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Tension persists on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and on the Artsakh contact line, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan told news outlet “Azatutyun.”

“Basically, we have always said that in case of such unpredictable behavior from Azerbaijan, tension should always be expected, both in Nagorno-Karabakh and on the borders of the Republic of Armenia,” Mirzoyan emphasized, continuing. “We have seen several invasions into the territory of the Republic of Armenia […] and the occupation of the territories of Armenia, and also constant threats, hate speech, also towards Nagorno Karabakh, brought the population of Nagorno Karabakh to the brink of a humanitarian disaster, and yes, we always expect tension.

Now you are wondering what we are doing. We are actively working with international partners, I’m sure you are keeping track of everything, you see statements, calls and, of course, legal decisions of the International Court. We must continue to work like this until Azerbaijan enters the constructive field, because we want peace, and we want long-term peace. We want recognition of territorial integrity, but at the same time a mutual recognition, since you know that Azerbaijan must recognize our borders, there is such an agreement, but so far the President of Azerbaijan refuses to make public statements on this matter […],” Mirzoyan said.

When asked whether the main, fundamental differences remain after Yerevan and Baku again exchanged options for a peace treaty, he replied: “Differences remain. Of course, it would be wrong to say that there is no progress from edition to edition, the text is being polished, I once said that all points are important, but nevertheless, the text can be conditionally divided into vitally important and not so vitally important points. But, of course, there are still fundamental disagreements on the most vital, most significant issues. We must continue to negotiate, continue to work.”

Regarding the introduction of an international mechanism into the Baku-Stepanakert dialogue, the head of the RA Foreign Ministry said, “We are confident that all issues related to Nagorno-Karabakh should be discussed between representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh and official Baku, and everyone else in the world can only play the role of facilitators. Why an international mechanism? We think that even if this dialogue begins between official Baku and Stepanakert, still, left alone in the same room, Baku will try to conduct this conversation in the form of an ultimatum, dictate demands and conditions. I don’t think there will be a big, real and sincere dialogue if there is no international presence, and even I may doubt the continuity of these meetings and dialogue. And this is where some kind of international mechanism is needed.”

When asked whether this international mechanism is a “red line” for Yerevan, the FM replied, “Principles are a red line. We want real solutions to be given to real problems, and we are confident that a dialogue is the best way to do this. Why under international auspices? To make dialogue more effective, that’s all. The red lines are the final results.”

Regarding the map, according to Ararat Mirzoyan, “a dialogue is taking place that did not exist before, in an atmosphere of greater mutual understanding.” “We see positive signals, at the same time I want to say again that not only are the exchange of ideas and specific agreements not being implemented, but the leadership of Azerbaijan is either changing its mind or is currently playing some kind of a diplomatic game,” he concluded.

 11:33, 17 September 2023

Ukrainian soldiers prepare to fire from the 2C22 Bohdan self-propelled howitzer toward Russian positions in eastern Ukraine.

Kyiv said it was continuing offensive operations against Russian forces in the east and south as alarms sounded throughout Ukraine on September 16, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked Western and other allies for helping to make “significant progress” with “defense agreements and other support packages” for his embattled nation.

Meanwhile, Russia rejected Ukrainian claims of retaking a strategic village in the Donetsk region as its full-scale invasion of Ukraine approached its 20th month, while the Kremlin also said defense forces had shot down two drones outside Moscow overnight.

Separately, Washington confirmed plans for potentially crucial support-building meetings next week between Ukraine’s visiting president and U.S. political leaders.

 

RFE/RL’s Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia’s full-scale invasion, Kyiv’s counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL’s coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

Around midday, air alerts sounded in a number of regions of Ukraine as the country’s military warned of the threat of ballistic attacks on population centers.

The alarms blared in the capital, Kyiv, as well as in the Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Poltava, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolayiv, and Zaporizhzhya, and Odesa regions.

A series of blasts was reported in the Kharkiv region, although information on possible casualties or damages was initially unavailable.

The Ukrainian General Staff said on September 16 that its forces were conducting defensive operations in eastern and southern Ukraine and offensive operations around Melitopol and Bakhmut.

It claimed “success” in the Klishchiyevka area of the Donetsk region.

