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Siunik in the Changing Geopolitical Culture and Geo-body of Armenia
Abstract
As a result of the Second Karabakh War (September-November, 2020) new borders have arisen between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan. For the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Baku gained effective control over borders to the east of the southern Armenian province of Siunik (known as Zangezour in Azerbaijani). New borders have also come into being farther north, in the Vardenis region of the Armenian province of Gegharkounik (known as Basarkechar in Azerbaijani). Sudden and dramatic withdrawals of Armenian troops and civilians during winter 2020-2021 were coupled with the appearance of armed Azerbaijani forces garrisoned at heights above the aforementioned areas in the spring and summer of 2021. Yerevan claimed the violation of sovereign Armenian territory in some of these military movements. Meanwhile, the discourse of the Azerbaijani leadership in the same period made regular claims to those regions, invoking a “Zangezour Corridor” for Azerbaijan proper to access the exclave of Nakhichevan (Nakhchivan) cut off by Armenia. These dynamics mark the appearance of a new front in what remains an ongoing conflict involving Armenia and Azerbaijan and the Armenian population of Karabakh, among other actors. This paper investigates the impact of transformed territorial control on the people of Siunik. It is based on fieldwork carried out in that province during September-October, 2021, building upon scores of interviews conducted with local government officials, educational personnel, media workers, civil society representatives, clergy, and ordinary citizens in the cities of Kapan and Goris and the rural communities surrounding them, including those on new borders with Azerbaijan. How does the prevailing nationalist discourse of the geopolitical culture of Armenia adapt to this dramatic and traumatic turn of events? How have perceptions of the location and locatedness of Armenia and Siunik shifted since the end of the Second Karabakh War? Drawing on the concepts of geopolitical culture and the geo-body in critical geopolitics and nationalism studies literatures, this paper examines the place of Siunik in the new geography of Armenia through discursive tropes in the self-imagination of the people of the province, alongside overlaps and discrepancies with more widespread nationalist tropes and geographical imaginations in the country.
Discipline
International Relations/Affairs
Geographic Area
Armenia
Caucasus
Sub Area
None