Revisiting Nagorno-Karabakh

 The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nargono-Karabakh has been simmering since the collapse of the USSR. Since, Nagorno-Karabkah has stood for the quintessential “frozen conflict” in the region. But Azerbaijan made a decisive move in December 2022—it blocked the Lachin Corridor, the main conduit for supplying the disputed area. Then, last September, Azeri forces moved in and ethnically cleansed the Armenian population, roughly 100,000 people, and dismantled local governance. All while the international community stood idle as the “frozen conflict” was resolved. What is the history of this conflict? What forces in Armenia and Azerbaijan have stoked this conflict? And why did Azerbaijan decide to ethnically cleanse Karabakh of its Armenia residents? Guests: Kelsey Rice is an Assistant Professor of History at Berry College where she teaches courses on Middle Eastern, Soviet, and world history. She is a cultural historian of the Middle East and Central Eurasia whose current research focuses on gender, urbanization, and cultural experimentation in the Caucasus and Iran in the early twentieth century. Tigran Grigoryan is an analyst and the head of the Regional Center for Democracy and Security in Yerevan, Armenia. He is also a columnist and a political commentator at CivilNet.am. Tigran previously worked at the Office of Armenia’s Security Council from 2020 to 2021. This event supplements The Eurasian Knot’s episode on Nagorno-Karabakh in October 2022. Then, we turned to Rafael Khachaturian (University of Pennsylvania) and Richard Antaramian (University of Southern California) for their analysis of Armenia, Azerbaijan and the implications of the conflict over Nagorno Karabakh. Send us your sounds! euraknot.org/contact/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/euraknot Knotty News: eurasianknot.substack.com/ The Knot’s Nest: eurasian-knot.sellfy.store/ Website: euraknot.org/