Could happen any day in the shadow of a long ago failed state.

Never mind the turmoil in Iraq, Syria, Israel/Gaza, Western Africa and the imminent threat to Ukraine that Russia poses… there seems to be another war brewing.

Earlier today, the President of Azerbaijan published a serious of very threatening tweets relative to neighboring Armenia.

The picture observed on the contact line during the last week and before that suggests that we are ready for any scenario. — Ilham Aliyev (@presidentaz) August 7, 2014

Just as we have beaten the Armenians on the political and economic fronts, we are able to defeat them on the battlefield. — Ilham Aliyev (@presidentaz) August 7, 2014

The Armenian barbarians and vandals have razed the city of Agdam to the ground. he ruins of the city of Agdam are clearly visible from here. — Ilham Aliyev (@presidentaz) August 7, 2014

We will restore all of the occupied and destroyed cities. We will return to this land, we live and will live with this idea. — Ilham Aliyev (@presidentaz) August 7, 2014

Welcome to another world hotspot seemingly on the brink of war. A two-decade lull in a historic conflict has eroded in two of the former Soviet Republics last week.

A six-year war between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops had been dormant since a truce was brokered by Russia 20 years ago — until clashes resumed in the South Caucasus region last week. On Monday, the governments in Yerevan and Baku reported the worst bloodshed over the disputed territory in two decades had taken the lives of 13 Azerbaijanis and six Armenians. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Itar-Tass news agency that he had asked the leaders of both countries to meet with Russian mediators in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Friday to try to work out a plan to restore peace. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday expressed “deep concern” over the resurgence of fighting and urged the two countries to respect the long-agreed cease-fire conditions.

Here’s the more recent history of the historic conflict which Russia and the West helped resolve 20 years ago.

Nagorno-Karabakh, though largely populated by Armenians, was made part of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic under then-Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. But as anti-communist revolutions swept Eastern Europe in the late 1980s, Armenians in the enclave, backed by government forces from across the border, seized control, sending 700,000 Azerbaijanis fleeing for protection from Baku. Although organized fighting ended with the 1994 cease-fire, a permanent settlement of the conflict has been elusive and hostilities have continued to simmer between the two neighbors.

It seems like the fall of European Communism — universally hailed as a turning point in human history — is now having unintended consequences decades later that are spiraling out of control. A cynical person might wonder if Vladimir Putin is stoking any of the Azerbaijan/Armenian tensions as part of his oft-stated plan to re-unite the Soviet Union.

Nevertheless, the simmering ethnic conflicts that pre-date World War One which were stamped down by the Soviet Union are now boiling over and threaten to explode in the 21st Century.



