evidence: But with Azerbaijan’s military victory and the recapturing of almost all of its lost territories, the border areas between Armenia’s Syunik and Gegharkunik provinces, and Azerbaijan’s newly established East Zangezur region have become militarised front lines. [...] Syunik Province separates Azerbaijan from its exclave, the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, in some places by less than 40km (25 miles). [...] "The Azerbaijan strategic goal is to establish at least de facto control over Syunik province," says Benyamin Poghosyan, a Yerevan-based political scientist. "President Aliyev of Azerbaijan has stated many times publicly that Syunik province artificially separates the Turkic world spanning from Istanbul to Kazakhstan."