Conflicts between Armenia and Azerbaijan began after their independence from the Russian Empire on May 28, 1918, and they entered into territorial disputes over the territories that each saw as historically and ethnically their own, the most important of which was Nagorno-Karabakh.

Conflicts between Armenia and Azerbaijan continued between 1918 and 1920, but these conflicts soon ceased after they joined the Soviet Union in 1922.

Those conflicts quickly reignited immediately after the dissolution of the Soviet Union was declared in 1991, resulting in bloody wars between the two countries that left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands of displaced populations, causing a major political crisis that lasted for more than a century.

This came despite international mediation and numerous attempts by the Minsk Group (named after the capital of Belarus where negotiations took place), which was specially established in 1992 to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and consisted of 17 countries under the chairmanship of France, Russia and the United States.

Causes of conflict

The two neighbors, located at a major crossroads between Eastern Europe and Western Asia, are at the root of the conflict over a breakaway region known as Nagorno-Karabakh, each trying to extend control over a region that for decades has been the scene of a competition for influence between Armenian Christians, Turkic Muslims and Persians.

The name of this region consists of two syllables: "Nagorny", which means "mountainous" in Russian, and "Karabakh", which means "black garden" in Turkish, but the Armenians call the region "Artsakh", which means "Aar forest", and "Are" is the "sun god" for the ancient Armenians.

The mountainous region, which covers an area of about 4400,1987 square kilometers and is inhabited by a local ethnic majority, has long been part of Soviet Azerbaijan, but in <> the Armenian population launched campaigns demanding secession from Azerbaijan and accession to Armenia.

Azerbaijan confronted the separatists with weapons, in an attempt to suppress the demonstrators and control the situation, and Armenia supported those demanding secession from Azerbaijan, which led to a conflict between the two countries that remained in place until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 to break out a war between the two sides in the early nineties that lasted two years and killed more than 30,<> Azerbaijanis and Armenians, before the Armenians settled it in their favor.

Treaty of Turkmenchay signed in 1828 between the Russian and Persian empires (Getty Images)

Although Armenia declared Karabakh's independence in a referendum in December 1991, this independence was considered unilateral and irregular, due to the status of the region, which then became self-ruled, which left the crisis between Azerbaijan and Armenia burning, and then things developed into a war that lasted for years.

On the other hand, the closure of the Lachin corridor by Azerbaijan is one of the most persistent causes of the crisis between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, as it is the only land route that gives Armenia direct access to Karabakh on the one hand, and on the other hand, the decision to close the corridor has completely cut off basic aid to the region inhabited by about 120,<> people, threatening a humanitarian catastrophe after depriving the region's population of food, medicine and other supplies.

The conflict between the two neighbours is renewed every time on the border of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is recognized as part of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the international community in accordance with the provisions of international law, amid a continuous exchange of accusations, as Armenia announced more than once that Azerbaijan bombed some of its military sites, accusing it of trying to advance within its territory, at a time when Azerbaijan indicates that Armenia bombarded one of its army positions with high-caliber missiles.

International mediation was futile in putting an end to the conflict between the two countries, as the efforts of all parties involved in it were considered non-neutral and largely subject to the historical, economic and military relations that bind them to the region.

The beginning of the conflict

The roots of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan date back to the beginning of the 19th century when the Golestan Peace Treaty of 1813 and the Turkmenchay Peace Treaty of 1828 were concluded between the Russian and Persian empires, under which the Russian and Persian empires rapidly settled Armenians from Iran and Turkey in the region, completely changing the ethnic composition of the region.

The October 1917 revolution in Tsarist Russia contributed to the establishment of the Soviet Union after the overthrow by the Bolsheviks of the then Russian provisional government led by Vladimir Lenin, proclaiming the Russian Federative Soviet Socialist Republic, through the unification of the Russian, Ukrainian and Caucasian republics (comprising Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia), as well as Belarus.

Thus, the roots of the conflict between the two neighbors over Nagorno-Karabakh – which has come to be known as the volatile region – go back at least a century, when Joseph Stalin (the second commander of the Soviet Union) annexed this territory to the border drawing of Azerbaijan and granted it the authority to autonomy within the Republic of Azerbaijan.

