Armenia and Azerbaijan have signed a peace agreement at the White House, aiming to end decades of conflict.

As the war in Gaza rages, Syria's government transforms, and the Israeli-occupied West Bank seethes, Armenian residents of the Old City of Jerusalem fight a different battle.

The federal government recently reclassified race and ethnicity groups in an effort to better capture the diversity of the United States, but some groups feel the changes are still missing the mark.

Hundreds of Azerbaijani soldiers have paraded through the capital city of the Karabakh region that came under full control of Azerbaijan in September after a lightning rout of ethnic Armenian forces.

A federal regulator says Citigroup intentionally discriminated against Armenian Americans when they applied for credit cards.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has raised his nation’s flag over the capital city of a former breakaway region in a ceremony reaffirming Baku’s control over it.

The sudden capitulation of ethnic Armenian forces in a separatist region of Azerbaijan raises hopes for the return of thousands of people who fled the territory decades ago.

The last bus carrying ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh has left the region, completing a weeklong, grueling exodus in which more than 80% of its residents have fled after Azerbaijan reclaimed the area in a lightning military operation last month.

Azerbaijan's prosecutor general says the country has issued an arrest warrant for former Nagorno-Karabakh separatist leader Arayik Harutyunyan.

Armenia finds itself facing multiple challenges after being suddenly thrust into one of the worst political crises in its decades of independence following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

The exodus of more than 78,000 ethnic Armenians this week from Nagorno-Karabakh in the southern Caucasus Mountains has been a vivid and shocking tableau of fear and misery.

The separatist government of Nagorno-Karabakh says it will dissolve itself and the unrecognized republic will cease to exist by the end of the year.

An explosion at a crowded gas station in Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region has killed and injured scores of people as thousands of ethnic Armenians have rushed to flee to Armenia.

Russia's Defense Ministry says that ethnic Armenian separatists in Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh are surrendering their arms to Russian peacekeepers.

Azerbaijan regained control of its breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh in a deadly two-day military offensive and held initial talks with representatives of its ethnic Armenian population on reintegrating the area into the mainly Muslim country.

The former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is warning that Azerbaijan is preparing genocide against ethnic Armenians in its Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Armenia and Azerbaijan have made “tangible progress” in four days of U.S.-hosted peace talks between the two former Soviet republics that have repeatedly clashed over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

About 10,000 people bearing torches have marched through Armenia’s capital to commemorate the estimated 1.5 million Armenians killed in Ottoman Turkey more than a century ago.

Tensions between Armenia and Armenia are high again two years after both countries ended a war that killed about 6,800 soldiers and displaced around 90,000 civilians.

Armenia is accusing neighboring Azerbaijan of systematically promoting ethnic hatred against Armenia citizens as the two nations that fought a six-week war last year face off at a U.N. court.

Voting results show that the party of Armenia’s acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has won snap parliamentary elections which he called to ease anger over a peace deal he signed with Azerbaijan.

Partial results in Armenia's snap parliamentary elections show a strong lead for the party of acting prime minister Nikol Pashinyan, who called the election in a bid to ease anger over peace deal he signed with Azerbaijan.

Armenia's leader is praising President Joe Biden's recognition of the deaths of 1_5 million Armenians under Ottoman Turkish rule as genocide, calling it “a powerful step.”.

The United States is formally recognizing that the systematic killing and deportation of more than a million Armenians by Ottoman Empire forces in the early 20th century was “genocide.”.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan comforts a woman during a march of remembrance of the heroes killed in a war over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, in Yerevan, Armenia, Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020. Both opponents and supporters of Armenia's prime minister rallied Saturday as the nation paid tribute to the thousands who died in fighting with Azerbaijan over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. (Tigran Mehrabyan/PAN Photo via AP)YEREVAN – Both opponents and supporters of Armenia's prime minister rallied Saturday as the nation paid tribute to the thousands who died in fighting with Azerbaijan over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but was under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. That war left Nagorno-Karabakh itself and substantial surrounding territory in Armenian hands.

