Vol. 1 No. 2(28) (2024): 2024-2

The year 2022, with Russia’s full-scale invasion in Ukraine, has been a milestone that brought the events, in a way, widely expected and predicted, resulting in the obvious long-term trends, and yet, stunning by their dramatic acceleration. That year has also affected both academic and public discourses related to a number of issues, including, most of all, the changing perception of the huge historical, cultural, and geopolitical region - the space of Russian and then Soviet imperial domination, both current and former, both real and imagined, both directly or indirectly subject to Russian economic involvement and political dependency. After 2022, this vast, territorially pulsating region, sometimes called Northern Eurasia, acquired both new existential vulnerability and conceptual fragility.

This review paper will suggest some observations concerning the intense discussions about the cultural-historical meaning, both retrospectively and prospectively, of this Russia-affected regional space - the discussions that broke out after the start of the Ukraine war. I draw upon both published generalized opinions and regular scholarly publications related to the outlined themes. My goal here is to identify major trends in these discussions and share some comments.

A storm of debates has been trying to interpret the aggressive internal and external mobilization of Putin’s regime in several explanatory logics. It could be, first, the logic of post-Soviet developments (the evolution of the elites, the features of available resources, the misbalances of state-society relationships, etc.); or the logic of the longue-durée patterns of the Russian social and cultural history (dominant political culture, deeply-imbedded cultural mythologies, etc.); or, finally, placing the problem within a wider logic of contestation (“clashes”) between the evolving global centers of power. In all these cases, one factor should be stated as crucial and definitive: the huge continental space of Northern Eurasia, a unique geographical-spatial system that largely defined the logic of integration and disintegration, solidarities and rivalries, violence and resistance, cultural imagination, entangled identity formation, and the very nature of the state rule.

The empire that twice emerged on this geographical space – as the Romanov Empire first and then the Soviet Union (with additional claims of influence beyond the official borders, in both cases) – is now under the most passionate scrutiny because of the dominant postcolonial and decolonial agenda and the assumption that Putin’s aggression in Ukraine indicates imperial revenge. Hence the growing interest in the nature of this imperial system throughout its history.

The Republic of Armenia signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in 1999 but found it unconstitutional in 2004. After constitutional amendments in 2005 and 2015, the issue resurfaced. In March 2023, Armenia’s Constitutional Court declared the Statute constitutional, allowing the continuation of the ratification process. This could enable the examination of issues related to Azerbaijan’s aggression in the ICC. The ICC’s recent issuance of an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin has gained attention in Armenian media. In this article, I will first provide background information on the ICC. Next, I will examine the two decisions of the Constitutional Court. Finally, and most importantly, I will discuss the potential political and foreign policy implications of the ratification of the Statute.

The main purpose of this research is to analyze the main goals of discussions around the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the attitudes of Turkic-speaking republics towards the issue in the summits of Turkic-speaking states, as well as in the Turkic Council and the Organization of Turkic States (OTS). The OTS is an institutional structure that organizes Turkic integration processes. As integration processes deepen in the Turkic world, challenges to Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh will increase.

The research demonstrates that in previous decades, Türkiye and Azerbaijan tried to give the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict a pan-Turkic character and form a united anti-Armenian front, but the Turkic-speaking republics of Central Asia have mostly maintained neutrality. On the other hand, after the 44-Day War, Türkiye began the process of Turkic integration, which includes the political, economic, educational, cultural, security, and information fields. The strengthening of this integration would pose serious challenges to the region, particularly for Armenia, in various aspects such as economics, politics, and security.

The paper examines the policy of the People's Republic of China in the South Caucasus. The main task of the research is to highlight the political, economic and cultural factors that strongly affect the formation of China’s foreign policy in the region. China’s policy in the South Caucasus has become more active in the last decade, which is primarily due to the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative and China's growing interests in the region.

The study of the South Caucasian vector of China's foreign policy is quite actual among the researchers of both Armenia and other countries of the region. However, we consider it necessary to explore official Beijing's regional policies in the context of a comparative analysis. The need to explore the issue has especially heightened after the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh, as it transformed Beijing's political interests and changed its behavior in the region. Though China's interests in the South Caucasus are primarily measured in the context of the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, in fact, it can be the most important, but only one aspect of China’s growing interests in the region. In the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian military action, which started in 2022, the given topic becomes even more relevant.

In the paper we have tried to observe the development process of China's South Caucasian policy in dynamics, as well as to highlight the factors that influence the formation of Beijing’s policy behavior. On the other hand, we have set a task to consider the possible scenarios of the development of relations between China and the countries of the  the South Caucasus region as well as the possible scenarios for the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative in the South Caucasus.

Since 1980, several conferences have been held with the participation of representatives of Armenia and the Diaspora, the main purpose of which was to discuss the problems of bilateral cooperation, define the priorities, and clarify future tasks. The question of the necessity of such assemblies was discussed both during the Soviet period and after the restoration of Armenia’s political independence, but the search for the most effective format is still ongoing. Based on the political approaches of this or that government and the imperative to effectively solve the defined problems, these assemblies were held in different formats, from representative meetings to conferences and summits. In this article, the agendas and convening formats of the Armenia-Diaspora conferences are examined, considering them under the historical and political reality of the time.

