Page 76 - History of War - Issue 30-16

BRIEFING

Nagorno-

Karabakh

For 30 years Armenia and Azerbaijan have been
squabbling over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous
region whose tangled history of conl ict has

obscure origins and seemingly no end

WORDS MIGUEL MIRANDA
ot a week goes by when gunire doesn’t then Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. By the
echo in the No Man’s Land separating weekend it was apparent the peace held. No
Nthe Armenians from the Azeris. Each further battles occurred along the frontline,
side observes the other through concrete although Azeri media, always outraged by the
sentry posts where a lone soldier watches very existence of Nagorno-Karabakh, published
from a narrow slit. His i eld of vision is conined detailed reports of l agrant violations by the
to an empty kilometre. Unless he is using a Armenians who were in turn blaming the Azeris
periscope or a pair of binoculars, he often can’t for ‘ISIS’-style brutality.
see his adversaries. The unresolved war over Nagorno-Karabakh
In recent years, the presence of drones doesn’t resonate beyond the Caucasus. The
l oating high above has cast small shadows small region is already a patchwork of great and
on Nagorno-Karabakh’s hills and valleys. The minor wars simmering at low intensity. Russian
territory is a mountainous province dotted with special forces are busy hunting Islamists in
Armenian villages. Even its so-called capital, Dagestan. Georgia is bracing itself from the
Stepanakert, is laid back and isn’t bedevilled by slow encroachment of Abkhazia and South
the chaos of a thriving metropolis – more like a Ossetia within its borders. Even the Caspian
small town for a contested republic. Sea, whose waters are divided between i ve
Because that’s what Nagorno-Karabakh countries, poses a contentious maritime
is. Armenia refers to it as Artsakh, after the problem that will not be solved soon.
ancient kingdom from before the Islamic But Nagorno-Karabakh matters because
conquest in the 7th century. But Azerbaijan, it’s part of a multi-dimensional conl ict that
burdened with a hostile enclave of ethnic has recurred in various scales for centuries.
Armenians who have wanted to join their At the heart of it are the very Armenians who
mother country since 1988, maintains its want their Artsakh to join the homeland. Their
familiar name: the Mountainous Black Garden. aspiration has had deep historical roots since
In April 2016, the usual tension was Armenians have lived there, along with Turks,
interrupted by a full-scale assault by Azeri Kurds, and Persians, for millennia. Over time,
forces on the Armenians. Ofi cially, the combat however, and especially since Transcaucasia
lasted just four days. Unofi cially, it dissipated – the combination of Georgia, Armenia, and
by 5 April when two high-ranking ofi cers – an Azerbaijan – fell to the Soviets, Nagorno-
Armenian general and Azeri colonel – lew to Karabakh was explicitly made an oblast, or
Moscow and were compelled to reason. autonomous province, within Azerbaijan.
The following day, when details of the most Yet by the spring of 1988, when glasnost
serious warfare in Nagorno-Karabakh since and perestroika were gutting a decrepit
1994 had gone viral on social media, Prime Soviet Union, Nagorno-Karabakh was an
Minister Dmitry Medvedev made personal undisputed majority Armenian enclave and “NAGORNO-KARABAKH
visits to Yerevan, the Armenian capital, and demonstrations – which began in Stepanakert
MATTERS BECAUSE IT’S PART
1716
301
1804
ACONFLICT The Kingdom of Armenia Always vulnerable to invasion The gruelling Russo-Persian OF A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL
SPANNING becomes the irst Christian the protection of the hawkish War turns the Caucasus into a CONFLICT THAT HAS
Eastern Armenia is granted
battleield. Russia eventually

GENERATIONS nation thanks to proselytising czar, Peter the Great. This claims parts of Eastern Armenia, RECURRED IN VARIOUS
by St Bartholomew and St
Thaddeus. Armenia is soon momentarily spares the which becomes a single
assailed by the Persian Empire kingdom an occupation by the protectorate, while the Persians SCALES FOR CENTURIES”
and seeks aid from Byzantium. Ottoman Turks. control the capital Yerevan.
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