Azerbaijan has completed the return of territory ceded by Armenia under a Russia-brokered peace deal that ended six weeks of fierce fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh. (AP Photo/Emrah GurelBAKU – Azerbaijan on Tuesday completed reclaiming territory held by Armenian forces for more than a quarter-century after a peace deal ended six weeks of fierce fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh. Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. The Lachin region, which lies between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, was the last of the three areas on the rim of Nagorno-Karabakh to be surrendered by Armenian forces on Tuesday. On Tuesday, Russian and Turkish military officials signed documents to set up a joint monitoring center to ensure the fulfillment of the peace deal.

But as Azerbaijani forces discovered when the first area was turned over Friday, Nov. 20 much of the recovered land is uninhabitable. During six weeks of renewed fighting this fall that ended Nov. 10, Azerbaijan took back parts of Nagorno-Karabakh itself and sizeable swaths of the outlying areas. But as Azerbaijani forces discovered when the first area, Aghdam, was turned over on Friday, much of the recovered land is uninhabitable. Ulviya Jumayeva, 50, can go back to better, though not ideal circumstances in her native Shusha, a city that Azerbaijani forces took in the key offensive of the six-week war. “According to him, it is clear that Armenians lived there after us, and then they took everything away.

Ethnic Armenians return to a normal life after a Russia-brokered cease-fire was signed between Armenia and Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)MOSCOW – The president of Azerbaijan said Saturday he hopes the ceasefire that ended a six-week war with Armenia this month will lead to improving relations between the countries. The delegation, which included Russia's foreign and defense ministers, also visited the Armenian capital, Yerevan. Russia and Azerbaijan also agree on the need to create conditions for ethnic conciliation in the region, Lavrov said. Azerbaijan has been angered to discover the wholescale ruination of towns that came under Armenian control in the 1990s war.

Azerbaijanis celebrate entry of troops in Nagorno-Karabakh's Aghdam region in Baku, Azerbaijan, Friday, Nov. 20, 2020. “Today, with a feeling of endless pride, I am informing my people about the liberation of Aghdam,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in an address to the nation. “Aghdam is ours!”Crowds of people carrying national flags gathered in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, to celebrate the handover. Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. Before they got there, they were confronted by police and ethnic Armenian villagers; two of the protesters were shot to death.

A Russia-brokered cease-fire to halt six weeks of fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh stipulated that Armenia turn over control of some areas it holds outside the separatist territorys borders to Azerbaijan. Thousands of people have regularly protested in Armenia's capital, Yerevan, demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's ouster. Health Minister Arsen Torosian said a new tally showed that 2,425 Armenian forces died in the recent conflict, about 1,000 more than previously reported. In a Facebook statement presenting his "road map" for “ensuring democratic stability in Armenia,” Pashinian once again said that he considers himself “responsible for the situation." Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994.

Ethnic Armenians refugees greet each other as they return to Stepanakert, the capital of the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020. Russia's Defense Ministry reported that the peacekeepers accompanied about 1,200 people returning to Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia since Saturday. The Moscow-brokered truce called for territorial concessions in favor of Azerbaijan and left many Armenians bitter, but allowed those who fled from the violence to return to their homes. Turkey’s parliament, meanwhile, granted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government permission to deploy peacekeepers to Azerbaijan to monitor the cease-fire. It halted the fighting after several failed attempts to establish a lasting cease-fire, but prompted mass protests in the Armenian capital Yerevan and calls for Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's ouster.

Armenians who are going to leave separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh dig up the remains of their ancestors to bring them from the territory, which is to be handed over to Azerbaijanis. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)YEREVAN – Armenia's foreign minister resigned Monday amid political turmoil that has engulfed the country following a cease-fire deal for the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh that calls for ceding territory to longtime adversary Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. That war left not only Nagorno-Karabakh itself but substantial surrounding territory in Armenian hands. Russia's Defense Ministry reported that the peacekeepers accompanied about 1,200 people returning to Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia since Saturday.

