Nagorno-Karabakh

Nagorno-Karabakh / Template:Hayeren / Dağlıq Qarabağ

Flag Coat of Arms
Anthem: Azat ou Ankakh Artsakh ("Free and Independent Artsakh")
Political status	Unrecognized
Languages	Armenian
Capital	Stepanakert (Xankəndi)
President	Arkady Ghoukasyan
Prime Minister	Anushavan Danielyan
Independence  – Referendum  – Proclaimed  – Recognition	From Azerbaijan  December 10, 1991  January 6, 1992   none
Area	4,400 km² 1,699 sq mi
Population3 Ethnic Composition4	145,000 (est. 2002) Over 95% Armenian 5% minorities
Currency	Dram (AMD) (Armenian)
Time zone	UTC +4 (DST +5)
Calling Code	374 97 (Karabakh Telecome GSM)

Nagorno-Karabakh is de jure a region of Azerbaijan, but has remained largely de facto independent of Azerbaijan and maintains control over the large part of its territory and other surrounding districts, although not recognized as independent internationally. The regional capital is Khankendi (Stepanakert). It is about 270 kilometres (170 miles) west of the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, and very close to the border with Armenia.

The Soviet Union created the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) in the predominantly Armenian region in the Azerbaijan SSR in 1923. On December 10 1991, as the Soviet Union was collapsing, a self-styled referendum held in the NKAO and the neighboring district of Shahumian resulted in a declaration of independence from Azerbaijan as the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), which remains unrecognized by any international organization or country, including Armenia.

In the final years before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the region became a source of dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan, culminating in the Nagorno-Karabakh War. Since the end of the war in 1994, most of Nagorno-Karabakh and several regions of Azerbaijan around it remain under Armenian military control. Since then, the parties have been holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.

Name

The region's names in various languages tend to mean roughly the same thing. The word "Karabakh" originated from Turkic "kara" (meaning "black") and Persian "bagh" (باغ) (meaning "garden"), literally "black garden." The name first appears in Georgian and Persian sources in the 13th and 14th centuries . The related term Karabagh [kærəba:] is described by the Oxford English Dictionary as being used to denote a kind of patterned rug originally produced in the area, and is an acceptable alternate spelling of Karabakh.

The names for the region in the various local languages all translate to "mountainous Karabakh", or "mountainous black garden":

• Azerbaijani: Dağlıq Qarabağ, or Yuxarı Qarabağ (meaning "upper Karabakh")
• Armenian: Template:Hayeren, transliterated Lernayin Gharabagh
• Russian: Нагорный Карабах, transliterated Nagornyj Karabakh

This is not confined only to the local languages region; the name in French is Haut-Karabakh (upper Karabakh).

It is often referred to by the Armenians living in the area as Artsakh (Armenian: Template:Hayeren; Azeri: Ərsak; Russian: Арцах), meaning "Woods of Aramanyak" ("Tsakh" is Armenian for Woods, "Ar" is abbreviation for Aramanyak). In Azerbaijani, Ərsak means Land ("Ər"/"Ar") of Saks — an Iranian people related to Scythians who invaded the area in the 7th c BC. In Urartian inscriptions (9th–7th cc BC), the name Urtekhini is used for the region. Ancient Greek sources called the area Orkhistene.

Politics

Template:Morepolitics The international community recognized both ethnic communities of Nagorno Karabakh as "interested parties" of the conflict. The Azerbaijani community is led by Nizami Bakhmanov, the head of the executive power of Shusha region. The Armenian community and current separatist authorities of Nagorno Karabakh is led by Arkady Ghoukasyan. Politics of Nagorno Karabakh take place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Nagorno Karabakh is both head of state and head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly. The republic lies within the territory of Azerbaijan. Its independence and elections are not recognized by any single state in the world.

Geography

The Sarsang reservoir, in Martakert, Nagorno-Karabakh.

