1/7 Azerbaijan and Armenia are both included in the list of 50 countries suffering from water stress to the greatest extent. Water management remains one of the key possible areas of cooperation between two countries in the light of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. https://twitter.com/CrisisGroup/status/1286936222611341312

2/7 The territories of recent Azerbaijani-Armenian skirmishes are considered to be one of the "Environment and Security priority areas" of the South Caucasus. Its ecosystem is adversely affected by deforestation, overgrazing, and poor water quality and management problems.

3/7 Coupled with the climate change-induced disruptions, and the sensitivity of the area to the pollution as it is located in the surroundings of the major pipelines, these factors make the border zone vulnerable to any potential conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

4/7 Azerbaijan and Armenia, however, instead of using ecological problems to achieve positive developments in the peace process, politicized these issues to justify their nationalistic agendas. Azerbaijani side has long accused Armenia of engaging in hydroterrorism, to exemplify.

5/7 Armenia also refrained from cooperating with Azerbaijan on the crisis around Sarsang Reservoir. While NKR authorities suggested to collaborate on water management in the reservoir, it was rejected by AZE as it only recognized Armenia as a legitimate side of the conflict.

6/7 Shortly, the rhetoric of the governments focused on depiction of the other as non-cooperative and aggressor, while communities of concern suffered from this lack of environmental cooperation. Unfortunately, the visibility of environmental movements also remained scarce.

7/7 Maybe we should use this "opportunity" to establish collaboration between Azerbaijani and Armenian environmental/ecologist activists, by e.g. doing joint research, releasing anti-war statements, or even creating a network of environmentalists/ecologists advocating for peace.