Ethnic Armenian forces had controlled Nagorno-Karabakh and sizeable adjacent territories since the 1994 end of a separatist war. But Azerbaijan agreed to delay the takeover until Nov. 25 after a request from Armenia. But the territory then came under Armenian control and Armenians moved in. Azerbaijan accuses Armenians of desecrating Muslim sites during their decades of control of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding territories, including housing livestock in mosques. The cease-fire agreement and cession of territories was a strong blow to Armenia and prompted protests against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.

Under an agreement ending weeks of intense fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, some Armenian-held territories adjacent to the region are passing to Azerbaijan. The move gripped its 600 people with fear and anger so deep that they destroyed the homes they once loved. The settlement — called Karvachar in Armenian — is legally part of Azerbaijan, but it has been under the control of ethnic Armenians since the 1994 end of a war over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. After years in which sporadic clashes broke out between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces, full-scale fighting began in late September this year. Two days after Azerbaijan announced it had taken Shusha, Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a Russia-brokered cease-fire under which territory that Armenia occupies outside the formal borders of Nagorno-Karabakh will be gradually ceded.

Protesters with Armenian flags walk along a street during a protest against an agreement to halt fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, in Yerevan, Armenia, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)YEREVAN – Thousands massed Thursday in Armenia's capital to protest the terms of a cease-fire agreement that gave territorial concessions to Azerbaijan in the long-running conflict over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. The rally marked the third straight day of demonstrations triggered by the truce to halt more than six weeks of deadly fighting between the two ex-Soviet nations. Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. The Moscow-brokered agreement calls for Armenia to turn over control of some areas its holds outside Nagorno-Karabakh's borders to Azerbaijan.

People argue with police during a protest against an agreement to halt fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, in Freedom Square in Yerevan, Armenia, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020. Thousands of people flooded the streets of Yerevan once again on Wednesday, protesting an agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan to halt the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, which calls for deployment of nearly 2,000 Russian peacekeepers and territorial concessions. They include the Lachin region, which the main road leading from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia passes through. The agreement calls for the road, the so-called Lachin Corridor, to remain open and be protected by Russian peacekeepers. On Wednesday, he said he signed the agreement to avoid “a full collapse” of the region and deaths of thousands of troops.

Scores of Russian peacekeepers were heading to Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday morning, hours after Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to halt the fighting over the separatist region in a pact signed with Moscow which envisions the deployment of nearly 2,000 Russian peacekeepers and territorial concessions. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)MOSCOW – Dozens of Russian peacekeepers destined for Nagorno-Karabakh began deploying Tuesday, hours after Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to halt fighting over the separatist region and amid signs the cease-fire would hold where others hadn’t. The truce came after significant advances by Azerbaijani forces that the Armenian-backed leader of Nagorno-Karabakh said made it impossible for his side to carry on. The agreement calls for the road, the so-called Lachin Corridor, to remain open and be protected by Russian peacekeepers. A total of 1,960 Russian peacekeepers are to be deployed under a five-year mandate.

(AP Photo)YEREVAN – Armenia and Azerbaijan announced an agreement early Tuesday to halt fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan under a pact signed with Russia that calls for deployment of nearly 2,000 Russian peacekeepers and territorial concessions. Nagorno-Karabakh has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a 1994 truce ended a separatist war in which an estimated 30,000 people died. Armenians will also turn over the Lachin region, which holds the main road leading from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. The agreement calls for the road, the so-called Lachin Corridor, to remain open and be protected by Russian peacekeepers. The agreement also calls for transport links to be established through Armenia linking Azerbaijan and its western exclave of Nakhcivan, which is surrounded by Armenia, Iran and Turkey.

Azerbaijanis with the national flag celebrate after the country's President claimed Azerbaijani forces have taken Shushi, a key city in the Nagorno-Karabakh region that has been under the control of ethnic Armenians for decades in Baku, Azerbaijan, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020. (AP Photo)MOSCOW – Azerbaijani forces have taken control of the strategically key city of Shushi in Nagorno-Karabakh where fighting with Armenia has raged for more than a month, the country’s president said Sunday. In a televised address to the nation, President Ilham Aliyev said “Shusha is ours — Karabakh is ours,” using the Azerbaijani version of the city’s name. Along with its strategic value, Shushi is culturally significant as a onetime center of Azerbaijani culture, noted for music and poets. Nagorno-Karabakh is within Azerbaijan, but has been under the control of local ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since 1994.