The region has a total area of 4,400 square kilometres (1,699 sq mi) and is surrounded entirely by the rest of Azerbaijan; its nearest point to Armenia is across the Lachin corridor, roughly 4 kilometers across.[1] In 1989, it had a population of 192,000. The population at that time was mainly Armenian (76%) and Azerbaijanis (23%), with Russian and Kurdish minorities. The capital is Stepanakert (known in Azerbaijan as Xankəndi, Khankendi). Its other major city, today lying partially in ruins, is Shusha (Armenian: Shushi).

The current borders of Nagorno-Karabakh, established in Soviet times, resemble a kidney bean with the indentation on the east side. It has very tall mountain ridges along the northern edge and along the west, and the south is very mountainous. The part near the indentation of the kidney bean itself is a relatively flat valley, with the two edges of the bean, the provinces of Martakert and Martuni, having flat lands as well. Other flatter valleys exist around the Sarsang reservoir, Hadrut, and the south. Much of Nagorno-Karabakh is forested, especially the mountains.

Divisions

Map of the divisions of Nagorno-Karabakh and some nearby rayons of Azerbaijan.

The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic has declared several divisions within it; some correspond perfectly with Azerbaijani rayons, while others use different borders. This is a comparative table of the current divisions declared by the government of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and the corresponding rayons of Azerbaijan.

N-K division	Azerbaijani rayon
Askeran	Khankendi (city), Khojali
Hadrut	southern Khojavend
Martakert	eastern Kalbajar and western Tartar
Martuni	northern Khojavend
Shahumian*	Naftalan (city), southern Goranboy
Shushi	Shusha (city), Shusha

The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic claims Shahumian, which was not part of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. Representatives from Shahumian declared independence along with Nagorno-Karabakh, and the proclamation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic includes the Shahumian region within its borders.[2] Unlike the rest of Nagorno-Karabakh, Shahumian remains under Azerbaijani control.

Demographics

Year	Armenian	Azeri	Russian
1923	94.4%	N/A	N/A
1978	80.5%	18.1%	0.9%
1988	75%	23%	N/A

International status

The sovereign status of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is not recognized by any state, including Armenia. Three United Nations Security Council Resolutions (853, 874, and 884) and United Nations General Assembly resolutions 49/13 and 57/298 refer to Nagorno-Karabakh as a region of Azerbaijan. According to a report prepared by British parliamentarian and rapporteur David Atkinson, presented to Political Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), "the borders of Azerbaijan were internationally recognised at the time of the country being recognised as independent state in 1991," and "the territory of Azerbaijan included the Nagorno-Karabakh region." [3]

The latest resolution, #1416, adopted by PACE ([4]), stated that "Considerable parts of the territory of Azerbaijan are still occupied by Armenian forces, and separatist forces are still in control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region".

The resolution further stated: "The Assembly reiterates that the occupation of foreign territory by a member state constitutes a grave violation of that state’s obligations as a member of the Council of Europe and reaffirms the right of displaced persons from the area of conflict to return to their homes safely and with dignity”."

Recalling the binding Resolutions 822, 853, 874, and 884 (all 1993) of the UN Security Council, PACE urged “the parties concerned to comply with them, in particular by refraining from any armed hostilities and by withdrawing military forces from any occupied territories”.

The Council of Europe called on the Nagorno-Karabakh de facto authorities to refrain from staging one-sided "local self-government elections" in Nagorno-Karabakh. "These so-called 'elections' cannot be legitimate," stressed Council of Europe Committee of Ministers' Chairman and Liechtenstein Foreign Minister Ernst Walch, Parliamentary Assembly President Lord Russell-Johnston and Secretary General Walter Schwimmer. They recalled that following the 1991–1994 armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, a substantial part of the region's population was forced to flee their homes and are still living as displaced persons in those countries or as refugees abroad. [5] This position was reiterated by Walter Schwimmer, Secretary General of the Council of Europe on 4 August 2004 with regard to the next elections, staged in the province. [6]

