Nagorno-Karabakh

Nagorno-Karabakh Template:Hayeren Dağlıq Qarabağ
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: Azat ou Ankakh Artsakh Free and Independent Artsakh
Capital	Stepanakert (Khankendi)
Official languages	Armenian1
Government	Unrecognized
• President	Arkady Ghoukasyan
• Prime Minister	Anushavan Danielyan
Independence  from Azerbaijan
• Referendum	December 10 1991
• Proclaimed	January 6 1992
• Recognition	none2
Population
• March 2007 estimate	138,000 (n/a)
Currency	Dram (Armenian) (AMD)
Time zone	UTC+4
• Summer (DST)	UTC+5
Calling code	374 97  (Karabakh Telecome GSM)
The constitution guarantees "the free use of other languages spread among the population." Council on Foreign Relations - Nagorno-Karabakh: The Crisis in the Caucasus

Nagorno-Karabakh is a de facto independent republic located in the South Caucasus, officially part of the Republic of Azerbaijan, about 270 kilometers (170 miles) west of the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, but very close to the border with Armenia.

The predominantly Armenian region became a source of dispute between the republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan when both countries gained independence from the Russian Empire in 1918. After the Soviet Union expanded into the South Caucasus, it established the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) within the Azerbaijan SSR in 1923. On December 10 1991, as the Soviet Union was collapsing, a 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 was again 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 joint Armenian and NKR Defense Forces control. The parties have been holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group ever since.

Etymology

The region's names in various languages tend to have the same approximate meaning. The word "Karabakh" originated from Turkic and Persian, literally meaning "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":

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

This is not confined only to the local languages of the region; the name in French is Haut-Karabakh (upper Karabakh), though "Nagorno-Karabakh" was intensively used in the French media in the 1990s.

It is often referred to by the Armenians living in the area as Artsakh (Armenian: Template:Hayeren; Russian: Арцах), designating the 10th province of the ancient Kingdom of Armenia and a province of the Kingdom of Aghvank ("Caucasian Albania"). In Urartian inscriptions (9th–7th cc BC), the name Urtekhini is used for the region. Ancient Greek sources called the area Orkhistene.

Divisions

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

The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic has six divisions within it, which correspond perfectly with the five districts of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO), and with the Shahumyan rayon of the Azerbaijan SSR. Following the declaration of NKR's independence, the Azerbaijani government passed a decision to abolish NKAO and create Azerbaijani rayons in its place. As a result, some of NKR's divisions correspond perfectly with Azerbaijani rayons, while others use different borders. This is a comparative table of the current divisions of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and the corresponding rayons of Azerbaijan.

Nagorno-Karabakh 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.[1] Unlike the rest of Nagorno-Karabakh, Shahumian remains under Azerbaijani control.

Geography

The Sarsang reservoir in Martakert, Nagorno-Karabakh.

The village of Vank as seen from the Gandzasar monastery

The region has a total area of 4,400 square kilometers (1,699 sq mi) and is surrounded entirely by rayons of Azerbaijan; its nearest point to Armenia is across the Lachin corridor, roughly 4 kilometers across.[2] 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.

The territory of modern Nagorno-Karabakh forms a portion of the historic region of Karabakh, which lies between the rivers Kura, Araxes, and the modern Armenia-Azerbaijan border. In the ancient and medieval times, this larger region consisted of the historic provinces of Artsakh and Utik, which at various times alternated between the kingdoms of Armenia and Caucasian Albania. Beginning with the 13th-14th centuries, the Artsakh-Utik area received the name Karabakh. The eastern portion of Karabakh (roughly corresponding to Utik) lies on a lower and flatter surface, and has traditionally been called Lower Karabakh, while the western, mountainous portion (roughly corresponding to Artsakh) has been referred to as Mountainous, Upper, or High Karabakh. Nagorno Karabakh in its modern borders is part of the larger region of Upper Karabakh.

