Nagorno-Karabakh is trapped in the eye of a swirling geopolitical storm of duelling world powers. For decades, Russia has played a role in mediating conflict around the enclave, but Azerbaijan’s move to take back the area has exposed Moscow's waning influence.
Deep in the mountains of the Karabakh range, worn thin by its grinding offensive in Ukraine, Russia's armed forces last month found themselves caught in another war.
There have been intermittent clashes between both sides in the intervening years, with Moscow's peacekeepers often used to enforce peace in the area. The separatist government's surrender a day later triggered a mass exodus of more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians over the border to Armenia, fearing for their future.Once they had reached safety, Georgi pulled over for a final glimpse at the jagged peaks on the horizon where he had spent his childhood, later working as a welder and raising a family.Azerbaijan has said it wants Armenians to stay in Nagorno-Karabakh, and that it would integrate and protect those who decide to remain there.
Nearly all 120,000 ethnic Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh have fled in the fortnight since Azerbaijani forces seized control of the enclave.The family searched desperately for his remains but could only find one leg, blown apart from the rest of his body, which they buried near their home.As Azerbaijani forces bore down on Nagorno-Karabakh, Russian peacekeepers sworn to protect its residents instead appeared to stand back.
But the perceived failure of its troops to intervene in Nagorno-Karabakh has worn thin residents' patience with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. "It's not Russia's business to interfere," said Esmira Jafarova, a former advisor to Azerbaijan's government on international issues. "Goris is totally under the watch of the enemy," said Aram Musakhanyan, a school teacher, who with others in the town formed a security committee partly to help prepare residents for possible invasion."Goris in particular and the region in general is located in such a position that with modern weapons, we could be cut off from the rest of Armenia within hours.
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