A Cease-Fire Will Only Freeze Azerbaijan and Armenia’s Fight

Armenia’s political crisis is intensifying amid growing calls for the government’s resignation over a controversial cease-fire agreement with Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh. The volatile situation in both Armenia and the disputed region makes episodes of ethnically-motivated violence and future violations of the cease-fire possible. On Nov. 9, Armenia and Azerbaijan reached a Russia-brokered deal that put an end to six weeks of fighting. The cease-fire involves Armenia giving up on some areas of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and three regions surrounding it. As a part of the deal, roughly 2,000 Russian peacekeeping troops will also be present in the region for a five-year period. The cease-fire has been received as a victory in Azerbaijan and as a capitulation in Armenia, as the former won many of the territories it has long sought in negotiations with the latter over the decades-old dispute. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has nonetheless defended the deal, arguing that...