Demographics

Year	Armenians	Azeris	Russians	Notes	Area
1823	9%	91%	N/A	At the time of when it was not an autonomous oblast; exact figures of the period are conflicting.	Karabakh (?) (including Nagorno-Karabakh)
1832	35%	N/A	N/A	At the time of when it was not an autonomous oblast; exact figures of the period are conflicting.	Karabakh (?) (including Nagorno-Karabakh)
1897	109,250 (39.5%)	164,098 (59.5%)	2,605 (1%)	At the time of when it was not an autonomous oblast but 4 out of a total of 8 uezds of the Elisabethpol Governorate; last official Russian Imperial census.	Karabakh (?) (including Nagorno-Karabakh)
1916	nearly 70%	N/A	N/A	At the time of when it was not an autonomous oblast; exact figures of the period are conflicting.	Nagorno-Karabakh (?)
1919	165,000	59,000	7,000	At the time of when it was not an autonomous oblast; exact figures of the period are conflicting.	Nagorno-Karabakh (?)
1923	94%	N/A	N/A	At the time of when the autonomous oblast was just being created; first official Soviet census taken in 1926; exact figures of the period are conflicting.	Nagorno-Karabakh (?)
1926	111,694 (89.2%)	12,592 (10.1%)	596 (0.5%)	Figures from the 1926 Soviet census (total population: 125,159)	Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (4,400 km²)
1939	132,800 (88.0%)	14,053 (9.3%)	3,174 (2.1%)	Figures from the 1939 Soviet census (total population: 150,837)
1959	110,053 (84.4%)	17,995 (13.8%)	1,790 (1.4%)	Figures from the 1959 Soviet census (total population: 130,406)
1970	121,068 (80.5%)	27,179 (18.1%)	1,310 (0.9%)	Figures from the 1970 Soviet census (total population: 150,313)
1979	123,076 (75.9%)	37,264 (23.0%)	1,265 (0.8%)	Figures from the 1979 Soviet census (total population: 162,181)
1989	145,593 (76.4%)	42,871 (22.5%)	N/A	Last Soviet census (total population: 190,489); a re-count was ordered in October 1990 which showed the number of Azerbaijanis higher, at 46,000 (24%), plus 1,000 of other minorities.
2001	95%	Under 1%	N/A	Since 1991, NK is not an oblast. Other minorities still living in the region include Assyrians, Greeks, and Kurds	Nagorno-Karabakh (4,400 km²)

History

Early History

Main article: History of Nagorno-Karabakh

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 Kingdom of Armenia.

In the 7th and 8th centuries, the region was ruled by Caliphate-appointed governors. In accordance with ancient and medieval Armenian sources, the Albanian church was founded by Catholicos Grigor--the head the Armenian Church--in the 4th c. AD. It was later fully absorbed by the Armenian Church. Modern Azeri scholars however maintain an alternate opinion claiming Jerusalemian and Syrian origin of the Albanian church 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.

Gandzasar Armenian monastery, 13th century

A Shushavian from a noble family. Picture by V.V. Vereschagin, a Russian traveller to Shusha in 1865.

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). Despite these conquests, the population of Upper Karabakh remained largely Armenian. In the 14th century, a local Armenian leadership emerged, consisting of five noble dynasties led by princes, who held the titles of meliks and were referred to as Khamsa (five in Arabic). Out of those five melikdoms only meliks of Khachen were natives to Karabakh, the other 4 were founded by migrants from other parts of South Caucasus. Initially under the control of the Ganja Khanate of the Persian Empire, the Armenian meliks were granted wide degree of autonomy by the Safavid Empire over Upper Karabakh. The Armenian meliks maintained control over the region for four centuries, until the mid-18th century. In the early 18th century, Persia's Nadir shah took Karabakh out of control of Ganja khans in punishment for their support of Safavids, and placed it under his own control At the same time, the Armenian meliks were granted supreme command over neighboring Armenian principalities and Muslim khans in Caucasus, in return for the meliks' victories over the invading Ottoman Turks in 1720s. In the mid-18th century, as internal conflicts between the meliks led to their weakening, 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 by the Russo-Persian 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 Elisabethpol Governorate within the Russian Empire. After subjection of Karabakh khanate to Russia, many Muslim families emigrated to Iran, while many Armenians were induced by the Russian government to emigrate from Iran to Karabakh.

