The feud that never sleeps
After nearly a year of relative calm between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Baku's leadership has issued fresh, Putin-esque threats against Armenia. On 7 January, Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev labelled Armenia ”a fascist state” and threatened to destroy it if its leadership did not root out what he called ”fascism” within the country.
According to the dominant Azerbaijani narrative, Armenia's so-called ”fascism” stems from its support for the Karabakh Armenians' pursuit of self-determination – an aspiration that has fuelled multiple wars and armed clashes between the two neighbours since 1988.
Aliyev also accused Armenia of being a regional threat and criticised the European Union – particularly France, which he referred to as ”the new patrons of Armenia” – for arming Yerevan and offering it diplomatic support.
Meanwhile, Armenia has been moving closer to the European Union, signalling a strategic pivot away from Russian influence. On 9 January, the Armenian government approved a bill to launch a bid for EU accession, further straining relations with both Baku and Moscow, as tensions over regional alliances and territorial disputes continue to escalate.
Azerbaijan has renewed its imperialist-expansionist ambitions against Armenia. Following Azerbaijan's military victories in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020 and 2023 – accompanied by the ethnic cleansing of the region's Armenian population – Baku has been promoting the irredentist term ”Western Azerbaijan” to refer to the territory of Armenia.
With these threats, Aliyev mirrors language used by Russian propagandists before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Putin declared the ”denazification of Ukraine” as his war goal and referred to Ukrainians and Russians as ”one people” in an infamously wrong article in 2021.
Additionally, Azerbaijan has pushed for establishing the so-called ”Zangezur Corridor” through Armenia, aiming to connect mainland Azerbaijan with the Nakhichevan exclave, located west of Armenia. This corridor would also create a direct link between Azerbaijan and its closest ally, Türkiye. However, Yerevan views the proposed corridor as violating its territorial integrity.
In his response to Aliyev's threats, Armenia's prime minister Nikol Pashinyan reaffirmed Armenia's commitment to the peace process, refusing to ”hit back”, threatening Azerbaijan or labelling the country as ”fascist”. Pashinyan also clarified that the term ”Western Azerbaijan” should refer solely to the western provinces of the Republic of Azerbaijan.