9.20.2023

Caucasus Conflict Renews

At least 25 people were killed and nearly 140 injured after Azerbaijan launched what it called a military operation yesterday against Armenian-backed separatists in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, raising concerns over a new war in the region. Azerbaijan and Armenia last went to war for 44 days in 2020, with more than 7,000 soldiers and civilians killed. The war ended after Russia brokered a cease-fire deal and deployed nearly 2,000 peacekeeping troops.

The latest friction is a continuation of a conflict over borders since the Soviet collapse in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with both Azerbaijan and neighboring Armenia looking to control the majority-Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh region located within the UN-recognized borders of Azerbaijan (see background). Approximately 120,000 ethnic Armenians live in the mountainous enclave in the South Caucasus. While Russia—Armenia's formal ally—has mediated the conflict before, analysts say its preoccupation with the war in Ukraine could give Azerbaijan an advantage. 

Azerbaijan said it launched yesterday's operation after six people died in landmine explosions. Armenia claimed its armed forces were not in Nagorno-Karabakh. 

Canada, India Trade Expulsions 

India expelled a senior Canadian diplomat yesterday over accusations that India's government was involved in the killing of a Sikh activist leader on Canadian soil, further fraying the relationship between the two countries. The development comes a day after Canada made the allegations and expelled a top Indian diplomat.

The dispute centers around the June 18 killing of Sikh-Canadian Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a Sikh cultural center in British Columbia. Nijjar was involved in a movement to establish an independent Sikh homeland known as Khalistan, which has been banned in India since the 1980s but has remaining support in Canada, where about 2% of the population is Sikh (see background). Nijjar was organizing an unofficial Sikh diaspora referendum on independence from India and was wanted by Indian authorities on terrorism-related charges for an alleged attack on a Hindu priest at the time of his death.

The expulsions come after an exchange on the matter between Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a G20 meeting in New Delhi earlier this month, leading to the cancellation of a planned trade mission to India.

Pink Diamond Geology

Rare pink diamonds found in western Australia's Argyle mine likely formed 1.3 billion years ago—100 million years earlier than previously believed—as the splintering supercontinent Nuna released them to the crust of the Earth, a new study claims. The mine, closed since 2020, is the source of 90% of the world's pink diamond supply. 

By effectively drilling atomic-sized holes into specific diamond crystals—using a process known as laser ablation—the study concluded the supercontinent Nuna formed as two continental crusts fused together around 1.8 billion years ago, the site of today's Argyle mine. Five hundred million years later, the now-stretched continent erupted, sending the highly pressurized diamonds from below to the surface of the planet. 

Colored diamonds are more rare than white ones and are frequently priced 20 times higher per carat. While blue, green, and yellow diamonds derive their color from the presence of elements like boron, pink and brown diamonds achieve their hue when their crystalline structure is bent through intense pressure (how it works). Watch a tour of the Argyle mine here. 

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