TODAY IN HISTORY
February 20, 1865: The Uruguayan War, which began as a rebellion by the Colorado Party (aided by Brazil and Argentina) against the Blanco Party-led Uruguayan government (aided by Paraguay), ends with the Blancos’ surrender and the formation of a new Colorado-led government. The results of this relatively short (a bit over six months) conflict were mostly subsumed by the much longer (almost five and half years) and more destructive Paraguayan War (AKA the “War of the Triple Alliance”) that spun out of it. Brazil and Paraguay had already gone to war the previous year, and when the Uruguayan War ended both Argentina and the new Uruguayan government also declared war against Paraguay.
February 20, 1988: Leaders of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave declare independence from Azerbaijan along with their intention to merge the region with Armenia, kicking off a six year war. A relatively low-level conflict in its first couple of years, the conflict really heated up with the fall of the Soviet Union when both Armenia and Azerbaijan became independent states free to conduct their own wars without oversight. The conflict ended in 1994 with an Armenian military victory that established both Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto independence and an Armenian military occupation in surrounding parts of Azerbaijan. A second war in 2020 and a followup operation in 2023 brought all of that territory, including Karabakh, back under Azerbaijani control.
MIDDLE EAST
SYRIA
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the US intelligence community estimates that between 15,000 and 20,000 people are “at large” after escaping from the formerly Syrian Democratic Forces-run prison camp at al-Hol. That facility held Islamic State fighters and their families until the SDF withdrew from it amid its conflict with Syrian security forces last month. IS “affiliates” are among the escapees. This US assessment blames the situation on “mismanagement” of the camp and its environs by the government security forces who moved in when the SDF withdrew. Syrian officials are unsurprisingly blaming the SDF.
