The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict And The Involvement Of World Powers

The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict (NK conflict) crashed out at the beginning of1988in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in South Caucasus. This conflict started betweenthe ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, endorsed by the Republic of Armenia,and Azerbaijan. Soon it developed into an armed conflict between two self-governingstates: the Republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan, causing tens of thousands casualtieson both sides.So far, there is no resolution to this conflict, despite many international peace efforts.This study tries to find out the reasons of the prolongation of the NK conflictresolution and the great powers involvement in this issue.The NK conflict has become one of the most unmanageable disputes for theinternational community. Being the only one among the various Caucasian ethnopolitical conflicts that involve two internationally recognized states as parties, it isalso the conflict of the region that carries the largest geopolitical importance. As ifthis strategic geographic location was not enough, Azerbaijan also owns huge naturalreserves. This caused the external powers such as the United States, Russia and theEuropean Union, hungry for energy resources, to become involved in the region. Onone hand, Russia does its best to recover the influence that the USSR had in theregion decades ago, on the other hand, the US make efforts in securing alternative oilpipeline routes for Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea oil reserves and enrolling more allies inthe war on terror. The presence of natural resources provoked the conflict turning itinto an international problem. If the region had other geopolitical conditions andAzerbaijan had not had the strategic natural resources, perhaps, the conflict wouldhave been solved long ago.The NK issue has involved a large number of mediating parties, attempting to resolve the conflict. Unfortunately, the increased involvement of these countries hasworsened rather than promoted the prospects of a solution. Great power mediationwould have been effective if they did not pursue their own interests.The Minsk Group of Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)was created in1992to find a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.The OSCE has sought a negotiated resolution since the first engaging in the Karabakhissue and continues to the present day. Unfortunately, it was able to achieve littleprogress towards the NK solution because of the competing interests and goals of itsco-chairs—the United States, Russia and France. As such, the unresolved nature ofthe conflict poses an increasingly large threat to the regional security of the wholeregion.This study assumes solving the NK conflict is not impossibility although remains avery difficult task with the joint efforts of the international society and effectiveinternational mechanism.