In the southernmost part of the Caucasus, Iran shares a 750-kilometer (km) border with Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan region, of which about 138 km (Zangilan, Jabrayil and Fuzuli) had been controlled by Armenian forces after the end of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War (1991–1994). After the Second Karabakh War in 2020, these areas returned to the sovereignty of Azerbaijan. For its part, Iran’s border with Armenia is only 40 km and yet is considered a lifeline for the three million Armenians whose landlocked country has been regionally isolated by Azerbaijan and Turkey (see EDM, December 18, 2020).
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