This scientific article explores the intricate dynamics between global geopolitical competition and the formation of the South Caucasus security complex, with a specific focus on Armenia's security policy. After the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh war and the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the geopolitical significance of the South Caucasus is beginning to change. In the conditions of the deepening of the Ukrainian crisis, the global importance of the South Caucasus is highlighted as an important economic corridor of strategic communication in the "north-south" and "east-west" directions. The region is entering a complex period of strategic competition with increasing security dependence and vulnerability from global geopolitical processes. It also creates new security threats for the restoration of the balance of power in the South Caucasus and the reconstruction of the security complex. The ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central and South Asia create new security threats for maintaining the security balance of the South Caucasus. The trends of increasing influence of hybrid threats in the Middle Eastern region are beginning to spread in the South Caucasus as well. Based on all this, the strategic modeling of Armenia's security policy is presented in the article. It can have a guiding role in the process of developing the priorities of Armenia's foreign policy. Through strategic modeling, the article elucidates possible future scenarios for Armenia's security policy, considering varying degrees of global geopolitical competition and regional instability. This modeling enables us to better anticipate the potential trajectories of Armenia's security choices and their consequences for regional stability and security dynamics. Moreover, it highlights the interconnectedness of South Caucasus security with broader global geopolitics, emphasizing the need for a nuanced and multidimensional approach to understanding the security complex in this region

The paper addresses the transformation of the world order and the geopolitical and strategic processes taking place within its framework, especially the developments in the Greater Middle East and the Indo-Pacific region, their main actors and political ambitions. In 2020, the Artsakh war and subsequent developments created a new geo-strategic and geo-economic situation for Armenia. In light of this and subsequent events, we see that the system of international relations has entered a highly complex and even chaotic period, which includes a vast region from the Atlantic coast of Europe to the Pacific coast of the Far East. In this context, there are discussed the two geostrategic concepts emerging in the international discourse regarding the Greater Middle East and the Indo-Pacific macro-regions. The paper analyzes the processes, unfolding in those regions, including the US policies and strategies, as well as their implications, the factors of China and India as the main actors, formed and emerging alliances, as well as cooperation formats. The transformation of the global world order and the formation of the new geopolitical regions of the Greater Middle East, Central Asia and the Indo-Pacific portend great dramatic changes. The struggle of great powers or power centers (USA, China, India, Iran, Turkey, Europe, Russia) in the mentioned regions is becoming the core of modern world politics. Thus, it can be confirmed that the Greater Middle East and Indo-Pacific macro-regions are moving towards each other, due to which a completely new situation is emerging, which is significantly different from both the post-Cold War world order and the global order established after September 11, 2001.

The paper discusses the US place and role in global peacekeeping operations and peacebuilding processes. First, it traces the transformation of US strategic perception regarding peacekeeping and peacebuilding from 1991 to 2022. Second, on the example of Desert Storm, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria, it reveals the US approaches to the peacekeeping operations and peacebuilding processes at the practical level. Finally, the paper explores potential scenarios for US engagement in the South Caucasus and particularly, in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, based on US strategic approaches and their practical implications. The paper argues that given the current political, geopolitical, and security landscape in the world and South Caucasus, the most realistic scenario may be the US direct diplomatic engagement with major support to the EU mission in Armenia.

In der vorliegenden Analyse werden einige der wesentlichen wirtschaftlichen Profiteure des 44-tägigen Krieges vom Herbst 2020 Aserbaidschans und seiner Verbündeten gegen Berg-Karabach vorgestellt. Daraus abgeleitet wird versucht, die Durchsetzung von wirtschaftlichen Interessen - neben innenpolitischen und geopolitischen Zielvorstellungen – als eine ergänzende Motivation für Aserbaidschans und seiner Verbündeten Aggression gegen Berg-Karabach indirekt in den Raum zu stellen. Es werden dabei aufschlussreiche Erläuterungen nicht nur zur Dimension des wirtschaftlichen Gewinnstrebens der Aggressoren, sondern auch zu dessen Charakter und den sich daraus ergebenden Geschäftspartnerschaften gegeben.

Marc Sinan’s debut novel is the latest contribution of German-language post-genocidal memoir prose. This, in turn, is the latest branch of transnational or internationally distributed fictional and non-fictional literature by authors of Armenian descent. On the one hand, they are in the narrative tradition of the languages they each use; on the other hand, they are united thematically by the intergenerational trauma of the genocide against the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire. In terms of genre, this literature belongs to family novels, and in some cases to travel prose. In Turkey, people of Armenian origin formed a discriminated and socially despised minority until a few years ago. They were virtually invisible. The memoirs of the lawyer and human rights activist Fethiye Cetin ("Anneannem" - My Mother's Mother, 2004) have contributed significantly to the de-tabooing. The author reviewed here writes in German and grew up in Germany, but his clearly autobiographical novel is based on his Turkish-Armenian family history. It is the story of his grandfather Hüseyin Umut, then a 15-year-old boy, who in 1915 observes Armenian children being pushed off his boat into the Black Sea. Later Hüseyin Umut marries Ani, the daughter of a wealthy Armenian. Her grandson Kaan, the author's alter ego, decides as an adult to retaliate and plans to kill the Turkish president.