Abstract

Dubbed the four-day war, the early April clashes between Azerbaijan and the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh (South Caucasus) shed renewed light on the long lasting dispute, “frozen” since the ceasefire of 1994. After having shortly recalled how the current situation crystallized after the bloody years of war between Azerbaijan, NK, and Armenia, the present analysis focuses on the regional dimension of the conflict. The NK conflict is per se an extremely complicated issue, and it is now exacerbating in the midst of a turbulent conjuncture where strategic, tactical and situational factors embroil its primary and secondary actors (Russia, Turkey, and Iran). Squeezed between domestic policies dominated by hostility and isolation on one side, and raising regional tensions on the other, the dispute needs an articulated response. 

Marilisa Lorusso, Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso