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Redrawing Nagorno-Karabakh’s map

Thursday, November 12, 2020

Six consequences of the six-week war for Nagorno-Karabakh
Basketball star Yelena Leuchanka recalls 15 days spent in an infamous Belarusian jail
Turkmenistan’s president unveils giant golden dog statue in the nation’s capital
News briefs: that downed helicopter, MH17, arrests in Yerevan, and housing for Soviet victims

Feature stories

🕊️ Another map redrawn in blood

Russia’s peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh, the ethnically Armenian breakaway region of Azerbaijan where thousands of civilians and soldiers have died in recent weeks of fighting, has released a map detailing the operation ahead, clarifying many of the territorial ambiguities of the truce between Yerevan and Baku announced on November 10. Judging by the map, the situation in Karabakh will revert mostly to the conditions in place before the first modern war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 1991: Azerbaijan will deploy artillery to the hills of Shusha, just a few miles from Karabakh’s capital city of Stepanakert, and the breakaway republic itself will be cut off essentially from Armenia.

The safety of the region’s ethnic Armenians remains in question, given that the presence of Russian peacekeepers is guaranteed for only five years. Additionally, for the first time in history, Baku has gained a ground corridor to its western exclave in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. Many political questions in Nagorno-Karabakh nevertheless remain unanswered. Meduza reviews the six-week war and tries to explain who won the most: Azerbaijan, Russia, or Turkey?

👮 ‘Humiliation is their hallmark’

On September 30, one of Belarus’s most famous athletes was arrested at the Minsk Airport. Belarusian national team basketball player Yelena Leuchanka was supposed to go abroad for rehabilitation, but instead she was jailed for 15 days for her active involvement in opposition demonstrations. Using photos from her Instagram account as evidence, the authorities accused her of taking part in illegal protests on August 23 and September 27. Leuchanka spent half a month at the Okrestina detention center in Minsk, a jail that became an infamous symbol of police brutality during the crackdown on protests that followed this summer’s presidential election in Belarus. In an interview with Meduza, Yelena Leuchanka spoke about her arrest and the ongoing opposition movement in her home country.

🐕 Scooby dooby delicious

Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the president of Turkmenistan, unveiled a new statue in the nation’s capital: a golden monument to the Alabai dog breed, otherwise known as the Central Asian Shepherd. According to state media, Turkmenistan’s president (who is well-known for his love of this type of dog) came up with the idea for the monument and oversaw its construction himself.

Other news in brief

👋 This day in history: 93 years ago today, on November 12, 1927, Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin in undisputed control of the USSR.

Yours, Meduza