Azerbaijan

Attendees lay flowers at the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan to mark the 109th anniversary of World War I-era mass killings on April 24, 2024.

109 years after genocide, Armenia faces another existential threat

Apr 26, 2024

Speaking on “EWTN News Nightly,” Simone Rizkallah said “this feels less like a remembrance and more like a truly historical... Read more

Pope Francis urges Armenian Catholic bishops to ‘take up the cry for peace’

Feb 28, 2024

By Daniel Payne

Armenia and Azerbaijan are engaged in peace talks following Azerbaijan's violent takeover of the Nagorno-Karabakh region late last year. Read more

Map of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict following the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.

Azerbaijan demands Armenia hand over 8 villages it says are ‘under occupation’

Nov 9, 2023

By Peter Pinedo

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said that the eight villages are historically part of Azerbaijan and that they are being occupied... Read more

Anya Safaryan (right), 78, who fled from Azerbaijan's controlled region of Nagorno-Karabakh, sits on a bed at a sports complex set up as a temporary shelter in the Armenian city of Artashat on Oct. 8, 2023.

‘Sadness in our hearts’: Armenian Christian recounts family’s escape from Nagorno-Karabakh

Nov 4, 2023

By Peter Pinedo

“We left the graves of our parents, children, brothers, and sisters,” Lyudmila Melquomyan told CNA. Read more

Refugees load a truck in Goris on Sept. 26, 2023, before leaving to Yerevan. A continuous stream of vehicles crept along the only road out of Nagorno-Karabakh toward Armenia, carrying tens of thousands of refugees now faced with an uncertain future.

Armenia nears peace agreement with Azerbaijan, prime minister says

Oct 27, 2023

By Peter Pinedo

Nikol Pashinyan, the prime minister of Armenia, made the statement during a presentation of a regional peace plan he’s dubbed... Read more

A general view of the city of Stepanakert, known as Khankendi in Azerbaijani, in Azerbaijan's controlled region of Nagorno-Karabakh on Oct. 5, 2023.

Armenian leaders in Nagorno-Karabakh arrested by Azerbaijan

Oct 10, 2023

By Peter Pinedo

Key Armenian leaders in Nagorno-Karabakh have been arrested by Azerbaijan over the past week, charged with crimes related to “terrorism”... Read more

Nearly all ethnic Armenians have fled Nagorno-Karabakh

Oct 3, 2023

By Peter Pinedo

According to the Armenian government, 100,617 Nagorno-Karabakh refugees — out of a population of 120,000 – have been “forcibly displaced.” Read more

Ruben Vardanyan, a former high-ranking official in the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, was arrested by Azerbaijan authorities on Sept. 27, 2023, as he attempted to flee the region along with over 50,000 other ethnic Armenian refugees.

Former Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian leader arrested as over 50,000 refugees flee region

Sep 27, 2023

By Peter Pinedo

Ruben Vardanyan, a former state minister of the Republic of Artsakh, Nagorno-Karabakh’s separatist government, was arrested Sept. 27. Read more

Refugees wait next to a line of vehicles near the border town of Kornidzor, Armenia, arriving from Nagorno-Karabakh, on Sept. 26, 2023.

Explosion kills 68 Armenian refugees as thousands flee Nagorno-Karabakh

Sep 26, 2023

By Peter Pinedo

The explosion occurred just off a highway leading away from Stepanakert, where tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians have taken... Read more

A girl sleeps in a street in the town of Stepanakert on Sept. 25, 2023. Ethnic Armenian refugees began to leave Nagorno-Karabakh on Sept. 24, 2023, for the first time since Azerbaijan launched an offensive designed to seize control of the breakaway territory and perhaps end a three-decade-old conflict.

Thousands of Armenian Christians flee homes: ‘Mass exodus has begun,’ expert says

Sep 25, 2023

By Peter Pinedo

According to the government of Armenia, 6,650 “forcibly displaced persons” entered Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh since last week, with more pouring... Read more

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan speaks during a U.N. Security Council emergency meeting on Nagorno-Karabakh at the United Nations headquarters on Sept. 21, 2023, in New York City. The security council held an emergency meeting to discuss the situation between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh.

‘Destruction’ of ethnic Armenians is imminent, experts warn

Sep 21, 2023

By Peter Pinedo

On Wednesday, ethnic Armenians in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh agreed to lay down their arms and dissolve their military... Read more

Protestors gather in downtown Yerevan, Armenia, on Sept. 20, 2023, as separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan’s authorities announced they would cease hostilities, signaling the end of an “anti-terror” operation launched just one day earlier by Azerbaijan’s forces in the breakaway region.

Ethnic Armenians surrender and disarm following Azerbaijan offensive

Sep 20, 2023

By Peter Pinedo

A day after an Azerbaijan offensive in which as many as 100 were killed, ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh have agreed... Read more

Pope Francis speaks at his general audience on Sept. 20, 2023.

Pope Francis appeals for peace in Nagorno-Karabakh: ‘Silence the weapons’

Sep 20, 2023

By Courtney Mares

Speaking to more than 15,000 people in St. Peter’s Square, the pope said Wednesday that he was troubled by the... Read more

Armenians protest to urge the government to respond to the Azerbaijani military operation launched against the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region outside the government building in central Yerevan on Sept. 19, 2023.

Azerbaijan unleashes military strikes against Armenian Christians in Nagorno-Karabakh

Sep 19, 2023

By Peter Pinedo

Azerbaijan said the attacks will not stop until the ethnic Armenians’ total surrender. Read more

Students on the first day of school in September 2021 at the Antonia Arslan Armenian-Italian Hamalir in Stepanakert, Artsakh. The school was “established in order to help the Artsakhtsi strengthen and rebuild” and offers a variety of courses, programs, and educational opportunities.

American professor who founded school in Artsakh says Christians there are starving

Sep 9, 2023

By Zoe Romanowsky

Siobhan Nash-Marshall, founder of the Christians in Need Foundation, spoke to CNA about her work in the Nagorno-Karabakh region (Artsakh). Read more

In a Sept. 6, 2023, hearing, Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, accused the government of Azerbaijan of committing genocide against Armenian Christians in disputed territory in the country.

Lawmaker accuses Azerbaijan of ‘genocide,’ seeks answers on Biden administration’s plan

Sep 7, 2023

By Tyler Arnold

Rep. Chris Smith in a hearing Sept. 6 accused the Azerbaijan government of committing genocide against Armenian Christians in disputed... Read more

Demonstrators rally in support of Karabakh to demand the reopening of a blockaded road linking the Nagorno-Karabakh region to Armenia and to decry crisis conditions in the region, in Yerevan on July 25, 2023.

Armenian Christians trapped and facing genocide: an explainer

Aug 9, 2023

By Peter Pinedo, Kevin J. Jones

Over 120,000 Christian Armenians are currently trapped behind a blockade of the Nagorno-Karabakh region maintained by Muslim-majority Azerbaijan. Read more

Children warming their hands over a wood-fired oven in Nagorno-Karabakh

Warning of ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ in Nagorno-Karabakh

Dec 30, 2022

By Madeleine Teahan

A leading politician serving the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) has strongly echoed Pope Francis’ concerns about the humanitarian situation in... Read more