This conflict resumed in 1988 when the Armenians of Karabakh demanded the secession of the region from Soviet Azerbaijan and accession to Soviet Armenia, and the conflict developed into a full-scale war between the two countries in the early nineties after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

After that, "Karabakh" declared its independence with the aim of reunification with Armenia, to be one of the most important reasons for the beginning of the war between these two countries, each of which wished to annex the small region of the Caucasus to its territory, as Armenia says that this region belongs to it, citing the majority of its Armenian population, and otherwise Azerbaijan considers Karabakh a land of its territory, which led to the outbreak of the first war and contributed significantly to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Armenians from Azerbaijan to Armenia and displacement Hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis from Armenia to Azerbaijan.

An Azerbaijani soldier walks through the area that came under the control of his country's forces on December 7, 2020 (Reuters)

The most important battles and stations

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over some areas between them began in 1918, and the conflicts soon ceased after the two republics joined the Soviet Union in 1922.

The conflict resumed again between the two countries and witnessed multiple battles and stations that began with the Armenian rebellion "Nagorno-Karabakh" against Azerbaijani rule, the vote to join Armenia in 1988, and then the unilateral declaration of its independence in 1991, which contributed significantly to beating the drums of the first war between the two countries in 1992.

The first war resulted in Armenia's occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as seven other surrounding regions, and the situation ended with the signing of a ceasefire agreement between the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh in May 1994 without reaching an agreement on the status of Karabakh.

To help resolve the conflict, mediators were formed under the umbrella of the Minsk Group in 1992, now known as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), co-chaired by France, Russia and the United States.

In 2006, Nagorno-Karabakh separatists approved a constitution for the region as an independent "republic" separate from the Azerbaijani state and chose the city of Stepanakert as the capital of their republic. Armenia and Russia supported the new state by completing the building of its legislative, executive and legal institutions.

In 2009, negotiations between the two countries made significant progress, before stalling again with reported ceasefire violations.

Negotiations between the parties then continued until 2011 with a number of peace proposals, but the parties again failed to reach an agreement to end the conflict.

Clashes resumed in August 2014, with a significant number of Azeri soldiers reportedly killed by Armenians, and Azerbaijani soldiers reportedly shot down an Armenian military helicopter in November of the same year, resulting in the deaths of all crew members.

In the absence of a comprehensive peace process, ceasefire violations between the two sides continued, culminating in the "four-day war" in 2016 and then in the second Karabakh war in the fall of 2020, to be restored by Azerbaijan to the territories occupied in 1994 by Armenia, as well as the latter's access to its territory, and the conflict ended with a truce reached after Russian mediation.

Clashes between the two countries resurfaced at a time when Armenia witnessed an internal uprising in 2018 that led to the ouster of Prime Minister Serzh Sirgsyan after mass demonstrations roamed the streets of the Armenian capital Yerevan in support of opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan, who struck a deal immediately after taking power with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to calm tensions between the two countries.

Foreign Minister of Armenia (right) with Frenchman Philippe Douste (centre) and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister in 2006 (French)

In 2019, the two countries issued a joint communiqué declaring the need to find concrete solutions through the adoption of effective policies to prepare the peoples of the two countries for peace, but this communiqué did not produce any results between the two parties and the situation continued as it is, as clashes were announced on September 13 of the same year between the forces of Azerbaijan and Armenia, in a renewal of the decades-long fighting between them.

On September 27, 2020, the war broke out again between the two parties and lasted about 6 weeks, during which the Azerbaijani forces made significant military progress, reaching the borders of the regional capital, Stepanakert, before stopping again after signing an agreement on November 10, 2020.

In September 2023, Baku launched a military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh, killing at least 200 people and injuring hundreds more, in addition to evacuating more than 10,<> people, including women and children, from their places of residence to other areas, according to a separatist official in the region.

Armenia said 32 people were killed and more than 200 wounded in less than 24 hours during the military operation. After Russian "mediation", Armenian militants agreed to lay down arms a day later, and Azerbaijan declared its sovereignty over the region.

Casualties

The conflict between the two neighboring countries lasted for more than 100 years, and the wars between them left significant casualties after the first Nagorno-Karabakh war in 1992 killed more than 30,725 people, in addition to the displacement of nearly 300,<> Azerbaijanis and more than <>,<> Armenians.

The second war in 2020 resulted in the death of about 6500,2016 people, and a series of small battles and clashes to control the region caused great material and human losses, such as the events of April 110, which killed nearly 2023 people, and the events of September 200, which left more than 10 people dead and hundreds injured, in addition to the evacuation of more than <>,<> people to separate areas in the region.