Soviet era

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Karabakh became part of the Transcaucasian Federation, but this soon dissolved into separate Armenian, Azerbaijani, and Georgian states. Over the next two years (1918-1920), there were a series of short wars between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh. In July 1918, the First Armenian Assembly of Nagorno Karabagh declared the region self-governing and created a National Council and government. Later, Ottoman troops entered Karabakh, meeting armed resistance by Armenians.

The citadel of Shusha (on right)

After the defeat of Ottoman empire in the World War I, the British troops occupied Karabakh. The British command provisionally affirmed Khosrov bey Sultanov (appointed by the Azerbaijani government) as the governor-general of Karabakh and Zangezur, pending final decision by the Paris Peace Conference. The decision was opposed by Karabakh Armenians. In February 1920, the Karabakh National Council preliminarily agreed to Azerbaijani jurisdiction, while Armenians elsewhere in Karabakh continued the guerrilla fighting, never accepting the agreement. The agreement itself was soon annulled by the Ninth Karabagh Assembly, which declared union with Armenia in April.

In April of 1920, while the Azerbaijani army was locked in Karabakh fighting local Armenian forces, Azerbaijan was taken over by Bolsheviks. Subsequently, the disputed areas of Karabakh, Zangezur, and Nakhichevan came under the control of Armenia. During July and August, however, the Red Army occupied Karabakh, Zangezur, and part of Nakhichevan. On August 10, 1920, Armenia signed a preliminary agreement with the Bolsheviks, agreeing to a temporary Bolshevik occupation of these areas until final settlement would be reached. In 1921, Armenia and Georgia were also 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 under which Zangezur would be under the control of Armenia, while Karabakh and Nakhchivan would be under the control of Azerbaijan. According to Robert Service, had this not been the case Stalin would have left it under Armenian control. As a result, the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast was established within the Azerbaijan SSR on July 7, 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. Accusing the Soviet Azerbaijani government in conducting forced Azerification of the region, the majority Armenian population, with ideological and material support from Armenia, started a movement to transfer it to Armenia.

War and independence

File:We Are Our Mountains.jpg

We Are Our Mountains, in Stepanakert

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 ground 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. Furthermore, Azeri military employed a very large number of mercenaries from Ukraine and from Russia. As many as one thousand Afghan mojahedeens participated in the fighting. Also there were fighters from Chechnya fighting on the side of Azerbaijan.

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, which 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 Kalbajar 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 opposition leader Isa Gambar, however, Azerbaijan did indeed agree to the referendum. Still, nothing official has confirmed this yet.

In 2006, Russia published its 63-volume Great Encyclopedia which descibed Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent entity that belonged to Armenians historically, in its introduction to the region. Azerbaijan has protested this passage in the Russian encyclopedia. It handed a protest letter to the Russian ambassador to Azerbaijan demanding that the encyclopedia be confiscated and amended.

International status

Map of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast with main cities shown

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."

Resolution 1416, adopted by the PACE on 25 January 2005, states 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 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 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 Assembly recalls that Armenia and Azerbaijan are signatory parties to the Charter of the United Nations and, in accordance with Article 93, paragraph 1 of the Charter, ipso facto parties to the statute of the International Court of Justice. Therefore, the Assembly suggests that if the negotiations under the auspices of the co-chairs of the Minsk Group fail, Armenia and Azerbaijan should consider using the International Court of Justice in accordance with Article 36, paragraph 1 of its statute. ...

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. 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.

The European Union declared that "The European Union confirms its support for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, and recalls that it does not recognise the independence of Nagorno Karabakh. The European Union cannot consider legitimate the 'presidential elections' that were scheduled to take place on 11 August 2002 in Nagorno Karabakh".

The US Department of State's annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2006, released on March 6, 2007 stated that "Armenia continues to occupy the Azerbaijani territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding Azerbaijani territories. During the year incidents along the militarized line of contact separating the sides again resulted in numerous casualties on both sides".

