There are enough places on the geopolitical map of the world that can be marked in red. Here military conflicts either subside or flare up again, many of which have more than a century of history. There are not so many such "hot" spots on the planet, but it is still better that they do not exist at all. However, unfortunately, one of these places is not so far from the Russian border. We are talking about the Karabakh conflict, which is rather difficult to briefly describe. The very essence of this confrontation between Armenians and Azerbaijanis goes back to the end of the nineteenth century. And many historians believe that the conflict between these nations has existed for a much longer time. It is impossible to talk about it without mentioning the Armenian-Azerbaijani war, which claimed a large number of lives on both sides. The historical chronicle of these events is kept by Armenians and Azerbaijanis very carefully. Although each nationality sees only its rightness in what happened. In the article we will analyze the causes and consequences of the Karabakhconflict. And also briefly outline the current situation in the region. We will single out several sections of the article to the Armenian-Azerbaijani war of the late nineteenth - early twentieth century, part of which are armed clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Characteristics of the military conflict
Historians often argue that the causes of many wars and armed conflicts are misunderstandings among the mixed local population. The Armenian-Azerbaijani war of 1918-1920 can be characterized in the same way. Historians call it an ethnic conflict, but the main reason for the outbreak of war is seen in territorial disputes. They were most relevant in those places where historically Armenians and Azerbaijanis coexisted in the same territories. The peak of military clashes came at the end of the First World War. The authorities managed to achieve relative stability in the region only after the republics joined the Soviet Union.
The First Republic of Armenia and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic did not enter into direct clashes with each other. Therefore, the Armenian-Azerbaijani war had some resemblance to partisan resistance. The main actions took place in the disputed territories, where the republics supported militias created by their fellow citizens.
For all the time that the Armenian-Azerbaijani war of 1918-1920 lasted, the most bloody and active actions took place in Karabakh and Nakhichevan. All this was accompanied by a real massacre, which eventually became the cause of the demographic crisis in the region. The heaviest pages inArmenians and Azerbaijanis call the history of this conflict:
- March Massacre;
- massacre of Armenians in Baku;
- Shusha massacre.
It should be noted that the young Soviet and Georgian governments tried to provide mediation services in the Armenian-Azerbaijani war. However, this approach had no effect and did not become a guarantor of the stabilization of the situation in the region. The problem was solved only after the Red Army occupied the disputed territories, which led to the overthrow of the ruling regime in both republics. However, in some regions the fire of war was only slightly extinguished and flared up more than once. Speaking of this, we mean the Karabakh conflict, the consequences of which our contemporaries still cannot fully appreciate.
History of hostilities
From the earliest times, tensions have been noted in the disputed territories between the people of Armenia and the people of Azerbaijan. The Karabakh conflict was just a continuation of a long and dramatic story unfolding over several centuries.
Religious and cultural differences between the two peoples were often considered the reason that led to the armed clash. However, the real reason for the Armenian-Azerbaijani war (in 1991 it broke out with renewed vigor) was the territorial issue.
In 1905, the first riots began in Baku, which resulted in an armed conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. Gradually, it began to flow to other areasTranscaucasia. Wherever the ethnic composition was mixed, there were regular clashes that were harbingers of a future war. The October Revolution can be called its trigger.
Since the seventeenth year of the last century, the situation in the Transcaucasus has completely destabilized, and the hidden conflict turned into an open war that claimed many lives.
A year after the revolution, major changes took place in the once unified territory. Initially, independence was proclaimed in Transcaucasia, but the newly created state lasted only a few months. It is historically natural that it broke up into three independent republics:
- Georgian Democratic Republic;
- Republic of Armenia (The Karabakh conflict hit Armenians very hard);
- Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.
Despite this division, in Zangezur and Karabakh, which became part of Azerbaijan, there lived a lot of Armenian population. They categorically refused to obey the new authorities and even created organized armed resistance. This partly gave rise to the Karabakh conflict (we will briefly consider it a little later).
The goal of the Armenians living in the announced territories was to become part of the Republic of Armenia. Armed clashes between scattered Armenian detachments and Azerbaijani troops were repeated regularly. But neither side could come to any final decision.
In turn, a similar situation has developed on the territory of Armenia. It included the Erivanprovince densely populated by Muslims. They resisted joining the republic and received material support from Turkey and Azerbaijan.
The eighteenth-nineteenth years of the last century were the initial stage for the military conflict, when the formation of opposing camps and opposition groups took place.
