Armenia, Azerbaijan and the Middle East
CGTN
Should we start thinking about the recent eruption of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan as part of the wider Middle East region? If so, what are the reasons behind doing so and what could be the potential future implications associated with this idea?
Until recently, I viewed the conflict as only the latest round of hostilities between two countries on the edge of Europe whose differences date back more than a century. At its heart is a dispute between two national groups over territory. Those differences were largely frozen following the absorption of the two countries into the Soviet Union. But the end of the Cold War and the nationalist fragmentation which followed resulted in a war between newly independent Armenia and Azerbaijan over that territory and around 30,000 people.
