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16 Fletcher F. World Aff. 19 (1992)
Coping with the Nagorno-Karabakh Crisis

handle is hein.journals/forwa16 and id is 227 raw text is: COPING WITH THE NAGORNO-KARABAKH CRISIS PAUL A. GOBLE More than any other problem in the post-Soviet space, the fighting around Nagorno-Karabakh threatens to expand and to involve not only regional pow- ers but more distant countries as well. The current difficulties there reflect the complexities of geography, ancient cultural and religious divisions, certain peculiarities of Soviet nationality policy, the changing dynamics of the fighting itself over the last four years, and the exigencies of state building in the post-Soviet environment. Any effort at reaching a stable settlement and the settlement itself must be based on an understanding of these factors and on an appreciation of the often strained relationships among and between regional and international actors. Defining Factors of the Conflict Geography Nagorno-Karabakh-the name itself means mountainous dark gardens in a combination of Russian and Azeri-has been the home of both Armenians and Turkic communities for almost one thousand years. Mountainous and difficult to reach from either Yerevan or Baku, this isolated region supports an economy largely dependent on agriculture, particularly grape growing. Besides its relative isolation, another geographic feature compounding Nagorno- Karabakh's ethnic troubles is the location there of the headwaters of one of the most important tributaries of the river that flows through Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. Consequently, the group that controls Karabakh will have powerful leverage over the center of the Azerbaijani state. Cultural Asymmetries Although they have existed alongside one another for almost one thousand years, the Armenian and Turkic communities have long been in conflict, a reflection of deep cultural animosities and asymmetrical ethnic development. Armenia is an ancient nation which was fully consolidated at least 2,300 years ago. Azerbaijanis did not exist as a separate people until this century, before which time they were simply part of the Turco-Persian world-Azerbaijanis Paul A. Goble is a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

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