Nagorno Kharabakh

Nagorno Karabagh is a small territory of 145 000 inhabitants in the Caucasus that was part of Soviet Azerbaijan before the collapse of the Soviet Union. It became independent following a long and gruesome war with Azerbaijan that claimed about 30 000 dead between 1991 and 1994. The conflict was then “frozen” by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) under a policy consistently upheld until February 2008 that banned both the resumption of hostilities and the recognition of new independent states in Europe.

However, little progress has been made towards a solution to the conflict in the intervening 14 years, and Nagorno–Karabakh’s society and economy have strived to develop while under a blockade and without international recognition, not to mention without the foreign assistance which other developing countries benefit from. The absence of international recognition is a serious handicap to development, as it hinders everything from international communications to trade and human interaction with the rest of the world.

This summer’s war over nearby South Ossetia also showed the disproportionate effect which local disputes can have in the Caucasus. Bizarrely however, while Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey, the USA, the EU, Iran and others all vye to decide its fate, talks over the territory’s future have consistently excluded the representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh iself.