'homo-Nationalist Attempts’: The Second Nagorno Karabakh War, Şəhid and Promises of Inclusion

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan, governed by an authoritarian regime rich in energy resources, has exported oil and gas globally. Despite its wealth, the regime has grappled with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict—a territorial and ethnic dispute with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region—since 1988, leading to war, displacement, trauma, and ongoing animosities. In 2020, Azerbaijan initiated military operations to reclaim Nagorno-Karabakh, marking the significant historical event known as the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. This paper examines how queer and nationalist discourses are intertwined in Azerbaijan and explores the significance of nationalist narratives for queers. Nation-building techniques, heavily influenced by the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, have made this conflict a core aspect of Azerbaijani identity. Within these discourses, gay and bisexual men were incorporated into patriotic projects of war and violence against the ‘enemy,’ with the homophobic state promoting a masculine image. Building on the concept of homonationalism, this study conceptualises local ‘homo-nationalist attempts’ by the Azerbaijani state and explores queers’ readiness to participate in national celebrations. Using ethnographic data, it investigates emerging LGBTQI+ nationalism and its connections to the state and its institutions in the Azerbaijani context. Despite the state's rejection and violence against LGBTQI+ subjects, the study explores how the homo/queerphobic state attempts to control non-heterosexual bodies by becoming ‘inclusionary’ during wartime. It identifies two types of nationalism: ‘enforced/required petux nationalism’ and ‘socialised/qiy patriotism.’ To examine the first, the study employs the concept of ‘cruel optimism,’ analysing how queers are given the false hope that becoming martyrs (şəhid) or veterans (gazi) will lead to greater acceptance. For the latter, it utilises the theory of ‘banal nationalism’ to argue how queers are socialised through everyday narratives of Nagorno-Karabakh nationalism in Azerbaijan.