Özet:

In the Nagorno-Karabakh region of the South Caucasus, which is defined as the "Balkans of Eurasia", the Russians have protected their interests within their sphere of influence by supporting Orthodox Armenians on the basis of "population engineering" since the 18th century. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, Moscow has maintained its superiority, sometimes favouring Yerevan and sometimes Baku, with these policies that have changed formally after the Bolshevik Revolution. The dissolution of the USSR created a "vacuum" in the region, which was seen as a "backyard", and this vacuum was intended to be filled by Western powers, particularly the US and the EU. However, the change of power in Baku with Turkist tendencies removed the threat of a Turkic corridor from the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan and from there to Kyrgyzstan for Moscow, and the subsequent Putin's takeover of the reins and the recovery of the economy created a plane where internal security started from the CIS borders. In addition, Armenia's aggression, which often puts the Russians in a difficult position, its flirtatious relations with the West, which seeks to increase its influence in the region, as well as Azerbaijan's stable energy-oriented economy and rational relations with it, led Moscow to change its Nagorno-Karabakh policy in favour of Baku. Tactical victories in 2016 and 2020, coupled with an increasingly negative view of Yerevan, led to the inevitable strategic victory in 2023, when the so-called Artsakh was abolished.

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