A trove of leaked corporate records has revealed that Belarus, despite being a formal military ally of Armenia through the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), provided weapons systems to Azerbaijan that were later used to shoot down Armenian drones during the bloody 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war. The revelations, published by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) in collaboration with Hetq in Armenia and Buro Media, shed light on a secretive arms trade that not only deepens mistrust between Yerevan and Minsk but also underscores the fragility of alliances in the post-Soviet space.

The leaked documents come from Tetraedr, a Belarusian private arms manufacturer that has long been engaged in upgrading Soviet-era weaponry. According to one internal report, Azerbaijan deployed Pechora-2TM surface-to-air missile systems, modernized with Tetraedr’s assistance, to destroy at least 11 Armenian unmanned aerial vehicles during the six-week conflict in late 2020.

For Armenia, the findings are particularly galling. As a CSTO member alongside Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, Yerevan expected military solidarity, or at least neutrality, from its allies. Instead, evidence suggests one of them was directly arming its adversary.

Armenia’s Defense Ministry, citing secrecy laws, declined to comment on the reports. Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry likewise did not respond to media inquiries. But the documents highlight the reality: Belarusian-made systems were on the battlefield and were credited with successes against Armenian forces.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has simmered since the early 1990s, when ethnic Armenian forces backed by Yerevan seized control of the mountainous........

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