Armenia – Azerbaijan: Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire is not the end of the conflict

The ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh is the beginning of a new chapter in their conflict, Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said in the National Interest on Tuesday. Rubin wonders why U.S. foreign policy makers allowed Russia and Turkey to bypass American influence to negotiate a ceasefire which expands Turkish and Russian influence in the South Caucasus. The U.S. embassy in Azerbaijan “was asleep at the switch” and was not aware what President Ilham Aliyev was planning when Deputy Secretary of State Stephen E. Biegun ignored a clause in…