However, according to an analysis by New England School of Law's Center for International Law & Policy, as well as Public International Law and Policy Group, "Nagorno Karabagh has a right of self-determination, including the attendant right to independence, according to the criteria recognized under international law." The analysis further notes that NKR's "independence was declared not from the Soviet Union but from Azerbaijan. This act fully complied with existing law. Indeed, the 1990 Soviet law titled 'Law of the USSR Concerning the Procedure of Secession of a Soviet Republic from the USSR," provides that the secession of a Soviet republic from the body of the USSR allows an autonomous region and compactly settled minority regions in the same republic's territory also to trigger its own process of independence.' [7]

The Background Paper on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict prepared by Directorate General of Political Affairs of the Council of Europe, on the other hand, states, "The Armenian side maintains that the N-K independence referendum was conducted in accordance with the USSR law on the "Procedure for Solving Issues of Secession of a Soviet Republic from the USSR" of 3 April 1990. Article 3 of this law provided autonomous regions within the Soviet republics with the right to determine independently, by referendum, whether they wished to remain within the USSR or join the republic seceding from the USSR. It would however seem that according to this law N-K would have the choice of two options – to remain within the USSR or to join independent Azerbaijan; N-K independence does not seem possible."[8]

History

Main article: History of Nagorno-Karabakh

Soviet Caucasus 1989 divisions and subdivions map showing the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (Nagorno-Karabakhskaya AO in Russian) of Azerbaijan SSR.

Map of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast with main cities shown

The 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. 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.

In the 7th and 8th centuries, the region was invaded by Arabs, who pillaged it. The Albanian church was founded by the Armenian Church, resulting in great influence in terms of religion, culture, and language. In the 11th century, the Khachin principality was established 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 Ganja-Karabakh province (beglarbekdom, bəylərbəyliyi); and in the mid-18th century, the Karabakh khanate was formed. Karabakh passed to Imperial Russia by the Kurekchay Treaty, signed between the Khan of Karabakh and the Russian Czar in 1805, and later further formalized with the conquest of other Azerbaijani khanates 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 Elizavetpol governorate within the Russian Empire.After that, the Russian Empire began a massive relocation of the Armenian population into Karabakh and other regions of Transcaucasia to achieve the Christian support in that region.

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Karabakh became part of the Transcaucasian Federation, but this soon dissolved into separate Armenian, Azerbaijani, and Georgian states. 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 Oblast was established within the Azerbaijan SSR in 1923.

With the beginning of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the question of Nagorno-Karabakh re-emerged. 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.

On February 20, 1988, Armenian deputies to the National Council of Nagorno-Karabakh voted to unify that region with Armenia. On February 24, 1988, a direct confrontation between Azerbaijanis and Armenians near Askeran (in Nagorno-Karabakh, on the road between Stepanakert and Agdam) degenerated into a skirmish. Large numbers of refugees left Armenia and Azerbaijan as pogroms began against the minority populations of the respective countries. In the fall of 1989, intensified inter-ethnic conflict in and around Nagorno-Karabakh led Moscow to grant Azerbaijani authorities greater leeway in controlling that region. The Soviet policy backfired, however, when a joint session of the Armenian Supreme Soviet and the National Council, the legislative body of Nagorno-Karabakh, proclaimed the unification of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia.

In a December 1991 referendum, boycotted by local Azerbaijanis, Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh approved the creation of an independent state. A Soviet proposal for enhanced autonomy for Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan satisfied neither side, and a land war subsequently erupted between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

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.

By the end of 1993, the conflict had caused thousands of casualties and created hundreds of thousands of refugees on both sides. By May 1994 the Armenians were in control of 14% of the territory of Azerbaijan. At that stage the Government of Azerbaijan for the first time during the entire duration of the conflict recognised Nagorno-Karabakh as a third party of the war and started direct negotiations with the Karabakhi authorities. As a result, an unofficial cease-fire was reached on May 12, 1994, through Russian negotiation, and continues today.

