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Nagorno-Karabakh - Nagorno-Karabakh Republic |
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Nagorno-Karabakh - Nagorno-Karabakh RepublicNagorno-Karabakh is a region of Azerbaijan, in South Caucasus, located about 270 km (about 170 mi.) west of the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. The region is predominantly ethnic Armenian, and is under Armenian military control. The local Armenian population declared independence from Azerbaijan on December 10th, 1991 and declared the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR). The NKR's sovereign status is not recognized by any country in the world. GeographyThe region has a total area of 4,400 km², and in 1989, it had a population of 192,000. The population at that time was mainly Armenian (76%) and Azeri (23%), with Russian and Kurdish minorities. The capital is Stepanakert (Xank?ndi in Azeri). Its other major city, today lying partially in ruins, is Shusha (Shushi in Armenian). From Origins to 1917The region of Nagorno-Karabakh falls within the lands occupied by peoples known to modern archaeologists as the Kura-Araxes culture, who lived between the two rivers bearing those names. Little is known of the ancient history of the region, primarily because of the scarcity of historical sources. Local traditions are held by many peoples in the area that those two river valleys were among the first ever to be settled by Noah's descendants. A son of Japheth named Aran is credited with being the first to establish a nation here. Zoroastrian traditions also point to this region as being the earliest sacred homeland of the Medes, their ancestors. Jewelry has been found within the present confines of Nagorno-Karabakh inscribed with the cuneiform name of Adad-Nirari, King of Assyria (c. 800 BC). This is an indicator that these mountains may have been within the Assyrian sphere of influence at this time, or at least on a trade route. It seems that the state of Mannae, based in the Urmia region, expanded as far as the Kura, and contested the region with Urartu beginning around 800 BC, until they were destroyed by the Medes in 616 BC. It is uncertain whether the Mannaeans ever penetrated as far as present-day Nagorno-Karabakh. At various times in antiquity that are difficult to establish with precision at this time, this area was part of Aghbania, or Caucasian Albania, and at others, of Greater Armenia. It was also part of a province of Parthia (ca. 250 BC), called Ardan, and another ancient name is Artsakh. In 95 BC, it was conquered by Tigranes II, ruler of the Kingdom of Armenia. Christianity first came to Aghbania with the mission of St Eliseus in the 1st century. Christianity was widely accepted in the 5th century, after Saint Gregory the Illuminator converted and baptized Albanian king Urnayr. In 488, following a church assembly near Aluan (situated in present-day Karabakh), Christianity become the official religion in Aghbania. In the 7th and 8th centuries, the region was invaded by Arabs, who pillaged it and converted a portion of the population to Islam. Under the Arabs, the Albanian church was subordinated to the Armenian Church, resulting in the local Albanian population gradually becoming more like Armenians in terms of religion, culture, and language. After the 8th century, Albania diminished in size, and came to exist only as the Khachin principality in Artsakh. In the 15th century, the territory of Karabakh was part of the states of Kara Koyunlu and then Ak Koyunlu. In the early 16th century, after the fall of the Ak-Koyunlu state, control of the region passed to the Safavid dynasty of Iran, that created a Ganje-Karabakh province (beglarbekdom, b?yl?rb?yliyi); and in the mid-18th century, the Karabakh khanate was formed. Karabakh passed to Imperial Russia by the Treaty of Gulistan in 1813, before the rest of Transcaucasia was incorporated into the Empire in 1828 by the Treaty of Turkmenchay. In 1822, the Karabakh khanate was dissolved, and the area became part of the Russian province that later formed Azerbaijan. Soviet eraAfter the Russian Revolution of 1917, Karabakh became part of the Transcaucasian Federation, but this soon dissolved into separate Armenian, Azeri, and Georgian states. Azerbaijan claimed sovereignty over the province, and sought to secure its claims with help from the Ottoman Empire. Despite the fact that the Ottomans were defeated in the course of World War I, Karabakh's de facto ownership by Azerbaijan was provisionally recognized in 1919 by the Allies, who recognized Khosrov-bey Sultanov (appointed by the Azerbaijan government) as general-governor of Karabakh. The Allies decided that the ultimate status of Karabakh was not determined, and it was pending final decision in Paris Peace Conference. Whereas Azerbaijan commended this decision as a recognition of its rights to the territory, the Armenian side criticized it, arguing that this decision was made because of the Allies' economic interests in the oil fields near Azerbaijan's capital, Baku. In 1920, Transcaucasia was taken over by the Bolsheviks who, in order to attract public support, promised they would allot Karabakh to Armenia, along with Nakhchivan and Zangezur (a strip separating Nakhichevan from Azerbaijan proper). However, Moscow also