Free Republic

After taking the stage at a campaign stop in New Hampshire, President Trump tweeted his congratulations Sunday to the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, “who just agreed to adhere to a cease fire effective at midnight.” “Many lives will be saved,” Trump wrote, adding that he was “proud of my team,” including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Deputy Secretary of State Stephen E. Biegun, and the White House's National Security Council, for “getting the deal done!” The deal brokered by the U.S. comes after Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov...

Vadim Melnikov once fought for the land of Noah. Donning his Azerbaijani uniform 17 years ago, the ethnic Russian took his post to defend Nakhchivan, an Azeri enclave bordering Turkey and separated from their countrymen by the nation of Armenia. Melnikov is part of the 0.26 percent evangelical community. And on behalf of their nation, eight churches and the Azerbaijan Bible Society wrote an open letter to decry the popular conception that this conflict pits Muslims against Christians. (More than 770 Armenian soldiers have been killed so far. Azerbaijan does not disclose military casualties.) “The war which has been between...

The Azerbaijani army has reportedly killed 47 Armenian soldiers in recent clashes, as President Ilham Aliyev visited a frontline zone near the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Citing Russian diplomatic sources, Azerbaijan Press Agency (APA) reported 47 Armenian servicemen were killed and more than 100 were wounded near the border between the two countries, with the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry also stating that the Armenians suffered a “considerably greater number of losses” during the clashes. Last week the simmering tensions boiled over into the fiercest clashes seen since a cease-fire was agreed upon in 1994. Meanwhile, Aliyev was briefed on Aug. 6 by...

YEREVAN (Reuters) - Kosovo's independence will strengthen a bid by the Armenian-backed breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh to be recognized as a state, Armenia's prime minister Serzh Sarksyan told Reuters in an interview. Sarksyan drew a link between the Serbian province which will declare independence on Sunday and Nagorno-Karabakh, where ethnic Armenian separatists broke away from Azerbaijan in a war in the 1990s but have failed to win international recognition. "We are getting a rather favorable position," said Sarksyan, front-runner in the February 19 Armenian presidential election. "Recognition of Kosovo's independence can be welcomed by us. "If countries recognize the independence...