What’s behind the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan?

The outbreak of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the weekend is the latest episode in a saga stretching back to the waning years of the USSR. Although recognised as being part of Azerbaijan, the region of Nagorno-Karabakh is a de facto independent zone populated by ethnic Armenians. Its independence came as a result of a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse; while this ended in the mid-1990s in a victory for the Armenian-backed separatists, sporadic fighting has plagued the area ever since.

This has most often taken the form of localised artillery duels, but this July witnessed the heaviest exchanges since the war itself, with shelling resulting in dozens of casualties. Azerbaijan reported the loss of a major-general, colonel, and an entire squad of special operations troops. Although a ceasefire was tentatively restored, 30,000 residents of Baku took to the streets to express their anger at the stalemate and demand the full mobilisation of the military.