Formations

The national military of Armenia — rebuilt around the lessons of the 2020 defeat, under a state repositioning its security away from a frozen Russian alliance.

The national military of Azerbaijan — the region's best-funded force, proven in 2020 and 2023, built on oil revenue, Turkish partnership and Israeli precision systems.

Georgia's national military — NATO-partnered and Western-trained through two decades, under a government whose westward orientation is now in question.

The armed force of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian authorities — victorious in the first war, broken in the second, disarmed after the September 2023 offensive and dissolved with the entity it defended. Historical record.

The ~2,000-strong contingent deployed under the November 2020 trilateral statement along the Lachin corridor and the Armenian-populated remnant of Karabakh — withdrawn ahead of mandate in April–June 2024. Historical record.

The EU's unarmed civilian monitoring mission, deployed since 2008 with a mandate covering all of Georgia — and denied access, throughout, to the two territories it most needs to see.

The border troops of Armenia's National Security Service — the structure responsible for a frontier of which two of four sections are closed, and one of the few places in Europe where a neighbouring state's border guards have long served alongside the host's own.

Azerbaijan's separate border agency, responsible for the undelimited frontier with Armenia and for the crossings that any future transport arrangement would run through — which makes it a party to the delimitation process rather than only a policing body.

Türkiye's security relationship with Azerbaijan — the Shusha Declaration alliance framework, joint exercises, training and defence-industrial ties that were decisive in 2020. Structural description of a partnership, not a deployed force.

Georgia's border agency under the Interior Ministry, responsible for the international frontiers and — in practice though not in law — for policing the administrative boundary lines with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, where most recorded detentions occur.

The armed and interior structures of the de facto Abkhaz authorities — built in the 1992–93 war, operating alongside a Russian garrison whose presence defines the entity's security. Internationally, the territory is recognised as part of Georgia.

The small armed and interior structures of the de facto South Ossetian authorities — closely integrated with the Russian garrison and, under the May 2026 treaty, moving toward formal openness to Russian personnel. Internationally, the territory is recognised as part of Georgia.

A navigation grouping, not a command: Russia's publicly documented military presence in the region — the Gyumri base in Armenia, held to 2044; the garrisons in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, whose legal basis deepened with the May 2026 South Ossetia treaty; the withdrawn Karabakh peacekeepers; and the border-troop arrangement in Armenia, now ended at every checkpoint. Taken together the grouping shows the shape of the change: Russia's presence has contracted where Armenia could end it by agreement and extended where the de facto authorities invited it. Described at structural level only.

The security structures built around the Kadyrov system — Rosgvardia regiments recruited in Chechnya, republican police formations and Akhmat-branded volunteer units — loyal personally to the republic's leadership. Described at structural level only.

Russia's military base in Armenia, at Gyumri near the closed Turkish frontier, held under a lease agreement extended to 2044. Structural record only: this atlas publishes no strengths, dispositions or activity, and the base's significance here is political rather than operational.

Russian FSB border troops that served alongside Armenian forces on Armenia's frontiers with Türkiye and Iran under a long-standing agreement. The arrangement has been wound back checkpoint by checkpoint — Zvartnots airport in August 2024, the Iranian crossing from January 2025, Margara from March 2025 and Akhurik from the start of 2026 — leaving no Armenian border checkpoint under Russian oversight. It is the clearest completed structural marker of Armenia's security realignment, and stands in deliberate contrast to the Gyumri base, whose lease runs to 2044 and which Armenia has not moved to end.