The declaration of establishment NKR's states that "The Nagorno Karabakh Republic enjoys the authorities given to Republics by the USSR Constitution and legislation and reserves the right to decide independently the issue of its state-legal status based on political consultations and negotiations with the leadership of Union and Republics."

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 principle of self-determination is included in the United Nations Charter, [and] was further codified in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ... The right to self-determination has also been repeatedly recognized in a series of resolutions adopted by the U.N. General Assembly." ... [as NKR's] independence was declared not from the Soviet Union but from Azerbaijan, ... [and as Nagorno Karabakh] at that time was part of a still existent and internationally recognized Soviet Union, ... NKR's declaration of independence fully complied with existing law. ... [In particular,] 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. ... [Furthermore,] the USSR Constitutional Oversight Committee did not annul the declaration to establishment the Nagorno Karabagh Republic, since that declaration was deemed in compliance with the then existing law.

A background paper prepared by the Directorate General of Political Affairs of the Council of Europe for the seminar "Youth and Conflict Resolution" (Strasbourg, 31 March - 2 April 2003), 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.

The OSCE Minsk Group has allowed the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (referring to it as the "leadership of Nagorny Karabakh"), as well as Armenia and Azerbaijan, to participate in the peace process as "parties to the conflict," and the Azerbaijani community of the region--as an "interested party". The Chairman of the CSCE Minsk Conference mentioned that "the terms 'party to the conflict' and 'leadership of Nagorny Karabakh' do not imply recognition of any diplomatic or political status under domestic or international law". The Azerbaijani community is led by Nizami Bakhmanov, the head of the executive power of Shusha region.

Human rights

Internally displaced Azerbaijanis from Nagorno-Karabakh and the adjacent regions

The Nagorno Karabakh conflict has resulted in the displacement of 528,000 (this figure does not include new born children of these IDPs) Azerbaijanis from Armenian occupied territories including Nagorno Karabakh, and 220,000 Azeris, 18,000 Kurds and 3,500 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% 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 abandoned or rapidly deteriorating 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 unwilling to integrate the IDP's into the rest of the population as this could be interpreted as acceptance of the permanent loss of Nagorno-Karabakh. The government required IDPs to register their place of residence in an attempt to better target the limited and largely inadequate national and international assistance due to the Armenian advocated and US imposed restrictions on humanitarian aid to Azerbaijan. Many IDPs were from rural areas and found it difficult to integrate into the urban labor market. Many international humanitarian agencies reduced or ceased assistance for IDPs citing increasing oil revenues of the country forgetting to condemn the Armenian imposed suffering. The infant mortality among displaced Azerbaijani 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 13 years.

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 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.

Constitutional referendum

On November 3, 2006 Arkady Gukasyan signed a decree to carry out a referendum on draft on Nagorno-Karabakh constitution, which was held on December 10 of the same year. According to official preliminary results from December 10, as many as 98.6 percent of voters approved the constitution. The 142nd article of the document describes the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic as "a sovereign, democratic legal and social state"; however, the European Union, OSCE and GUAM rejected the referendum. The EU announced it was "aware that a 'constitutional referendum' has taken place," but reiterated that only a negotiated settlement between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenians can bring a lasting solution. In a statement, the OSCE chairman in office Karel De Gucht called the vote potentially harmful to the ongoing conflict settlement process, which, he said, has shown "visible progress" and is at a "promising juncture". The outcome was also criticised by Turkey.

See also

• Artsakh
• Janapar - the hiking trail across Karabakh
• Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army
• Landmine situation in Nagorno Karabakh

External links

Non-partisan sources

• Article on the Dec. 10 Referendum from Russia Profile
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/country_profiles/3658938.stm Regions and territories: Nagorno-Karabakh] from the BBC
• Conciliation Resources - Accord issue: The limits of leadership - Elites and societies in the Nagorny Karabakh peace process also key texts & agreements and chronology (in English & Russian)
• 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

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

Azerbaijani perspective

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