 Azerbaijan on November 8 marked the third anniversary of its 2020 victory over Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh region's Kengkendi city. Troops in military armor lined up the central square while Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev delivered a celebratory speech. Karabakh, regarded internationally as part of Azerbaijan, had been ruled by Armenian separatists who kept the region under occupation since the breakup of the Soviet Union in the 1990s until September 2023. In 2020, after decades of skirmishes, Azerbaijan began a military operation which became the second Karabakh war swiftly breaking through Armenian defenses. Azerbaijan won a resounding victory in the 44-day war, taking back parts of Karabakh. Then in September of this year, Aliyev launched a military operation against separatist Armenian military units in the region, defeating them in a lightning offensive and regaining full control of the region.