Current situation

Today, Nagorno-Karabakh is a de facto independent state, calling itself the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic . It is closely tied to the Republic of Armenia and uses the same currency, the dram. According to Human Rights Watch, "from the beginning of the Karabakh conflict, Armenia provided aid, weapons, and volunteers. Armenian involvement in Karabakh escalated after a December 1993 Azerbaijani offensive. The Republic of Armenia began sending conscripts and regular Army and Interior Ministry troops to fight in Karabakh." The politics of Armenia and the de-facto Karabakh republic are so intermingled that a former president of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Robert Kocharian, became first the prime minister (1997) and then the president of Armenia (1998 to the present).

Still, successive Armenian governments have resisted internal pressure to unite the two, fearing reprisals from Azerbaijan and from the international community, that still considers Nagorno-Karabakh part of Azerbaijan. In his case study of Eurasia, Dov Lynch of the Institute for Security Studies of WEU believes that "Karabakh's independence allows the new Armenian state to avoid the international stigma of aggression, despite the fact that Armenian troops fought in the war between 1991-94 and continue to man the Line of Contact between Karabakh and Azerbaijan." Lynch also cites that the "strength of the Armenian armed forces, and Armenia's strategic alliance with Russia, are seen as key shields protecting the Karabakh state by the authorities in Stepanakert."

File:Kocharian-aliyev.jpg

Armenian President Robert Kocharian and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev at a peace conference (one of many) in Astana, Kazakhstan.

At present, the mediation process is at a standstill, with the most recent discussions in Rambouillet, France, yielding no agreement. Azerbaijan's position has been that Armenian troops withdraw from all areas of Azerbaijan outside Nagorno-Karabakh, and that all displaced persons be allowed to return to their homes before the status of Karabakh can be discussed. Armenia does not recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as being legally part of Azerbaijan, arguing that because the region declared independence at the same time that Azerbaijan became an independent state, both of them are equally successor states of the Soviet Union. The Armenian government insists that the government of Nagorno-Karabakh be part of any discussions on the region's future, and rejects ceding occupied territory or allowing refugees to return prior to talks on the region's status.

Representatives of Armenia, Azerbaijan, France, Russia and the United States met in Paris and in 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 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 Kocharian, 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. On February 10 and 11, 2006, Kocharian and Aliyev met in Rambouillet, France, to discuss the fundamental principles of a settlement to the conflict, including the withdrawal of troops, formation of international peace keeping troops, and the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. During the weeks and days before the talks in France, OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen expressed cautious optimism that some form of an agreement was possible. French President Jacques Chirac met with both leaders separately and expressed hope that the talks would be fruitful. Contrary to the initial optimism, the Rambouillet talks did not produce any agreement, with key issues such as the status of Nagorno-Karabakh and whether Armenian troops would withdraw from Kelbajar still being contentious.

The latest talks were held at the Polish embassy in Bucharest, Romania. Again, American, Russian, and French diplomats attended the talks that lasted over 40 minutes. Earlier, Armenian President Kocharian announced that he was ready to "continue dialogue with Azerbaijan for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and with Turkey on establishing relations without any preconditions."

Unfortunately, according to Armenian foreign minisiter, Vartan Oskanian, no progress was made at this latest meeting. Both presidents failed to reach a consensus on the issues from the earlier Rambouillet conference. He noted that the Kocharian-Aliyev meeting was held in a normal atmosphere. "Nevertheless," he added, "the foreign ministers of the two countries are commissioned to continue talks over settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and try to find common points before the next meeting of the presidents."

The major disagreement between both sides at the Bucharest conference was the status of Karabakh. Azerbaijan's position was a promise to give Karabakh the "highest status of autonomy adopted in the world." Armenia favored a popular vote by the inhabitants of Karabakh to decide their future, a position that was also taken by the international mediators. The response to the Armenian position from Baku was that of a threat to Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. On June 27, the Armenian foreign minister said both parties agreed to allow the residents of Karabakh to vote regarding the future status of the region. The Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially refuted that statement. According to Azeri oppostion leader, Isa Gambar, however, Azerbaijan did indeed agree to the referendum. Still, nothing official has confirmed this yet.