Ukrainian Digital Transformation Minister Mykhaylo Fedorov, who has participated in building up his country’s advanced fighting abilities, warned Moscow’s military that following recent attacks on Russian naval targets in the Black Sea, “There will be more drones, more attacks, and fewer Russian ships. That’s for sure.”

Governor Roman Starovoit of Russia’s Kursk region said on Telegram on September 16 that Ukrainian forces shelled a village in Russia’s Kursk region, killing a 30-year-old civilian.

He also said that 17 Ukrainian projectiles had struck a village in the Korenevsky District of the Kursk region, causing damage but no injuries.

The Ukrainian side routinely avoids commenting on the increasing number of attacks inside Russian territory by unmanned aerial vehicles.

Russian media outlet RBC said in late August that it had tallied more than 500 claims by Russian authorities of drone attacks inside Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began 18 months ago. In 110 cases, casualties or damage were reported.

Russia’s Defense Ministry also rejected the Ukrainian military’s claim from earlier in the week that Kyiv’s forces had recaptured the village of Andriyivka, near Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, where a Russian-backed separatist group called the Donetsk People’s Republic operates.

“The enemy did not abandon plans to capture the city of Artyomovsk of the Donetsk People’s Republic and continued to conduct assault operations…unsuccessfully trying to oust Russian troops from the population centers of Klishchiyivka and Andriyivka,” the Russian ministry said in its daily briefing, according to Reuters.

RFE/RL can’t independently confirm battlefield claims by either side in areas of the heaviest fighting in Ukraine, and censorship and strictures on the media seriously hinder reporting in Russia.

Reports have suggested that pressure from the United States and other allies has mounted on Ukraine to demonstrate success in the ongoing major counteroffensive it launched in June. Zelenskiy and other Ukrainian officials have pushed back on criticisms about the pace of the Ukrainian military’s push to retake Russian-occupied areas of southern and eastern Ukraine.

Early this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced that he had replaced Ukraine’s defense minister because “new approaches” were needed.

In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy on September 16 thanked his nation’s allies for their continued support In the fight against the Russian invasion.

“This week, we’ve made significant progress in implementing existing defense agreements and other support packages,” Zelenskiy said.

“Denmark, thank you for the new defense package, which is already the 12th package. Equipment, ammunition, and missiles for our air defense,” he said.

“Germany, thank you for the new batch of military aid. Belgium, your participation in our pilot training is approved. Thank you! Norway, your decision to provide additional funding for Ukraine’s recovery. It’s crucial. Thank you!”

He also singled out the United States and South Korea for their support.

U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed on September 15 that President Joe Biden will host Zelenskiy in Washington on September 21 for what will be their third meeting at the White House.

WATCH: U.S. Ambassador to the OSCE Michael Carpenter tells RFE/RL how Zelenskiy could use a meeting with Biden next week to press the case for further military support.

Both Biden and Zelenskiy are slated to address the 78th session of the UN General Assembly next week, and Zelenskiy is expected to use his in-person appearance with U.S. and world leaders to rally support and plead for advanced weapons and ammunition to aid his country’s ongoing counteroffensive to retake Ukrainian territory occupied by Russian forces.

Sullivan also said Zelenskiy will visit the U.S. Capitol, where he can meet “congressional leaders from both parties to make the case that the United States has been a great friend and partner to Ukraine throughout this entire brutal war.”

The U.S. Congress is currently debating Biden’s request to provide as much as $24 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine.

U.S. Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters on September 16 that any help from Pyongyang is not likely to make a major difference in Moscow’s war effort.

“Would it have a huge difference? I’m skeptical of that,” Milley said, adding that while any weapons assistance would be of concern, “I doubt that it would be decisive.”

With reporting by Reuters

Georgia’s Weightlifting Olympic Champion, European Champion and record-breaking athlete Lasha Talakhadze became a seven-time winner of the World Championship on Sunday, after winning the event in Saudi Arabia’s capital city of Riyadh, Azernews reports, citing Agenda.

Talakhadze has claimed three gold medals in the +109 kg weight category after lifting 220 kg in snatch, 253 kg in clean and jerk, and 473 kg in total.

The Georgian athlete also became a seven-time European Champion in April in Yerevan.

