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After three decades of relative peace, the Karabagh conflict, issued from the Armenian majority demand to be united to the Republic of Armenia, is back in the headlines since September 2020 when the ‘44-days war’ began. Its outcome was disastrous for the Armenians, clearly outnumbered and outgunned by oil-rich Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey and jihadist mercenaries, and the passive complicity of Russia. The stakes of this ancient conflict go beyond the bilateral and local framework and need to be placed in a broader post-colonial, post- (Cold) war and post- (Soviet) imperial context, as well as in a “longue durée” perspective: in this zone of multiple fractures, the present confrontation is in fact the legacy of five centuries of imperial dominations, rivalries and administrative practices, of mass violence and international interferences.