The most important events for the war took place in several regions almost simultaneously. Therefore, we will consider the war through the prism of armed clashes in these areas.
Nakhichevan. Muslim resistance
The Truce of Mudros, signed in the eighteenth year of the last century and marked the defeat of Turkey in the First World War, immediately changed the balance of power in the Transcaucasus. Its troops, previously introduced into the Transcaucasian region, were forced to hastily leave it. After several months of independent existence, it was decided to introduce the liberated territories into the Republic of Armenia. However, this was done without the consent of the local residents, most of whom were Azerbaijani Muslims. They began to resist, especially since the Turkish military supported this opposition. A small number of soldiers and officers were transferred to the territory of the new Republic of Azerbaijan.
Her authorities supported their compatriots and made an attempt to isolate the disputed regions. One of the Azerbaijani leaders even declared Nakhichevan and several other regions closest to it an independent Arak Republic. Such an outcome promised bloody clashes, to whichthe Muslim population of the self-proclaimed republic was ready. The support of the Turkish army was very helpful and, according to some forecasts, the Armenian government troops would have been defeated. Serious clashes were avoided thanks to the intervention of Britain. Through her efforts, a general government was formed in the declared independent territories.
In a few months of the nineteenth year, under the British protectorate, the disputed territories managed to restore a peaceful life. Gradually, telegraph communication with other countries was established, the railway track was repaired and several trains were launched. However, British troops could not remain in these territories for long. After peaceful negotiations with the Armenian authorities, the parties came to an agreement: the British left the Nakhichevan region, and the Armenian military units entered there with full rights to these lands.
This decision led to the indignation of Azerbaijani Muslims. The military conflict broke out with renewed vigor. Looting took place everywhere, houses and Muslim shrines were burned. In all areas close to Nakhichevan, battles and minor clashes thundered. Azerbaijanis created their own units and performed under the British and Turkish flags.
As a result of the battles, the Armenians almost completely lost control over Nakhichevan. The surviving Armenians were forced to leave their homes and flee to Zangezur.
Causes and consequences of the Karabakh conflict. Historical background
This region cannot boaststability so far. Despite the fact that theoretically a solution to the Karabakh conflict was found in the last century, in reality it did not become a real way out of the current situation. And its roots go back to ancient times.
If we talk about the history of Nagorno-Karabakh, we would like to dwell on the fourth century BC. It was then that these territories became part of the Armenian kingdom. Later they became a part of Greater Armenia and for six centuries were territorially part of one of its provinces. In the future, these areas have changed their ownership more than once. They were ruled by Albanians, Arabs, again Armenians and Russians. Naturally, territories with such a history as a distinctive feature have a heterogeneous composition of the population. This was one of the causes of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
For a better understanding of the situation, it must be said that at the very beginning of the twentieth century there were already clashes between Armenians and Azerbaijanis in this region. From 1905 to 1907, the conflict periodically made itself felt by short-term armed skirmishes among the local population. But the October Revolution became the starting point of a new round in this conflict.
Karabakh in the first quarter of the twentieth century
In 1918-1920, the Karabakh conflict flared up with renewed vigor. The reason was the proclamation of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. It was supposed to include Nagorno-Karabakh with a large number of the Armenian population. It did not accept the new government and began to resist it, including armed resistance.
In the summer of 1918, the Armenians living in these territories convened the first congress and elected their own government. Knowing this, the Azerbaijani authorities took advantage of the help of Turkish troops and began to gradually suppress the resistance of the Armenian population. The Armenians of Baku were the first to be attacked, the bloody massacre in this city became a lesson for many other territories.
By the end of the year the situation was far from normal. Clashes between Armenians and Muslims continued, chaos reigned everywhere, looting and robbery became widespread. The situation was complicated by the fact that refugees from other regions of Transcaucasia began to flock to the region. According to preliminary estimates by the British, about forty thousand Armenians disappeared in Karabakh.
The British, who felt quite confident in these territories, saw an interim solution to the Karabakh conflict in the transfer of this region under the control of Azerbaijan. Such an approach could not but shock the Armenians, who considered the British government their ally and assistant in regulating the situation. They did not agree with the proposal to leave the solution of the conflict to the Paris Peace Conference and appointed their representative in Karabakh.