Talakhadze was named the 2022 European Weightlifter of the Year, making him the first Georgian athlete to earn the honour.

—

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TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The majority party that dominates the parliament in Georgia has launched a campaign to impeach the country’s president, even though the effort appears unlikely to succeed.

The Georgian Dream party, which is increasingly at odds with President Salome Zourabichvili despite endorsing her election in 2018, announced the effort last week. It said Zourabichvili violated the constitution by travelling to European Union countries without the government’s permission.

Editorial

It is clear that the policy pursued by the United States is based only on its own interests, and hypocrisy, betrayal, and treachery have risen to the level of state policy.

On one hand, the United States supports the territorial integrity of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, considers Abkhazia and South Ossetia as part of Georgia, Transnistria as part of Moldova, Donbas and Crimea as an integral part of Ukraine, and also supports these countries on all international platforms, on the other hand, the United States did not provide any support to Azerbaijan, whose territory had been under the invasion for almost 30 years. Moreover, it took steps that suited the interests of invader Armenia.

If a small part of the support provided to Ukraine today had been provided to Azerbaijan, our lands would not have stayed under the invasion so long.

As a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, the United States also did not conduct any work; the co-chairs made tourist trips and made routine statements. This organization and one of its co-chairs, the United States, did everything possible to keep the conflict frozen for many years. Millions of dollars were allocated annually to the so-called regime in Garabagh under the guise of mine clearance. The separatists visited the United States and raised funds under the name “aid to Garabagh.” It was in the USA that the department of the criminal regime of Garabagh was created. Representatives of the regime visited America and held meetings at various levels. All this is an indicator of the US attitude towards resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. Although support for Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity was expressed on the surface, behind the scenes support was given to the separatist regime in Armenia and Garabagh.

The United States, as a hegemonic power, created the image of an enemy that would frighten the international system in order to dictate its will to the whole world, and declared Islam the main enemy of the “civilized world.” This is a country where Islamophobia has risen to the level of state policy, it has not only interfered in the internal affairs of various countries in the name of fighting terrorism but has also targeted Muslim countries. As a result of the “Arab Spring” scenario, governments in the Middle East were overthrown and civil conflicts were encouraged. Countries such as Iraq and Libya were attacked, where such a scenario was impossible.

After creating an image of Iraq as having “nuclear weapons”, they invaded the country, killing one million Iraqis, destroying cities and villages, taking control of the country’s national wealth, and continuing to plunder it so far.

The civil conflict that began in Libya after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi still cannot subside. The killing of millions of people, the destruction of economic infrastructure, cities and villages in the Middle East, and the fact that this problem will continue for many years is the result of the “democracy” that America brought to the East.

Today, the United States which is considered the country responsible for the shameful scandals at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay for the torturing and murdering of Muslims, presents itself as a “patron of human rights.”

All points of tension in the world are created according to the desires and plans of the United States. All political games have one goal – to ensure American interests in any region or country and to control and exploit the resources of the region or country. The US is not interested in democracy, human rights, peace and stability. Most of South America, Africa, and Asia became a testing ground for American political games.

Azerbaijan has also been suffering from US geopolitical games for many years. In our country, attempts were made to carry out coups d’etat. Consistent work was carried out in the direction of financing and training the political opposition, involving the NGO sector and the media in political games, that is, in a word, creating an atmosphere of civil disobedience in the country. The main goal of this country is to form a government in Azerbaijan that is unquestioningly subordinate to the interests of the United States and to legitimize the invasion of Azerbaijani territories. However, these attempts and numerous plans did not come true.

The United States tried to “Syrianize” Azerbaijan and several times prepared a plan for “color revolutions” to prevent the country from strengthening, developing, and liberating occupied Garabagh. But thanks to the unity of the government and the people, none of these evil plans came to true.

Realizing that after the 44-day war, the unity of the government and the people in Azerbaijan has strengthened, today the United States is changing its tactics and is trying to use not the opposition, which is in trouble, but LGBT which is a great threat to national values, “feminists” who promote immorality, and people “NO TO WAR”, trying to devalue the Victory in the Patriotic War. The US also provides funds to these groups through USAID, and these groups are led by Samantha Power, who has pro-Armenian, anti-Turkish, and anti-Azerbaijani positions.