Human rights

280,000 persons—virtually all ethnic Armenians who fled Azerbaijan during the 1988–1993 war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh—were living in refugee-like circumstances in Armenia. Some left the country, principally to Russia. Their children born in Armenia acquire citizenship automatically. Their numbers are thus subject to constant decline due to death, departure, and de-registration required for naturalization. Of these, about 250,000 fled Azerbaijan-proper (areas outside Nagorno-Karabakh); approximately 30,000 came from Nagorno-Karabakh, which is in Azerbaijan but controlled by Armenians. All were registered with the government as refugees at year’s end.

The Nagorno Karabakh conflict also has resulted in the displacement of 528,000 Azerbaijanis from Armenian controlled territories including Nagorno Karabakh, and 186,000 Azeris, 18,000 Kurds and 3500 Russians fled from Armenia to Azerbaijan from 1988 to 1989. The Azerbaijani government has estimated that 63 percent of internally displaced persons (IDPs) lived below the poverty line as compared to 49 percent of the total population. About 154,000 lived in the capital, Baku. According to the International Organization for Migration, 40,000 IDPs lived in camps, 60,000 in underground dugout shelters, and 20,000 in railway cars. Forty-thousand IDPs lived in EU-funded settlements and UNHCR provided housing for another 40,000. Another 5,000 IDPs lived in schools. Others lived in trains, on roadsides in half-constructed buildings, or in public buildings such as tourist and health facilities. Tens of thousands lived in seven tent camps where poor water supply and sanitation caused gastro-intestinal infections, tuberculosis, and malaria.

The Azerbaijani government has been reluctant to integrate the IDP's into the rest of the population lest others interpret it as acceptance of the permanent loss of Nagorno-Karabakh. The government required IDPs to register their place of residence in a vestige of the Soviet-era propiska system and only allowed them to live in approved areas. IDPs could receive assistance only in the camps or settlements where the Government initially assigned them, limiting their ability to look for work. Many were from rural areas and found it difficult to integrate into the urban labor market. A 2002 Law on Grants hindered humanitarian access by imposing a 27 percent tax on the wages of NGO employees and requiring notice of all grants. Many international humanitarian agencies reduced or ceased assistance for IDPs.. The infant mortality among displaced children is 3-4 times higher than in the rest of the population. The rate of stillbirth was 88.2 per 1,000 births among the internally displaced people. The majority of the displaced have lived in difficult conditions for more than 12 years. .

References

General

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   — Azerbaijan

See also

• Artsakh
• Irredentism
• Sumgait Massacre
• Khojaly Massacre
• Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army
• Lachin corridor
• Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline

External links

Non partisan sources

• Regions and territories: Nagorno-Karabakh from the BBC
• COE — "The conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region dealt with by the OSCE Minsk Conference" Report by rapporteur David Atkinson presented to Political Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
• USIP — Sovereignty after Empire Self-Determination Movements in the Former Soviet Union. Case Studies: Nagorno-Karabakh. by Galina Starovoitova, Publication of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP)
• USIP — Nagorno-Karabakh Searching for a Solution: Key points, by Patricia Carley, Publication of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP)
• Interview with Thomas De Waal
• Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. Nagorno-Karabakh: Timeline Of The Long Road To Peace
• All UN Security Council resolutions on Nagorno-Karabakh, courtesy U.S. State department
• Resolution #1416 from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

From an Armenian perspective

• Official site of the Nagorno-Karabakh government
• Official site of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• NKR Office in Washington, DC
• "Azat Artsakh" Daily Newspaper in Nagorno-Karabakh
• De Facto News Agency

From an Azerbaijani perspective

• Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan republic
• Artsakh.com
• Karabakh.org
• Karabakh.co.uk