Pathways to Conflict Transportation and Autonomisation: The Armenian Diaspora and the Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh

Abstract

ABSTRACT Since its inception the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has generated multiple narratives in the region itself, in Armenia and Azerbaijan, and in the concerned diasporas. The war that occurred in 2020 engendered high levels of diasporic mobilisation, but interestingly the discourses of Armenian diaspora activists largely differed from those of Armenia or Nagorno-Karabakh. Drawing from theories of conflict transportation and autonomisation in diaspora settings, this contribution explores Armenian diaspora mobilisation in the USA, France and Russia, and argues that diverging narratives and positionalities in diasporic spaces, as compared to home countries, explain the (re)shaping of homeland conflict dynamics in diaspora settings.