Being far from Western democratic standards, #Azerbaijan is regularly criticised by the #EuropeanUnion and the United States. And yet the hands of the #West are tied. The reason is that Azerbaijan is one of the very few gas suppliers that can help #Europe to reduce its dependence on #Gazprom at least to some extent, even if not completely. The TAP pipeline brings Azerbaijan’s natural gas to the Adriatic coast of #Italy, and the volume of supplies through this pipeline is going to double.
#Armenia also has good relations with the West: it signed an association agreement with the #EU under Serzh Sargsyan (the provisions that irritated #Russia were allegedly removed from the text) and has been successfully participating in the Eastern Partnership programme. Armenia is particularly close to European rivals of #Turkey: #France, #Greece and #Cyprus. All this results in a concoction that seems rather bizarre nowadays: the country feels equally comfortable with Sputnik and Radio Liberty, with radically pro-Russian and pro-Western players being active in the political arena (the latter accusing Russia of aggression against #Ukraine).

https://ridl.io/no-nbsp-longer-a-nbsp-unique-conflict/ #war #usa #osce #crimea #karabakh