The Southern Caucasus: Where Post-Soviet and Neo-Ottoman Interests Collide

MIN READOct 29, 2020 | 21:00 GMT

The Caucasus Mountains on Oct. 9, 2020.

(KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images)

As fighting rages between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a much higher level competition for regional influence in the Southern Caucasus is taking place. The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, which has its own distinct origins, is just a piece of the broader geopolitical competition between Russia and Turkey as a more ambitious Turkey challenges the status quo in it and Russia's overlapping peripheries. Conflict in Nargorno-Karabakh will eventually subside amid renewed negotiations that will have major implications for Russian and Turkish influence in the broader region....