Azerbaijan managed to resist any pressure and liberated its lands from occupation on its own. Of course, the existence of Azerbaijan with such strength and courage does not correspond to the interests and goals of the United States, France, and other similar countries. Therefore, today official Washington is not making serious efforts to resolve the problem between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but is only creating an illusion.

According to the agreement reached at the last meeting in Washington, on September 1, roads in the region should have been opened and the Agdam-Khankendi road should have been operational. Although Blinken asked for the opening of both the Lachin and Aghdam roads during negotiations with the Azerbaijani leadership, the US stepped back from its position rather than put pressure on the Armenian leadership and separatists in Garabagh who resisted the agreement. Today, both the State Department and Congress are talking only about the need to open the Lachin road.

Unable or unwilling to satisfy the separatist group, the United States is now trying to accuse Azerbaijan of lack of courage and hypocrisy.

We have also witnessed the hypocrisy of the United States regarding the “elections” in Garabagh- after the “elections” on September 9, leading states and organizations declared that they did not recognize the illegal regime and its “elections,” but Washington chose to remain silent. Only after pressure from Azerbaijan, the US State Department at the level of its ordinary representative obliged to verbally declare that it did not recognize the “elections.”

A representative of the US State Department sent Louis Bonin to the region, but this visit did not contribute to solving problems in the region and was inconclusive. Because the US is insincere in its intentions and is not interested in peace. Otherwise, US State Department representative Yuri Kim would not have spoken about the non-existent “rights of the people of Nagorno-Garabagh” in his speech in Congress. The United States ignores today’s realities and is making serious efforts to legitimize the military junta in Garabagh.

In fact, today the United States, together with France, is a party that does not allow the process of reintegration of the Armenian minority in Garabagh, and stimulates revanchist forces in Armenia. Thanks to such an open pro-Armenian policy of France, today Paris is completely isolated from regional processes and has lost hope of mediation. If this happens, the same fate awaits the United States, which behaves in the region as Christian missionaries.

It would be naivity to think that Armenia will be benefitted from the current hypocritical policy of the USA. This policy will not benefit anyone. An obstacle to the reintegration process is created in Azerbaijan with the Armenian minority living in its territory, and Armenia becomes a “second Ukraine”. The United States, which incited Ukraine to war with Russia and manipulated the supply of weapons and ammunition to make Kyiv completely dependent on itself, has actually sacrificed Ukraine today. After the death of tens of thousands of Ukrainians, the destruction of cities and villages, and the occupation of almost 25 percent of the country, the United States now wants to force Ukraine to come to terms with its territorial occupation. Just as he tried to push Azerbaijan to come to terms with the occupation of its lands for 30 years.

In this war, in which Ukraine is sacrificed, the USA earns a lot of money and takes complete control of the European gas market with LNG (liquefied natural gas). Due to the damage to the environment, LNG, which is almost as dangerous as black coal, has begun to dominate the European market, but so far no environmental organization, ecoactivists, etc. cannot raise voices to protest.

The situation in which the USA is dragging Ukraine reminds us of the war in Georgia in 2008. Even then, the USA, which incited M. Saakashvili to war with Russia, later backed out, as a result of which Moscow officially formalized the occupation of Georgian territories under its control.

The US tried to turn Turkiye into a “second Syria” and attempted a coup in 2016 by the FETO organization it created and financed. Only thanks to the determination of the Turkish leadership and the support of the people, Turkiye was able to escape from this danger. But even today, terrorist organizations fighting against Turkiye receive instructions, weapons and funding directly from the United States.

The United States, which destroyed Afghanistan and then returned to power the Taliban, which it shamefully fled and declared terrorists, but in fact created itself, shows its true nature at every step by implementing projects of this type. During the 20-year occupation, America did not build a single road or school in Afghanistan.

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Russia’s war against Ukraine has wrought major upheaval across Eurasia, forcing countries to search for new partners as they seek security and stability. Some Eurasian countries are looking to strengthen ties with the United States to maintain regional security and to develop new economic opportunities. Azerbaijan, for example, has sought to further its partnership with the United States on the two countries’ shared strategic interests.

