Nagorno-Karabakh refers to Armenian Artsakh, a region of southwestern Azerbaijan. It refers to an autonomous oblast (province) of the former Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (S.S.R.). The Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh later became a self-declared country but its independence was not internationally recognized. Nagorno-Karabakh. The old autonomous region occupied an area of about 1,700 square miles (4,400 square km), while the forces of the self-proclaimed Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh presently occupy some 2,700 square miles (7,000 square km). Azerbaijan claimed the region as its traditionally held territory while the minority Armenians in the region wanted to be free and be merged with Armenia. The region had been annexed by Azerbaijan during the Soviet era and internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but partially governed by Artsakh, a breakaway state with an Armenian ethnic majority.
In the 2020 armed conflict and war Azerbaijan was supported by Turkey and foreign mercenary groups and the other side was the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh and Armenia. The fighting began on the morning of 27 September 2020 with an Azerbaijani offensive along the Nagorno-Karabakh Line of Contact established in the aftermath of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988–1994), with the primary goal of reclaiming the less mountainous districts of southern Nagorno-Karabakh, which were easier to take than the region’s well-fortified interior.
In response, Armenia and Artsakh introduced martial law and total mobilization, while Azerbaijan introduced martial law, a curfew and partial mobilization. Turkey was reported to have provided military support to Azerbaijan, but it denied. However Turkey had a reason to be involved i.e. to extend its sphere of influence, both by giving Azerbaijan the upper hand in the conflict and by marginalizing Russia’s influence over the region.
Azerbaijan made significant gains during the war, regaining most of the occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh and large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh, including the culturally significant city of Shusha. During the faceoff Azerbaijan liberated several cities and 300 settlements and villages that were occupied by Armenia for nearly three decades. The peace agreement is celebrated as a triumph in Azerbaijan. The leaders of the three countries later agreed to develop economic ties and infrastructure for the benefit of the entire Caucasus region.
The war ended on 10 November 2020, when a trilateral ceasefire agreement was signed between Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia, which forced Armenia to return all the remaining occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh.
Developments after the war
In the past year, Azerbaijan mainly focused on the reconstruction of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which was liberated after nearly 30 years of illegal Armenian occupation, as well as diplomatic efforts. The early days of 2021 witnessed Azerbaijani officials stepping up the country’s diplomacy to consolidate the country’s position following its victory in the conflict with Armenian forces.
Trilateral Meeting under Russian arbitration
On Jan. 11, 2021 Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian met in Moscow and signed a trilateral declaration to revitalize the Karabakh region’s economy and transportation infrastructure, both of which had been severely harmed by the Armenian occupation. working group of the three countries’ deputy prime ministers was formed to discuss the opening of the Zangezur land corridor connecting Azerbaijan with its autonomous exclave of Nakhchivan, as well as allowing Armenia railway access to Russia and Iran via Azerbaijan. However, in the face of stiff opposition in Armenia, Pashinyan later backtracked and declared that the government would not allow Azerbaijan to build a transportation corridor through the country. But Azerbaijan and Armenia once again fell in dispute and failed to honour the agreement. However as a result of Azerbaijan’s persistent diplomatic efforts, Putin, Aliyev and Pashinian met again on Nov. 26, 2021 and agreed to remove all obstacles before reopening the railway and land routes.
Another result of the trilateral declaration was the establishment of a joint monitoring center between Turkish and Russian forces that began operations on Jan. 30, 2021 in the province of Aghdam to observe compliance with the cease-fire. Further, the trilateral declaration led to the establishment of a joint monitoring center between Turkish and Russian forces that began operations on January 30, 2021 in the province of Aghdam to observe compliance with the cease-fire.
Azerbaijan launched a massive reconstruction initiative in the liberated Nagorno-Karabakh region after the end of the conflict. The Fuzuli International Airport, which started to be constructed on Jan. 14, 2021, was inaugurated on Oct. 26 with the participation of the presidents of Turkey and Azerbaijan. Further, nearly the entire liberated region of Karabakh was provided electricity and internet access.
Also Azerbaizan’s bonhomie with Turkey increased and Turkey-Azerbaijan updated their relation to the level of strategic partnership through the Shusha Declaration signed in June 2021 by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev on June 15, 2021. Moreover, the two country’s nationals were allowed to travel to each other’s countries without passports, using only smart identification cards instead.
Aliyev also met with his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi on the sidelines of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) summit in Turkmenistan and discussed outstanding issues. One of the important issues between the two countries was unauthorized movements of Iranian trucks into Armenian-populated areas of Nagorno-Karabakh without official Azerbaijani permission. This strained Azerbaijan-Iran relations during the conflict. While Azerbaijan border guards and customs officers established checkpoints and imposed duties on incoming Iranian goods, . Tehran initiated military exercises along the border on the pretext that Israel had sent intelligence and military officers to Azerbaijan to survey Iran. Tensions were later de-escalated with diplomatic efforts from the two sides. On Nov. 6, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian announced that Tehran and Baku had resolved their differences.
Background
The region was acquired by Russia in 1813, and in 1923 the Soviet government established it as an Armenian-majority autonomous oblast of the Azerbaijan S.S.R. Detached from the Armenian S.S.R. to the west by the Karabakh Range, Nagorno-Karabakh thus became a minority enclave within Azerbaijan. The region developed quietly through decades of Soviet rule, but in 1988 the ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh began agitating for the transfer of their oblast to Armenian jurisdiction, a demand that was strongly opposed by both the Azerbaijan S.S.R. and the Soviet government. Ethnic antagonisms between Armenians and Azerbaijanis grew inflamed over the issue, and, when Armenia and Azerbaijan gained their independence from the collapsing Soviet Union in 1991, Armenians and Azerbaijanis in the enclave went to war.
During the early 1990s the Karabakh Armenian forces, supported by Armenia, gained control of much of southwestern Azerbaijan, including Nagorno-Karabakh and territory connecting the enclave with Armenia. A series of negotiations followed—guided by Russia and a committee informally known as the “Minsk Group” (named for an envisioned peace conference in Minsk, Belarus, that was not realized)—that failed to reach a lasting resolution but did manage to yield a cease-fire agreement in 1994, which, though periodically violated, was largely upheld. Since the end of the war in 1994, representatives of the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group on the region’s disputed status.