Conflict and Peace

The Thematic Groups for a new Armenian-Azerbaijani Dialogue have produced four reports which set out a vision for relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, over the next 15 years. The reports cover four key areas: (1) Peace and Security; (2) Regional Connectivity; (3) Good Governance; and (4) Environment. 42 Armenians and Azerbaijanis were directly involved in preparing the reports as part of the Thematic Groups. Another thirty Armenians and Azerbaijanis contributed to the process. The Thematic Groups were an initiative of LINKS Europe within the framework of EU4Peace 3, a programme supported by the European Union. An ACTION COMMITTEE FOR A NEW ARMENIAN AZERBAIJANI DIALOGUE has now been established, made up of the Chair and Deputy Chairs of the four groups that produced and agreed on the reports. The members of the Action Committee are: Murad Muradov, Leonid Nersisian, Narek Minasyan, Fidan Namazova, Sargis Kharatyunyan, Nigar Gurbanli, Aghavni Kharatyunyan, and Ramazan Samadov.  The first co-chairs of the Action Committee, for the 1st eight month semester are Murad Muradov and Leonid Nersisian. The Action Committee is responsible for the dissemination of the four reports, their eventual updating, and for contributing to the Armenian-Azerbaijani Dialogue and Peace and regional co-operation. LINKS Europe has appointed a Special Advisor to the Action Committee and will provide the Secretariat. The committee will work until December 2027. (click to title to read more or to download the reports)

Towards the end of October, a lone Azerbaijani Airlines Gulfstream G650 landed in Yerevan, Armenia. It wasn’t the first to do so in over three decades of conflict but it could well change the future of multitrack diplomacy. Although mutual visits by Azerbaijanis to Armenia and Armenians to Azerbaijan are also not new, before October's flight they always occurred under the auspices of an international organisation or intergovernmental body including countries outside the region. Last month’s visit not only flew direct between the capitals but was bilaterally agreed.

The United Nations Secretary-General has warned that the war in Sudan is “spiralling out of control” after a paramilitary force seized the besieged and famine-stricken Darfur city of el-Fasher. Speaking in Qatar during the opening of the World Summit for Social Development on 4th November, Antonio Guterres called for an immediate ceasefire in the two-year conflict that has become one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Tehran will rebuild its nuclear facilities "with greater strength", Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian told Iranian state media adding that the country does not seek nuclear weapons. U.S. President Donald Trump has warned that he would order fresh attacks on Iran's nuclear sites should Tehran try to restart facilities that the United States bombed in June. Pezeshkian made his comments during a visit to the country's Atomic Energy Organization on 2nd November during which he met with senior managers from Iran’s nuclear industry.

In todays’ crowded field in international relations, Sudan hardly is ever in centre stage. These days news, in the mainstream western media at least, is where Donald Trump decides to focus. But the events of the last days in Sudan were too grotesque to ignore. The rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF), finally won complete control over the Southern region of Darfur, overrunning the last base of the Khartoum government army (SAF), in EL Fasher. In the process, the RSF forces went on a spree of violence, killing at random civilians, and conducting a massacre in a hospital. The world twinged. Western governments issued condemnations, and the mainstream western media, with the exception of the BBC which has kept an interest in the country throughout, reached out for its atlases to find out where Al Fasher was. Sudan is the third largest country in Africa, occupying, an area of 1,886,068 square kms (728,215 square miles ) and with a population of around fifty million. A key role can be played by four countries that form the so-called "Quad initiative" — the US, Egypt, Saudi Arabia  and the UAE. They include the states that could exert real influence in Sudan. The initiative's objective was a roadmap to end the war or, at the very least, a humanitarian truce. However last week (26 October), Quad talks  in Washington failed. At the moment Sudan’s only hope is that international pressure can convince countries like UAE and Egypt to back an immediate ceasefire, and return Sudan to international humanitarian law. Sudan is already a failed state. But its people are resourceful, and given the right conditions they can rebuild their country. The world must help them to do so.

Sudan’s paramilitary forces killed hundreds of people at a hospital, including patients, after they seized the provincial capital of North Darfur over the weekend, according to the U.N., displaced residents and aid workers, who described harrowing details of the atrocities. The 460 patients and their companions were reportedly killed Tuesday 28 October at Saudi Hospital by fighters from the Rapid Support Forces in the city of el-Fasher, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organisation. 

The 2nd South Caucasus Dialogue Forum was successfully held in the Georgian Capital, Tbilisi, on Tuesday, 28 October 2025, with the participation of over seventy experts, activists, diplomats and journalists from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia and from a dozen European countries and organisations. The forum is an initiative of LINKS Europe, working with partners across the South Caucasus. This year's forum was special because of the participation of around forty Armenian and Azerbaijanis members of the Thematic Groups for a new Armenian-Azerbaijani Dialogue.  The 2nd South Caucasus Dialogue Forum provided for a very thorough and interesting discussion of current developments in the region. In the Forum the Armenian and Azerbaijani members were also joined by Georgian participants, as well as representatives of the EUSR Office, EUMA and Ambassadors and diplomats from around ten European countries. Also actively participating were the members of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Expert Strategic Platform. During the Forum it was announced that the 3rd Forum will be held in Yerevan in 2026, whilst the 4th Forum will be held in Baku is 2027, accompanying the process and meetings of the European Political Community, which are also expected to be held in the two countries in 2026/7. It was also announced that the members of the Strategic Expert Platform, working under the auspices of LINKS Europe (Dr Dennis Sammut, Chair, Dr Anar Veliyev, Mr Ramazan Samadov and Mr Mehman Aliyev (members Azerbaijan); Mr Stepan Grigoryan, Mr Benyamin Poghosyan and Mr Johnny Melikyan, members Armenia;) shall form the Political Preparatory Committee for the two events.

When Volodymyr Zelensky ran for office to become president of Ukraine in 2019, many did not take him seriously. Here was a person who had become famous as an actor, playing the role of an imaginary president in a television soap opera, wanting to get the real thing. In 2021/22, he, on his part, did not take seriously warnings about an imminent Russian invasion. He thought he could negotiate with Putin the future of Ukraine. He did not understand the contempt that Putin had for him, and indeed for the entire Ukrainian nation. The invasion marked the birth of a new Zelensky, and a new Ukraine. As Russian troops approached Kyiv, Zelensky, although he knew that he was a primary target that the Russians wanted to eliminate, refused offers to be evacuated, and said that he would stay on and resist. Most Ukrainians said the same. Ukraine is emerging from the war bruised but strong. In the war, the country has found itself. It has the potential and the self-confidence necessary to succeed. The war has enabled Ukraine to emerge from the shadow of Russia. Untangible as this concept is, it is the key issue that will define the country’s future. And Zelensky? Not by his own choice Zelensky ended up being a wartime leader. He did that very well. It is likely that when the war ends the Ukrainian people will want to move on to another leader that will be able to lead Ukraine in peace. But Volodymyr Zelensky has already earned a place in the history of Ukraine, and of Europe.