AZERBAIJAN

• The bilateral collaboration for InRange builds upon the Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) signed between both space agencies in 2021.
• By using the InRange service for the H3 Launch vehicle, launch trajectories can be optimized by removing reliance of line-of-sight coverage with ground stations during critical stages of the launch.
• Viasat and MHI will work in collaboration to validate the InRange service and demonstrate the capability on an H3 launch.
• Masashi Okada, Project Manager, H3 Project Team, Space Transportation Technology Directorate of JAXA, said: "JAXA remains delighted to announce the launch of the InRange project.

• In recent days, more than 100,000 people have taken to the streets again.
• They have been decisively defeated by the Azerbaijanis in a short and brutal military operation in the enclave.
• As a longtime analyst of the history and politics of the South Caucasus, I see the chain of recent events in Nagorno-Karabakh as depressingly predictable.

A legacy of Lenin

• The 1988 demonstrations were met by violent pogroms by Azerbaijanis against Armenian minorities in Sumgait and Baku.
• The legal principle of territorial integrity took precedence over the ethical principle of national self-determination.

An unsolved diplomatic problem

• And for all their efforts, outside powers – Russia, France and the United States most importantly – failed to find a lasting diplomatic solution.
• Moscow was Armenia’s principal protector in a hostile neighborhood with two unfriendly states, Azerbaijan and Turkey, on its borders.
• Only Iran, treated as a pariah by much of the international community, provided some additional support, sporadically, to Armenia.

What might have been

• Alternatives and contingencies always exist in history and, if heeded by statespeople, can result in different outcomes.
• Yet the triumphant Armenian victors of the 1990s had few immediate incentives to compromise.
• Each side considered the contested enclave a piece of their ancient homeland, an indivisible good, and compromise proved impossible.
• Azerbaijan is a state three times the size of Armenia with a population larger by more than 7 million people.

Democracy versus autocracy

• For example, he boldly, publicly declared that “Artsakh” was part of Armenia, which infuriated Azerbaijan.
• This ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh – first through hunger, then by force of arms – completed the Azerbaijani victory.
• The defeated government of Artsakh declared it would officially dissolve the republic by the end of 2023.

Learning from defeat and victory

• They are forced to face hard facts.
• At the same time, victory can lead to prideful triumphalism that in its own way can distort what lies ahead.
• Voices have also been raised in Baku calling for a “Greater Azerbaijan” that would incorporate what they call “Western Azerbaijan” – that is, the current Republic of Armenia.

A chance for democratic renewal?

• The immediate tasks facing Armenia are enormous, beginning with the housing and feeding of 100,000 refugees.
• But this might also be a moment of opportunity.

• The New York Times recently wrote about what’s now happening in Nagorno-Karabakh that “almost no one saw it coming”.
• Armenians, as well as those who have followed the conflict, have warned for a long time that this was coming.
• The EU could only appeal for restraint and was relieved when the fighting stopped after two days.

Global inaction

• During the summer, the situation worsened for the 120,000 residents of Nagorno-Karabakh, with acute shortages of food, petrol and medicine.
• But no measures of force whatsoever were put behind this demand and there were no sanctions, or even threats of sanctions.
• You can bring down a humanitarian crisis on more than a 100,000 people, even to the brink of genocide, without suffering anything but verbal condemnations.

This is ethnic cleansing

• The last straw was the 24-hour bombardment on September 19 that has finally driven the ethnic Armenian population from their homes.
• I therefore believe it is correct to call this ethnic cleansing.
• Five days before the Azerbaijani attack on the enclave a representative of the US government said that the USA would not tolerate the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh.
• Now it has happened and Washington seems to tolerate it, if the lack of sanctions on Azerbaijan are any indication.

It is not over

• The first target will be the southern part of Armenia, the province of Syunik, which Azerbaijan calls Zangezur.
• Should the regime in Baku get away with this with impunity, it will be inspired to continue its aggression against Armenians.
• The lesson of the tragedy now unfolding in Nagorno-Karabakh is that verbal condemnations and appeals do not stop the aggression of authoritarian states.

• "This showcase arrest sends a clear message that Azerbaijan is following the same genocidal playbook as its Turkish partner in crime.
• All practical pressures must be applied now for the immediate release of Ruben Vardanyan and all detainees.
• The Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) is the world’s largest non-profit organization devoted to upholding the Armenian heritage through educational, cultural and humanitarian programs.
• Each year, AGBU is committed to making a difference in the lives of 500,000 people across Armenia, Artsakh and the Armenian diaspora.