“There is no way now to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh issue through diplomacy,” Pashinian said. Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a war there ended in 1994. The current fighting that started on Sept. 27 marks the biggest escalation in the conflict since the war's end. Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev said that to end hostilities Armenian forces must withdraw from Nagorno-Karabakh. “Defending Nagorno-Karabakh means defending the Armenian people’s rights.”The Armenian leader accused Azerbaijan's ally Turkey of fueling the latest escalation of hostilities and blocking any attempt at a cease-fire.

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan continues for a third week despite a Russia-brokered cease-fire deal, as both sides exchanged accusations and claims of new attacks over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. (Ismail Coskun/IHA via AP)BAKU – Azerbaijani authorities on Friday accused Armenia of expanding the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh by shelling a different region in Azerbaijan, a claim rejected by Armenian officials. Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a war there ended in 1994. A Turkish Foreign Ministry statement also described the alleged attack as an attempt by Armenia to take the conflict outside the lands it holds. ___Associated Press writers Avet Demourian in Yerevan, Armenia, Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey contributed to this report.

Hundreds of fighters from around the Middle East are heading to Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan to join rival countries fighting over the region. On the other side of the latest fighting, Turkey has sent hundreds of Syrian opposition fighters to back its ally, Azerbaijan, according to a Syrian war monitor and three Syria-based opposition activists. The Observatory’s chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said 72 Syrian fighters have been killed so far. Armenia has repeatedly said over the past week that Turkey sent Syrian fighters to back the Azeris, a claim that Ankara and Azerbaijan deny. Russia’s Foreign Ministry expressed concern over reports about “militants from illegal armed groups” from Syria and Libya being sent to the conflict zone.

The Associated Press explains what’s behind the long-unresolved conflict and its most recent flare-up:WHAT AND WHERE IS NAGORNO-KARABAKH? Nagorno-Karabakh is a region within Azerbaijan that has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by the Armenian government for more than a quarter-century. The open conflict broke out in 1988 when the region made a bid to join Armenia, triggering hostilities. Scores were killed in an outbreak of hostilities in 2016, and then again this July when Azerbaijan and Armenia exchanged fire across their border. Iran neighbors both Armenia and Azerbaijan and is calling for calm.

The fighting is the biggest escalation in years in the decades-long dispute over the region, which lies within Azerbaijan but is controlled by local ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia. (David Ghahramanyan/NKR InfoCenter PAN Photo via AP)BAKU – Armenia and Azerbaijan said heavy fighting continues in their conflict over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Fighting broke out on Sept. 27 in the region, which is located within Azerbaijan and under the control of local ethnic Armenian forces. Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said his country's army ”raised the flag” in the town of Madagiz and taken seven villages. Several United Nations Security Council resolutions have called for withdrawal from those areas, which the Armenian forces have disregarded.

Here’s a look at what lies behind Turkey’s support for Azerbaijan, its involvement in the conflict and its implications. In 2009, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stepped back from reconciliation efforts with Armenia that had angered Azerbaijan. Ankara has asserted that Azerbaijan has the capacity to fight without Turkish support. With the conflict threatening to draw Russia in, experts think Azerbaijan will act with caution and limit any Turkish intervention. “The support that Azerbaijan would request (from Turkey) would fall beneath the threshold that would anger Russia,” Unluhisarcikli said.

Skirmishes on the volatile Armenia-Azerbaijan border escalated Tuesday, marking the most serious outbreak of hostilities between the neighbors since the fighting in 2016. Armenia's Defense Ministry accused Azerbaijani forces of trying to infiltrate the country. On Thursday, Armenian officials said 20 servicemen have been injured since Sunday, with one of them in grave condition. Armenian and Azerbaijani forces have frequently engaged in clashes. The latest incident began Sunday when Armenian and Azerbaijani troops exchanged fire in the northern section of their border.