The new POTUS plan for two warring former Soviet republics offers a corridor out of a century-old feud
In Texas, a redistricting standoff became a Trump drama when he ordered the DOJ and FBI to track down fleeing Democrats. On the economic front, he rolled out the America First 2.0: Tariff Blitz (“Come for the 100% bonus on semiconductors, stay for the 50% increase on Indian imports”), flanked by manufacturing CEOs. Behind closed doors, the president made the necessary arrangements for his Putin summit, scheduled to take place in Alaska later this week. Midweek, Trump gave reporters a West Wing rooftop gaggle, answering a few shouted questions while inspecting the future site of the White House Grand Ballroom.
Everything until now was build-up — sharp, fast, and headline-grabbing. But the main performance would take place in the East Room, where Trump attempted to end a conflict that has survived empires and is older than most of the portraiture in the White House.
For more than a century, and with particular intensity over the past three and a half decades, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a feud so bitter it has cost thousands of lives, displaced myriad communities, and hardened national psyches to the point where each generation inherits both the dispute and the bitterness to go with it.
Until now.
On August 8, 2025, the two countries agreed to what’s being billed as an “irreversible path for peace.” This time, it might actually stick. The speed of the turnaround is whiplash-inducing: In April, intelligence briefings warned that war could erupt within 48 hours. Now in August, the leaders of both nations are signing a peace agreement while showering Trump with Nobel Prize nominations.
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