After an unprecedented tight race and contested vote counting the US has a new president Joe Biden. Without going into details on Biden’s internal and external policies, it is interesting to concentrate instead on the prospects of changes in the new administration’s policies towards Armenia and the region it is located in.

As Russian-backed Assad forces and Turkish-backed opposition forces clash in the northwestern Idlib province of Syria, many question how far this proxy war can go. Some secon-rate politicians started to recall a history of the past two and more centuries dotted with incessant Russian-Turkish wars. Yet many deliberate that with all the possibility of this clash escalating into a serious souring of relations, there is a lot which will keep those two partners together.

Yesterday, after a four-hour trilateral meeting Nikol Pashinyan, Vladimir Putin, and Ilham Aliev came up with a joint statement, however, in a separate speech Pashinyan indicated that the issue of the return of Armenian POWs is not resolved yet.

Athens announced on the 24th of December that the United Nations had published the Greco-Egyptian agreement on the delimitation of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) between the two countries; one that Ankara considers “null and void”. Turkey’s Oruc Reis will resume its controversial seismic exploration mission, along with Ataman and Cengizhan vessels, near the shores of the Greek island of Kastellorizo until June 15, 2021. They are considered as Greek-claimed waters of the Eastern Mediterranean. These events are predicted to only further exacerbate Greek-Turkish tensions within the wider region.

Moscow and Ankara signed a document on the establishment of a joint monitoring center in Karabakh.

Sixteen days ago a ceasefire was established in Artsakh following the announcement of Armenia, Russia, and Azerbaijan stating that Aghdam, Lachin, and Karvajar will be transferred under the control of Azerbaijan, as well as the areas that the enemy managed to acquire as the result of the war during the past two months. Russian peacekeepers will be ensuring the further security of Artsakh. Along with these territories, several cultural monuments fell under the control of Azerbaijan. Below are several key monuments and sites that fell under the control of the Azerbaijani forces as the result of the joint announcement of the sides. The list is still being finalized.

Russian Ministry of Defense published map of deployment and observation points at Karabakh

Russian mediated ceasefire possibly ends the war between Azerbaijan and Artsakh. Armenian side agreed to radical concessions, Russian peacekeepers will enter the region.

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"Amongst the activists we see not only Armenians, but also French, Greek, Cypriot and Yazidi people"

Can Iran become a major player in the frames of the new Artsakh war, that burst more than a month ago?

"Our goal was to seek for the Recognition of Artsakh, to stop the Turkish involvement in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, to stop the Azerbaijani aggression."

"This is not the first time it our community gets mobilized when Armenia, Artsakh or the Armenian nation need it."