Relations between the United States and Azerbaijan have historically centered on energy transit, most significantly the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the Southern Gas Corridor. In July 2022, Baku signed a new memorandum of understanding with the European Union (EU) to increase Azerbaijani gas exports to the EU from 12 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year to 20 bcm by 2027. Officials in Brussels certainly see the importance of diversifying energy imports away from Russia—European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called Azerbaijan a “reliable” partner in the bloc’s renewed emphasis on energy security.

But Azerbaijan’s geography means it is also a gateway to the countries of Central Asia and the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), also known as the Middle Corridor, that connects Europe with China via Central Asia and the South Caucasus. The Middle Corridor provides Europe with a critical alternative to trade routes that pass through Russia and Belarus, the so-called Northern Corridor.

At the same time, the Middle Corridor provides the inverse opportunity for Central Asian countries to reduce dependency on transit through Russia to the European market. It is in Washington’s strategic interest to help develop alternative trade routes between Europe and Central Asia that minimize opportunities for Russian malign interference along the way.

Moreover, Azerbaijan and the United States share a set of strategic interests that may only grow in the coming years. Washington should resist the calls from some commentators to distance itself from Baku. Russia’s war on Ukraine has shaken stability in the South Caucasus, and Moscow may try to claw back influence in the region at the expense of regional peace and security. Greater US engagement with Baku should reinforce a platform for peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Stronger US-Azerbaijan ties can also help counter threats to shared interests emanating from Moscow and Tehran.

The United States has been a major mediator between Armenia and Azerbaijan since the early years of the two countries’ conflict over the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan that began in the 1990s. This mediating role gained new importance and urgency following the Second Karabakh War, which ended in November 2020 with Azerbaijan liberating Karabakh and much of its surrounding territory.

While the situation remains tense, leaders in both Armenia and Azerbaijan have worked hard to build lasting peace. Baku and Yerevan have reached important achievements to this end, with one set of peace talks mediated by Russia and a second negotiating platform with the EU and the United States. The turning point came in May, when Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan in the EU-mediated summit in Brussels, following US-mediated talks weeks earlier between the two countries’ foreign ministers in Washington. There are even signs the long-standing dispute over access to the Lachin road is improving, with new reports that humanitarian aid is reaching Karabakh via the Aghdam road.

The peace process is, however, fraught with major challenges.

Some political groups in Armenia and in the diaspora continue to pressure the Pashinyan government against acknowledging Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized sovereignty over Karabakh. Separatist leadership in Karabakh refuses to integrate the region into Azerbaijan and recently undertook unrecognized “elections.” These authorities also receive financial and diplomatic support from Kremlin-connected individuals.

A peace treaty signed via Western mediation and built upon the recognition of Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan would deal a severe blow to Russia’s influence in the region. Such a treaty would create preconditions for the withdrawal of Russia’s peacekeeping mission from the Karabakh region where it was deployed after the 2020 war and, generally, deprive Moscow of one lever of influence against Baku.

This contradiction in the interests of Azerbaijan and Russia has at times strained relations between them. By voicing a plan not to extend the Russian peacekeeping mission beyond 2025 and by investing more in the Western-mediated track of negotiations, Baku regularly challenges Russia’s policies vis-à-vis the peace process.

Azerbaijan stands out as a rare post-Soviet state that has provided humanitarian and political support to Ukraine in the context of the country’s fight against Russian aggression. Azerbaijan has so far sent almost thirty million dollars’ worth of humanitarian aid, including free fuel to ambulances and vehicles operated by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine and power transformers and generators. Azerbaijan’s independent foreign policy course has drawn “bewilderment” from Russia’s foreign ministry and nuclear threats from its political circles.

The Azerbaijani government’s stance on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine contrasts with the policies of two of its neighbors, Armenia and Iran. Investigations and media reports in Europe and the United States have uncovered how Armenia and some other post-Soviet countries have been assisting Russia to import prohibited goods. Officials both in the United States and the EU have listed Armenia among the states that help Russia to circumvent Western sanctions. Armenia only belatedly sent a small package of humanitarian aid to Ukraine in early September.

