The Caucasus region and the neighboring countries - especially Russia, Iran and Turkey - constitute an ethnic mixture and a geographical overlap, which the former Soviet authorities contributed to complicating by drawing borders and carving out territories and annexing others to the Caucasian republics.

Russia, Armenia and other countries warned that the widening of the war in Karabakh could extend and turn into a regional war in which neighboring countries are involved.

The violent battles around Nagorny Karabakh this time raise fears of an open war in a region where Russia and Turkey have great influence, which threatens regional repercussions with unpleasant consequences.


The Caucasus region The Caucasus


region, or Central Asia, or the countries beyond the river, as it was known during the period of the Islamic Caliphate, is a closed geographical area located in the heart of the Asian continent, and it includes both Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and it does not overlook any of the The seas are open, but their geographical position makes them of the greatest importance.

These countries share in their being members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Commonwealth of Independent States from the former Soviet Union, and their desire to be masters of themselves, despite the international interventions and pressures that are being exerted on them from here and there.

The area's area is estimated at more than 4 million km, and extends from western China (East Turkestan) in the east to the Caspian Sea and Iran in the west, and is inhabited by more than 70 million people, who speak several languages, including Tajik, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Kazakh, Turkmen and Mongolian, and these languages ​​have Turkish origins, in addition to Into the Persian and Russian languages.

This region is distinguished by its geostrategic importance through its geographical location and its important resources, as it is located on the resource-rich Caspian Sea on the one hand, and on the other hand it forms a node of land routes and gas and oil pipelines from the Middle East and the Caspian towards or from China towards the Black Sea, Turkey and the Mediterranean, and from The latter is heading to the Arabian Gulf through Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan towards the Indian Ocean. In addition, this region is rich in oil, water and precious metals.

The countries of Central Asia today live in internal restlessness, as social, ethnic and religious components overlap in light of external interference, which made the region after its independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991 an arena for conflict, competition and attraction of major powers such as Russia, China and the United States of America, or some regional powers such as Turkey and Iran. Because of its resources and markets on the one hand, and its strategic location on the other hand, which led to the establishment of military bases there.

In these countries, 8 foreign military bases were set up: 3 Russian, two American, one Indian, one French, and one German.

This region shares many important characteristics;

It was the crossroads of the movement of people, goods, and ideas between Europe, the Middle East, South Asia and East Asia, and through it passes and intersects with a number of ancient Silk Road branches, which some regional countries seek to revive again by building roads, railways, and oil pipelines. And gas.

Ethnicities

The Caucasus or Central Asia is inhabited by dozens of nationalities and ethnicities, most notably the Turks and Turkmen (Sunni Muslims), Azeris (Shiite Muslims), Uzbeks (Sunni Muslims), Kazakhs (Sunni Muslims), Uighurs (Sunni Muslims), Tatars (Sunni Muslims), and the Kyrgyz (Sunni Muslims), Russians (Orthodox Christians), Bashkirs (Sunni Muslims), Qashqaiis (Shiite Muslims), Chuvash (Orthodox Christians), Qur’ah Qalbaka (Sunni Muslims), Yakut (Christians), Komiks (Sunni Muslims), Qurra Chai and Balkar (Sunni Muslims), Tufts (Buddhists), Gagauz (Orthodox Christians), Turk and Kremishk Qura'is (Jews), Georgians (Catholic and Orthodox Christians), Ukrainians (Catholic and Orthodox Christians), and other very small nationalities.

Nationalities in Turkey Turkey


is characterized by the multiplicity of its nationalities, ethnicities, and sects, and the Turkish component in it constitutes about two-thirds of the population, and the Kurds occupy the second place, followed by the Arabs, then come many national and religious minorities, most notably the Jews, Armenians, Greece, Circassians, Bosniaks and Laz, in addition to sectarian minorities, the most prominent and largest of which is the Alawite minority. Which is the most closely related to the issue of secularism and Islam in Turkey.

Ethnicities in Iran


Persians make up the majority of the population of Iran, and the Azeris now form the second largest ethnicity, as well as the largest minority group, then the Kurds come in third place.

Arabs constitute approximately 2% of the Iranian population, and approximately 1% of the Iranian population consists of multiple minorities, including Assyrians, Armenians, Georgians, Circassians, Mandaeans, as well as various sects of new immigrants.

Nationalities in Russia


There are a number of nationalities in Russia, which are respectively: Russian, Tatar, Ukrainian, Bashkir, Jovashian, Chechen, and Armenian, in addition to other nationalities, where the Russian nationalism constitutes the majority, with 116 million people, which is about 80% of the population .

Muslims in Russia are distributed among 40 nationalities, the largest of which is the Tatars, reaching 5 million Muslims (they constitute about 4% of the population).

This means that the Tatars are second only to the Russians in terms of population in Russia.

They are followed by the Bashkirs (about a million people), and the Chechens, who make up nearly a million Muslims, according to recent Russian official statistics.

The country of Armenia, is inhabited by the Armenians who adhere to the Orthodox Christianity.

The breadth of the war and


in the context;

Professor of International Relations at the Turkish University of Argis, Yasin Kovanc, excludes the effect of this wide overlap of nationalities and ethnicities in the Caucasus region on the raging war between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and said, "These different races will not fight each other in victory for countries and regional conflicts, especially since they have converged with each other with the passage of time," As if it had become one sect. "

Covanc added to Al-Jazeera Net that "there is an inherent danger in the outbreak of a long-term conflict that could witness the involvement of external forces in it, which threatens the occurrence of a wider regional war, and that a military incursion deep into the territories of Armenia or Azerbaijan, not the border clash, is what can drive Moscow or Ankara and other capitals to intervene. "

The tension that began with the Armenian attack is likely not to lead to worse results, and according to the reality of the matter on the ground, the ceasefire will resume, and it seems that the frozen conflicts will fall asleep for a short period until they wake up again, and the tension will continue to rise and fall until it explodes at some point.

The professor of international relations at Argis University confirms that the commitment to renewing diplomatic efforts will be a challenge, as the fighting coincided with a period of confusion at the international level due to the global outbreak of the Corona virus and the US elections and the traditional behavioral model in which the focus on the conflict recedes immediately after the ceasefire agreement.

Only the Minsk group (the mediation body in place since 1992, which includes France, Russia and the United States) can calm tensions, experts say.

Russia, France, the European Union, the United States and Iran called for a ceasefire.