(Re)Production of Border Proximity: Bordering Communities of Post-Soviet Armenia

Abstract

This article examines how residents of Armenia’s border communities in Tavush and Syunik provinces narrate, experience, and reshape life near contested borders in the aftermath of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts (1988–2020). Drawing on 20 narrative interviews conducted in 2023, the study analyzes how local perceptions of space, identity, and security are transformed under shifting geopolitical conditions. While Tavush residents actively shaped vernacular borders through grassroots defense and memory, Syunik communities faced sudden external impositions following the 2020 war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, leading to disempowerment and spatial disruption. Using the concepts of heterotopia and vernacular bordering, the study shows how borders are not fixed lines but lived, affective spaces, simultaneously sites of vulnerability and identity construction. It also further highlights how border proximity reorganizes everyday routines, mobility, and moral geographies, revealing uneven configurations of local agency and externally imposed governance. This narrative-based approach contributes to broader borderland studies by offering a grounded, comparative perspective on post-Soviet bordering and the enduring agency of marginalized communities.

Article in English