What the Karabakh deal and Belarus sanctions meant by 12 November 2020
A look back at two developments that framed the international news picture in the days before 12 November 2020.
What was the international picture on 12 November 2020? It had been shaped by two announcements in the preceding days, one on the Caucasus and one on Belarus.
On 9 November 2020, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that he had signed a deal with Azerbaijan and Russia to end the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War by the morning of Tuesday. A Kremlin spokesman confirmed the deal. Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev, later said a trilateral agreement had been signed, and Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, said Russian peacekeepers would be deployed.
The agreement ceded several districts to Azerbaijan, including the Lachin District. It also provided for a transport corridor through Armenia, linking Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan.
Three days earlier, on 6 November 2020, the European Union had announced sanctions against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, his son Viktor, police chief Ivan Tertel and Chief of Staff Igor Sergeenko. The measures were tied to the 2020 Belarusian protests.
