The uneasy new status quo in Nagorno-Karabakh

Abstract

The security situation in Nagorno-Karabakh has remained tense since the end of a six-week war between Armenia and Azerbaijan that ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire in November 2020. Azerbaijan regained control of territories that it had lost in the 1990s, and continued during much of 2021 to assert itself with regard to other territorial claims along its border with Armenia and to push diplomatically for the reopening of cross-border transport links. Turkey’s involvement in the war on the side of Azerbaijan was significant, and the outcome resolved issues that in the past had prevented Turkey from normalising relations with Armenia. Negotiations between Ankara and Yerevan over normalisation are now under way.