"From Artsakh Nobility to the Geopolitics of the Caucasus" - Aldo FERRARI

The article, published in issue No. 6 (9), is devoted to an interview with Aldo Ferrari — Professor of Armenian History and Culture at the University of Venice, Head of the Caucasus and Central Asia Program at the Milan-based Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI). The piece takes the form of an extensive conversation covering both the biography and scholarly interests of the Italian Armenologist and his conceptual views on the history of the Armenian nobility and the contemporary geopolitics of the Caucasus.

Introduction and Methodology
The abstract is structured around a dialogue in which three thematic blocks are successively unfolded: the formation of Ferrari as an Armenologist and the state of the Italian school of Armenian studies; the problem of the Armenian aristocracy, above all the Karabakh (Artsakh) meliks' domains; and the current geopolitical situation in the South Caucasus and Armenia's place within it.

The Formation of Italian Armenology
Ferrari describes an untypical path into scholarship — from Russian studies to Armenology — and characterizes the Italian school of Armenian studies that took shape around the figures of Adriano Alpago-Novello, Paolo Cuneo, and Levon Zekiyan. The following are noted:
• the growing public interest in Armenia in Italy against the backdrop of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide;
• the requirement of mandatory command of the Armenian language as a criterion of genuine Armenology;
• the founding of the Association for Armenian Studies in Italy.

The Key Thesis on the Armenian Nobility
The central part of the conversation is devoted to the theme of the Armenian nobility, above all the meliks' domains of Karabakh and Syunik. Ferrari formulates the thesis that it was not the preservation of semi-autonomous Armenian formations that determined the endurance of noble houses, but rather, conversely, that it was the very existence of an aristocracy that provided the political capacity to defend the region's autonomy. At the same time, the dual role of the nobility in Armenian history is emphasized: both positive (the preservation of political subjectivity) and negative (the loss of the Kingdom of Vaspurakan, the alliance of Melik-Shahnazar with Panah Khan). The fate of the Armenian nobility within the Russian Empire is examined separately — processes of denationalization and Russification combined with integration into the imperial elite (Bebutov, Argutinsky-Dolgorukov, Loris-Melikov), while Armenian cultural and religious identity was preserved.

The Geopolitics of the Contemporary Caucasus
The final section examines Ferrari's views on Armenia's position within the system of international relations:
• the European Union's lack of a fully-fledged foreign policy, in contrast to Russia and the United States;
• the underestimation, within the Western expert community, of Armenia's historical role as a key regional factor, in contrast to transit-state Georgia and resource-rich Azerbaijan;
• the instrumentalization of the Armenian Genocide theme in European politics as a means of pressuring Turkey;
• the methodologically significant distinction between historical Armenia and the contemporary Republic of Armenia, the conflation of which generates systemic errors in Western political analysis.

Conclusion
The key conclusion of the article is that an adequate understanding of contemporary Caucasian geopolitics is impossible without taking into account the historical role of the Armenian nobility and the institutional continuity of regional political structures, and that Western observers' insufficient awareness of the distinction between historical Armenia and the Armenian state remains a substantial obstacle to formulating a balanced European policy in the region.