This event included a brief overview of the region's conflict history but mostly focused on the most recent outbreak of violence, the geopolitical ramifications, and the lessons to be learned from it. The panelists were Vilen Khlgatyan, Founder and President of Global Research Center, Robert Avetisyan, the Permanent Representative of the Nagorno Karabagh Republic to the United States since 2009, and Peter Debbins, who works as an instructor for CACI on emerging trends in Eurasia.
On April 1st, the Azerbaijani military launched a surprise assault against the forces of the Artsakh Republic (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic). Conflicting reports have listed dozens of deaths and civilian casualties on both sides, as well as the loss of military hardware along the line of contact separating the two sides. The conflict over Artsakh has its roots in the last years of the USSR, when ethnic Armenians petitioned Moscow to be reunited with Armenia proper. Baku's anger at the petition and subsequent pogroms against ethnic Armenians living in other parts of Soviet Azerbaijan led to a full scale war between the Armenians of Artsakh and the newly independent Azerbaijan once the USSR collapsed in 1991. Fighting lasted until 1994 when a ceasefire was signed. Since then a lasting peace has been elusive, with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chair states (France, Russia, USA) working to push both sides toward a settlement.
