Turkey and Israel played a pivotal role in the first conflict, helping Azerbaijan retake large swathes of territory that Armenia had occupied in an earlier conflict following the collapse of the Soviet Union. 

Armenia’s pragmatic prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, is also seeking to mend ties with Armenia's historical enemy Turkey. “Normalization” talks, launched in 2022 to reopen the sealed border between the neighbors and establish diplomatic ties, have made little progress, as Ankara has linked the process to Baku’s own peace talks with Armenia, which have also not made much headway.