The peace-making process in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict: why did Iran fail in its mediation effort?

Abstract

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has been one of the persistent disputes in the Post-Soviet spaces since its outbreak. There have been various peace proposals by the regional and international mediation for halting the fighting and ensuring the peaceful resolution of the conflict between two South Caucasian countries. These include the peace initiative of Kazakhstan and Russia, the mediation efforts of Iran and Turkey, the resolutions of the United Nation Security Council, and the peace proposals of the OSCE Minsk Group. However, despite all these efforts, there has not been any substantive progress on bringing parties to the conflict closer to an agreement due to the various internal and external factors. In this regard, the aim of this research paper is to investigate the peace initiative of Iran from the outset of the conflict until the signing of the Tehran Declaration in May 1992 and then to analyse the failure of Iran’s mediation efforts.