Reuters AlertNet, UK
March 23 2005
CRISIS PROFILE – What’s going on in Nagorno-Karabakh?
23 Mar 2005
Source: AlertNet
By Theresa Freese
Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer (R) accompanied by Azerbaijan
President Haydar Aliyev (rear) meets Azeri refugees from
Nagorno-Karabak in Baku in 2000.
Photo by STRINGER
TBILISI (AlertNet) – With over a million people displaced and about
30,000 killed, conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the
disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh remains one of the most
intractable problems unleashed by the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Today Nagorno-Karabakh, a large chunk of the southwestern part of
Azerbaijan, is controlled by neighbouring Armenia, which seized the
territory by force in 1992.
Armenia has ignored numerous U.N. resolutions calling for the
withdrawal troops, and a peace settlement between Armenia and
Azerbaijan remains elusive. The conflict stands at a stalemate,
broken only by occasional cross-border incidents.
Numbers are uncertain, but according to the United Nations, more than
500,000 displaced Azerbaijanis live in squalid refugee camps around
Azerbaijan, more than 200,000 Armenians live in similar conditions in
Armenia and a dangerous no man~Rs land full of mines and snipers
separates Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan.
Where exactly is Nagorno-Karabakh?
Nagorno-Karabakh, located in Azerbaijan, is in the South Caucasus, a
region consisting of three states — Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan
— nestled between the oil-rich Caspian Sea and the Black Sea.
Only a six-mile strip of land called the Lachin corridor, controlled
by Armenian troops, connects Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.
What sparked the conflict?
The roots of the conflict pre-date the creation of the Soviet Union.
Violent clashes in 1905 and 1918 evolved into fighting between
Armenia and Azerbaijan over three contested border areas,
Nagorno-Karabakh, Nakhichevan and Zangezur.
In 1921, Nagorno-Karabakh was incorporated into Soviet Azerbaijan as
the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Province, leaving tension over the
territory to simmer throughout the Soviet period.
As both Soviet republics embraced nationalism and political
demonstrations turned violent, minority populations within each
republic fled ethnic discrimination. Armenia and Azerbaijan witnessed
a total population swap of some 1,000,000 inhabitants.
Nagorno-Karabakh saw most of its minority Azerbaijani inhabitants —
around 25 percent of its total population — flee to other parts of
Azerbaijan.
In 1988, the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians voted to secede and join
Armenia. Azerbaijan attempted to prevent Nagorno-Karabakh~Rs secession
by force, and when Armenia and Azerbaijan proclaimed independence
from the Soviet Union in 1991, the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh~Rs
future escalated into a war between the two states.
Armenian forces invaded Nagorno-Karabakh in 1992 and occupied seven
adjoining districts in Azerbaijan, creating a corridor — the Lachin
corridor — connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia proper. Armenia
renamed the province the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and declared it
independent on January 6, 1992.
Nevertheless, the international community, including Armenia, does
not recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state.
Through Russian mediation, in 1994 Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a
cease-fire agreement. Azerbaijan, by that point, had lost some 15
percent of its territory.
What is Nagorno-Karabakh like today?
Politically, socially, and economically Nagorno-Karabakh behaves like
an autonomous Armenian province.
With a growing population of approximately 200,000, Nagorno-Karabakh
has become ethnically homogenous: 95 percent of residents are
Armenian, and Assyrians, Greeks, and Kurds constitute the remaining 5
percent.
Armenians rely on free movement and trade between Nagorno-Karabakh
and Armenia proper, and Nagorno-Karabakh~Rs first elected leader,
Robert Kocharian, is now Armenia~Rs president.
Is there a solution to the conflict?
In 1993, the U.N. Security Council adopted four resolutions calling
for the withdrawal of Armenian occupying forces and reaffirming the
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, with Nagorno-Karabakh as an
integral part of the country.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) Minsk Group, an
ad hoc body co-chaired by Russia, the U.S. and France is responsible
for negotiating a final peace settlement.
To date, however, no peace agreement has been achieved, and the U.N.
resolutions have not been implemented. There are no international
peacekeepers on the ground; instead, Armenian and Azerbaijani forces
maintain a heavy presence along the front line. Finally, with no
political solution in sight, internally displaced people and refugees
are unable to return to their homes.