Neither the Azerbaijani nor Belarusian governments responded to requests for remark.
“With pals like these“
Artillery and drones had been used extensively in fight between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces lately. This included throughout a 2020 struggle between the 2 sides over the breakaway area of Nagorno-Karabakh, which lies inside Azerbaijan’s internationally acknowledged borders however has been ruled as an unrecognized state by its Armenian inhabitants since a brutal battle that adopted the autumn of the Soviet Union. An Azerbaijani offensive final September ended the area’s de facto independence and sparked a mass exodus of its 100,000 inhabitants.
One of many diplomatic communications seen by POLITICO mentioned that Belarusian enterprises had been taking part in an lively position “within the restoration of de-occupied territories of Azerbaijan, in addition to the export of Belarusian items and companies” to the nation.
Azerbaijani forces additionally launched incursions into the territory of the Republic of Armenia correct in September 2022, taking key strategic heights. Armenia known as on the CSTO for help on the time, however later accused the bloc of failing to honor its commitments after it supplied solely to ship a fact-finding delegation. Since then, Pashinyan, Armenia’s chief, has struck a deal to increase an EU monitoring mission on the tense border between the 2 former Soviet republics and invited U.S. troops for joint coaching drills.
Eduard Arakelyan, a navy analyst at Yerevan’s Regional Heart for Democracy and Safety, verified that the leaked paperwork pertained to {hardware} utilized by Azerbaijan in current wars, each in Nagorno-Karabakh and in opposition to the Republic of Armenia itself.
“This tools was used with devastating impact in opposition to Armenian troops and was supplied by a rustic that’s imagined to be an ally of Armenia,” he mentioned. “In formal phrases, it’s an entire breach of the CSTO alliance however, in observe, we’ve at all times identified the bloc was extra supportive of Azerbaijan.”