Armenia joins US-led global coalition against Islamic State
Yerevan’s pivot toward the West has intensified amid regional tensions and shifting alliances.
Armenia has become the 88th member of the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS (the Islamic State). “This significant addition further strengthens the coalition’s efforts to ensure the enduring defeat of the terrorist group,” the US-led alliance announced on Tuesday via X.
Why it matters: The tiny and landlocked former Soviet state has been pivoting away from Moscow and toward the West since losing a bloody war against Azerbaijan in 2020 and another in 2023, which resulted in the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave that was predominantly Armenian until that time.
Turkey and Israel played a pivotal role in the first conflict, helping Azerbaijan retake large swathes of territory that Armenia had occupied in an earlier conflict following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Armenia’s pragmatic prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, is also seeking to mend ties with Armenia's historical enemy Turkey. “Normalization” talks, launched in 2022 to reopen the sealed border between the neighbors and establish diplomatic ties, have made little progress, as Ankara has linked the process to Baku’s own peace talks with Armenia, which have also not made much headway.
