Third Party Mediation in Nagorno Karabakh: Part of the Cure or Part of the Disease?

Abstract

The dissolution of the Soviet Union has caused conflicts of many different types in the Caucasus region. Among them, the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh turned out to be the most intractable dispute since it had the properties of a modern global conflict in terms of territorial, ethnic and national dimensions, intertwined with a historical burden of ancient grievances. Many major states and regional actors such as Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey and OSCE, initiated third party mediation efforts in order to resolve the conflict and to terminate violence. Today, many critics argue that the mediators were to blame for the delay of a peaceful settlement since they gave first priority to their own interests and stalled the negotiation process. Thus this case is important as it allows testing whether mediators are always beneficial to negotiations.