had far-reaching plans concerning Turkey -- hoping that it would, with a little help from Russia, develop along Communist lines. Needing to appease Turkey, Moscow agreed to a division that left Zangezur to Armenia, while leaving Karabakh and Nakhchivan in Azerbaijan. As a result, the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region was established within the Azerbaijan SSR in 1923. Most of the decisions on the transfer of the territories, and the establishment of new autonomous entities, were made under pressure from Stalin, who is still blamed by both Azeris and Armenians for arbitrary decisions made against their national interests. With the beginning of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the late 1980's and early 1990's, the question of Nagorno-Karabakh reemerged. Complaining about "forced Azerification" of the region, the majority Armenian population, with ideological and material support from Armenia, started a movement to transfer it to Armenia. In November 1991, following the Karabakh Armenians' declaration of secession from Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijan Parliament retaliated by removing the autonomous status of the region. In response, the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians held a referendum on December 10, 1991, with the overwhelming majority of the population voting for outright independence. The minority Azeri community of Nagorno-Karabakh boycotted the referendum, however. The spiralling conflict led to pogroms against Armenians living in Sumgait, Baku, and elsewhere in Azerbaijan, and violence was also directed against Azerbaijanis living in Vardenis, Masis, Ghukark, and other regions of Armenia. As a result, a vast number of Azerbaijanis in Armenia, and Armenians in Azerbaijan (except for Nagorno-Karabakh) were displaced. A Soviet proposal for enhanced autonomy for Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan satisfied neither side, and a land war subsequently erupted between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Post-Soviet eraEthnic groups of the region in 1995: (See entire map)The struggle over Nagorno-Karabakh escalated after both Armenia and Azerbaijan attained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. In the post-Soviet power vacuum, military action between Azerbaijan and Armenia was heavily influenced by the Russian military. It is alleged that Russian military forces inspired and manipulated the rivalry between the two neighbouring nations, providing weapons to both sides in order to keep both under control. Extensive Russian military support was exposed by the Head of the Standing Commission of the Russian Duma, General Lev Rokhlin, who was subsequently killed by his wife in unknown circumstances. He had claimed that munitions (worth 1 bil. US dollars) had been illegally transferred to Armenia during 1992-1994. However, these claims had never been proved. Armenians claim that Azerbaijan was receiving extensive support from Turkey during the Karabakh war. As a result of the war against Nagorno-Karabakh independence, Azerbaijanis were driven out of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as territories adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh; and these are still under control of the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian military. With the alleged support of Soviet/Russian military forces, Azeris forced out tens of thousand Armenians from Shahumyan region (a region adjacent to Soviet-era Nagorno-Karabakh, that joined the self-proclaimed Nagorno Karabakh Republic in 1991). An unofficial cease-fire was reached on May 12, 1994 through Russian negotiation, and continues today. Armenians remain in control of the Soviet-era autonomous region, and a strip of land called the Lachin corridor linking it with the Republic of Armenia; as well as the so-called 'security zone' — strips of territory along the region's borders that had been used by Azerbaijani artillery during the war. The Shahumyan region remains under the control of Azerbaijan. Representatives of Armenia, Azerbaijan, France, Russia and the United States met in Paris and Key West, Florida in the Spring of 2001. The details of the talks have remained largely secret, but the parties are reported to have discussed non-hierarchical relationships between the central Azerbaijani government and the Karabakh Armenian authorities. Despite rumours that the parties were again close to a solution, the Azerbaijani authorities -- both during Heydar Aliyev's period of office, and after the accession of his son Ilham Aliyev in the October 2003 elections -- have firmly denied that any agreement was reached in Paris or Key West. Further talks between the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents, Ilham Aliyev and Robert Kocharyan, were held in September 2004 in Astana, Kazakhstan, on the sidelines of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit. Reportedly, one of the suggestions put forward was the withdrawal of the occupying forces from the Azeri territories adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh, and holding referenda (plebiscites) in Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan proper regarding the future status of the region. 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