Problems of qualification of armed conflicts and determination of the scope of applicable law of armed conflicts (using the example of the armed conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020-2022)

This article examines the events that occurred in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020-2022 and aims to analyze the chronology of the armed conflict, identify its participants, and qualify it based on current international law. The author chose the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh for analysis to demonstrate a pattern of third-state intervention in non-international armed conflicts between the central government and anti-government armed groups, typically on the side of the rebel armed groups, which has become characteristic of recent decades. This situation may indicate the internationalization of the armed conflict and generates uneven legal consequences for the parties to such a conflict. Based on the analysis, the author concludes that the armed conflict in question has characteristics of both an international armed conflict and a non-international armed conflict, which affects the legal consequences of such a conflict and the legal status of its participants.