Iran has been one of Russia’s most strident military allies in its war, providing Moscow with thousands of Shahed drones that terrorize Ukrainian civilians and helping the Kremlin evade Western sanctions. In October 2022, an Iranian military commander Yahia Rahim Safav reportedly said that Armenia may buy Shahed drones. Baku has long opposed Tehran’s brazenly aggressive foreign policy, even as Iran’s ties with Armenia and Russia may be growing. Significantly, Baku has also redoubled its support for Israel—a major US ally—despite Iran’s anti-Israel threats and increasingly militaristic posture in the region.

The time is right for the United States to strengthen its relationship with Azerbaijan and take the historic opportunity to pursue peace and break ground on a new template for regional stability.

Vasif Huseynov is the head of the Western Studies department at the Center for Analysis of International Relations (AIR Center), a think tank founded by the government of Azerbaijan. He is also a lecturer at Khazar and ADA universities in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Further reading

Image: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosts Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan (not pictured) and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov for talks at the George Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., June 29, 2023. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is a language that gave rise to many others. About 46% of humans, well over three billion people, are native speakers of an Indo-European language. But where did PIE first arise, and who spoke it: pastoralists from the Pontic steppe straddling eastern Europe and west Asia or agrarians from Anatolia in Turkey? The answer to that question has been eluding anthropologists for ages. And now, researchers in the journal Science suggest a third place: the Lesser Caucasus, primarily found in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and parts of eastern Turkey and southern Georgia.

PIE is both the deadest and most alive of languages. The last speaker died thousands of years ago, and if it was ever written down, we don’t know about it. The only evidence of PIE’s existence are the traces it left in the languages that descended from it.

We say “only,” but that is a lot of evidence. Modern descendants of PIE include not only English, Spanish, and Russian, but also Persian, Hindi, Bengali, and dozens more. Indo-European is by far the largest language family in the world. Sino-Tibetan, which includes Mandarin Chinese, is a distant second, with about 1.3 billion native speakers.

For the better part of a century, linguists have been looking for clues to the origin of Indo-European from within the languages themselves. Using phylogenetic analysis — phylogenetics is the study of evolutionary relationships over time, be they organisms or languages — they have reconstructed a vocabulary for PIE that gives us an idea of the culture of the people who spoke it. We know they had words for bear (bʰérōs) and goose (h₂énos), willow (wélə) and honey (méli), and peat (péḱus) and enclosure (h₂órtos).

The language families descended from Proto-Indo-European beautifully rendered as the branches of a tree, with each leaf approximating the relative numbers of native speakers of each language. (Credit: Stand Still, Stay Silent by Minna Sundberg)

Based on such evidence, two schools of thought emerged. One proposed that PIE originated some 6,000 years ago in the Pontic-Caspian steppe located north of the Black and Caspian Seas, in the flatlands that stretch from northeast Romania via southern Ukraine and southwestern Russia into the furthest west of Kazakhstan. The nomadic pastoralists who lived here tamed the horse, allowing them to migrate far and wide. This is called the steppe or kurgan hypothesis, the latter after the local word for the prehistoric burial mounds that dot the area.

Other scholars posit an older and more southerly beginning for PIE: around 9,000 years ago in Anatolia. Also known as Asia Minor, this peninsula bordered by the Black, Aegean, and Mediterranean Seas is the westernmost extension of Asia. Today, it is the Asian part of Turkey. The theory is that the language piggybacked on the spread of agriculture from here to large parts of the Old World.

The kurgan hypothesis is the more widely accepted of the two. Many of its proponents think that PIE speakers, kurgan builders, and the ancient Yamnaya culture are actually one and the same. However, conflicting evidence from previous phylogenetic analyses has prevented either hypothesis from completely knocking out the other.

So, the Max Planck team constructed a new dataset of core vocabulary from 161 Indo-European languages that was more comprehensive and balanced than previous samples. Using recent advances in phylogenetic analysis, they were able to estimate that PIE was approximately 8,100 years old, and that five main branches had already split off around 7,000 years ago.

The study’s results fit poorly with both the kurgan and Anatolian hypotheses. As a solution, the researchers propose a third possibility: an early homeland for PIE immediately south of the Caucasus, with one migration veering off north into the steppe. There, PIE speakers established a “secondary homeland,” from where Indo-European entered the rest of Europe beginning 5,000 years ago, courtesy of the Yamnaya and later expansions.

