evidence: One such corner is the Wakhan Corridor – a sliver of land that connects Afghanistan to China’s Xinjiang province, bordered by Tajikistan to the north and Pakistan to the south. The Corridor came to our attention thanks to rumours of Chinese troops being stationed across the border in Afghan territory. Suzanne Levi-Sanchez: Throughout the period of the Great Game (and before) China also fought for territory in the Wakhan Corridor, and recently won back a small stretch of land in the far northeastern corner of Tajikistan that had been under dispute since the mid-1800s (between Tsarist Russia and China). This section, rumoured to be rich in mineral wealth, was ceded to the Chinese by the Tajik government in 2011 as payment for debts the Tajik government owed to China for construction of several roads and bridges. The Tajiks living in the villages in these areas were forced to relocate to even more austere locations, lacking in water or arable land for farming or livestock. Another is Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory geographically located within Azerbaijan but governed by ethnic Armenians. Luke Dawes wrote about how Armenian-Azeri disagreements could upset Russia and Turkey’s cooperation in Syria: