(AL JAZEERA) People & Power – Rearming the Caucasus – Explosive rhetoric raises prospects of a new era of conflict in the region. Last year’s war between Russia and Georgia raised the prospect of a new era of crisis and confrontation in the Caucasus. While those tensions have eased momentarily, across the region potentially dangerous problems continue to cause concern. For over 20 years Armenia and Azerbaijan have been quarreling over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. The territory, officially part of Azerbaijan but with a majority Armenian population, declared itself an independent republic in 1991. After a brutal civil war, a ceasefire was agreed in 1994. But tensions over Nagorno-Karabakh remain high. We look at the rapid re-arming and explosive rhetoric of the southern Caucasus. Not far from South Ossetia a much bigger and more dangerous conflict is looming.
Michael Anderson has been to the territory to find out why.
