ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates how the Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) conflict became the driving national force behind Armenia's independence, and how war and the symbolism of 'liberating Karabakh' were at the core of articulating and constructing Armenia's new nationhood. It also illustrates how the narrative around the conflict was a prominent source of power legitimation and consolidation. It is speculative to argue whether the NK conflict was and is an existential threat to the security of the Armenian people, but it certainly was discursively constructed as such in the narratives of successive political administrations. The chapter offers the analysis of the NK-related discourse and subsequent policies insight into the processes of power legitimation and consolidation through NK conflict. It outlines the significance of the conflict in Armenia's path towards independence and shows how the conflict was exacerbated by its historiography, and also how it shaped and militarized Armenia's post-independence nation-building processes and politics at large.
