control over all the lands they recaptured, and a corridor between the main part of Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan. To keep the two sides separated, Russian peace keepers will patrol the Lachin corridor for five years. There will also be a role for Turkey which, as of this writing, is under discussion.

Conclusion

Israel’s former foreign minister Abba Eban once made the comment, “The Palestinians have never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”145 In many ways, the same can be said about the ArmenianAzerbaijani peace talks. The basic points for an agreement over NagornoKarabakh have been known to both sides for two decades, and yet political leaders on both sides have been unable to accept the agreement. Nationalist sentiments that were stirred up (intentionally by the Armenian side) to help in the nation building process are notoriously difficult to oppose at a later date. This has made it extremely difficult to sell any compromise to the peoples of the Caucasus. Both sides have to make serious efforts to convince their populations of the benefits of ending the conflict, or all the diplomatic meetings in the world will have no effect. The Russian ceasefire has the support of the Azerbaijani population, but Armenians have rioted in the streets of Yerevan. At least one of the two protagonists will seek to continue the conflict.

144 Fuller, Liz. “Minsk Group Co-Chairs Hopeful of a Karabakh ‘Breakthrough,’”

rough_/1774141.html.

145 “Israel’s Diplomatic Giant Eban Dies,” BBC News, 18 November 2002. Web. Retrieved 5 August 2019. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2486473.stm.