Map showing the spread of Indo-European according to the kurgan hypothesis: from the Pontic steppe (dark green) to an area covering most of Europe and large parts of Asia (light green). Note the non-Indo-European language islands in Europe, representing Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, and Basque. (Credit: Joe Roe, after Wolfgang Haak, CC BY-SA 4.0)

By offering a hybrid of the farming and pastoralist theories about the spread of Indo-European, the south-of-Caucasus hypothesis suggests a solution for an enigma that has dogged the study of Indo-European for about 200 years. Wolfgang Haak, group leader at the department of archaeogenetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, said:

“Aside from a refined time estimate for the overall language tree, the tree topology and branching order are most critical for the alignment with key archaeological events and shifting ancestry patterns seen in the ancient human genome data. This is a huge step forward from the mutually exclusive, previous scenarios, towards a more plausible model that integrates archaeological, anthropological, and genetic findings.”

Strange Maps #1220

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First they start on a positive note, then they start to reveal their true hypocritical nature. However, for the time being, we are not talking about France, or a group of pro-Armenian officials represented at the UN. This time we are talking about the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium, Hadja Lahbib, who first identified himself as a diplomat and later revealed her true prejudice against Azerbaijan.

A couple of days ago, when the information about her visit was spread, the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs showed a more positive position regarding the resolution of the ongoing Armenian-Azerbaijani tension in the South Caucasus. However, Lahbib, who started her first trip from Armenia, somehow damaged the reputation of the European Union with her diplomatic illiteracy. It is likely that Hadja Lahbib did not even look at the agenda related to the region prior to her visit to the South Caucasus. After all, why look? Because everyone believes that Hadja Lahbib is successfully following the path of French diplomats.

A Belgian “diplomat” in Armenia meets with the soldiers of an occupying state crushed under the iron fist and presents them with flowers. Lahbib’s French-style action presented her purpose and position to the public at the first moment.

Perhaps she has never asked herself the question on whose territory that soldier whom she hugged before fought and received the deserved punishment. Lahbib completely devoted herself to Armenia, stepping on the diplomatic behavior of Charles Michel, the President of the Council of Europe, in Brussels. Whatever the reason that made her to this request, it was not received unambiguously for Azerbaijan.

The Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, who participated in the briefing in Yerevan, demonstrated her insidious behavior and even attepted to send a note against the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov: “The rights and security of the population of “Nagorno-Karabakh” must be respected, let me remind my Azerbaijani colleague about this .”

The next corrupt pro-Armenian example of Europe has astrayed so much that she did not even respect the opinion of the President of the Council of Europe Michel about recognizing the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

You probably won’t take my criticism wrong. Indeed, Azerbaijan has no prejudice against Lahbib. We have never seen her contribution to conflict resolution before. But what we have seen is that Lahbib is indeed biased towards conflicts.

It would not be wrong to say that the issue of Georgia in the South Caucasus is at the same level as Garabagh. It is good that Hadja Lahbib one in her lifetime could express an honest and objective position on this issue. Following the European Union mission team, the so-called diplomat, who was watching the territories with binoculars in her hand, allegedly demanded the recognition of Georgia’s territorial integrity within the framework of international laws. The question is, what is the problem with Azerbaijan, Mrs. Hadja? Why don’t your binoculars show Garabagh correctly? We have no doubt that Abkhazia and South Ossetia are occupied territories, and so is it, according to your opinion; then why is Garabagh strange to your statement?

You say that there is no question of self-determination of peoples in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. But when it comes to Garabagh, your opinions change 180 degrees, and you are not ashamed to even express biased opinions. But we were ashamed for you. We are ashamed that you, as a diplomat, destroyed the image of the Council of Europe and the Parliament of the European Union and masterfully demonstrated your diplomatic illiteracy. At least you should be abashed to refuse to come to Azerbaijan after your rascal behavior. You deserve to bow only to the invading soldier. I am afraid to say that even though Azerbaijan remains true to its diplomatic culture while coming here, the spirits of our Martyrs over these lands will not leave you alone. So we strongly advise you not to come at all. Maybe this will calm your “honor” and “conscience” sold for some pennies…

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Elnur Enveroglu is AzerNews’ deputy editor-in-chief, follow him on @ElnurMammadli1

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