Life on the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan has been fraught for decades. But in April of 2016, the two countries battled for four days over a disputed region in the middle, the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic that’s officially a part of Azerbaijan but currently occupied by Armenian rebels. A cease fire in 1996 had cooled tempers, but reports of repeated violations on both sides led to full out war for four days in 2016.

Locked in perpetual dispute, the 150,000 people of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic live in a state of military limbo. Much like the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians, the Armenian-Azerbaijan tension is long simmering, and long ago became part of everyday life.

Photographer Emanuele Amighetti visited the region last year