Attempts to resolve the conflict
Georgian authorities offered their help in stabilizing the situation in the region. They organized a conference attended by plenipotentiary delegates from both young republics. However, the settlement of the Karabakh conflict turned out to be impossible due to different approaches to its solution.
Armenian authoritiesoffered to be guided by ethnic characteristics. Historically, these territories belonged to the Armenians, so their claims to Nagorno-Karabakh were justified. However, Azerbaijan made compelling arguments in favor of an economic approach to deciding the fate of the region. It is separated from Armenia by mountains and is in no way connected with the state territorially.
After lengthy disputes, the parties did not come to a compromise. Therefore, the conference was considered a failure.
Further course of the conflict
After an unsuccessful attempt to resolve the Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijan imposed an economic blockade of these territories. He was supported by the British and Americans, but even they were forced to recognize such measures as extremely cruel, as they led to starvation among the local population.
Gradually, the Azerbaijanis increased their military presence in the disputed territories. Periodic armed clashes did not develop into a full-fledged war only thanks to representatives from other countries. But it couldn't last long.
The participation of the Kurds in the Armenian-Azerbaijani war was not always mentioned in official reports of that period. But they took an active part in the conflict, joining specialized cavalry units.
In early 1920, at the Paris Peace Conference, it was decided to recognize the disputed territories for Azerbaijan. Despite the nominal solution of the issue, the situation has not stabilized. Looting and robbery continued, bloodyethnic cleansing that claimed the lives of entire settlements.
Armenian uprising
The decisions of the Paris Conference led to relative peace. But in the current situation, he was just the calm before the storm. And it struck in the winter of 1920.
Against the background of the renewed national massacre, the Azerbaijani government demanded the unconditional submission of the Armenian population. For this purpose, an Assembly was convened, the delegates of which worked until the first days of March. However, no consensus was reached either. Some advocated only economic unification with Azerbaijan, while others refused any contact with the authorities of the republic.
Despite the established truce, the governor-general, appointed by the Azerbaijani republican government to manage the region, gradually began to gather military contingent here. In parallel, he introduced a lot of rules restricting Armenians in movement, and drew up a plan for the destruction of their settlements.
All this only aggravated the situation and led to the beginning of the uprising of the Armenian population on March 23, 1920. Armed groups attacked several settlements at the same time. But only one of them managed to achieve a noticeable result. The rebels failed to hold the city: already in the first days of April it was returned under the authority of the governor-general.
The failure did not stop the Armenian population, and the long-standing military conflict resumed on the territory of Karabakh with renewed vigor. During April, the settlements passed from one hand to another, the forces of the opponents were equal, and the tension every day onlyintensified.
At the end of the month, the sovietization of Azerbaijan took place, which radically changed the situation and the balance of power in the region. Over the next six months, Soviet troops entrenched themselves in the republic and entered Karabakh. Most of the Armenians went over to their side. Those officers who did not lay down their arms were shot.
Subtotals
The result of the Karabakh conflict can be considered the Sovietization of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Karabakh was nominally left with the right to self-determination, although the Soviet government sought to use this region for its own purposes.
Initially, the right to it was assigned to Armenia, but a little later, the final decision was the introduction of Nagorno-Karabakh into Azerbaijan as an autonomy. However, neither side was satisfied with the outcome. Periodically, minor conflicts arose, provoked either by the Armenian or by the Azerbaijani population. Each of the peoples considered themselves infringed in their rights, and the issue of transferring the region under the rule of Armenia was raised repeatedly.
The situation only outwardly seemed stable, which was proved in the late eighties - early nineties of the last century, when they again started talking about the Karabakh conflict (1988).
Renewal of conflict
Until the end of the eighties, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh remained conditionally stable. There were talks about changing the status of autonomy from time to time, but this was done in very narrow circles. The policy of Mikhail Gorbachev influenced the mood in the region: discontentthe Armenian population with its position has increased. The people began to gather for rallies, there were words about the deliberate restraint of the development of the region and the ban on resuming ties with Armenia. During this period, the nationalist movement became more active, whose leaders spoke about the disdainful attitude of the authorities towards Armenian culture and traditions. Increasingly, there were appeals to the Soviet government calling for the withdrawal of autonomy from Azerbaijan.
Ideas of reunification with Armenia leaked into print media. In the republic itself, the population actively supported new trends, which negatively affected the authority of the leadership. Trying to hold back popular uprisings, the Communist Party was rapidly losing its positions. Tension in the region grew, which inevitably led to another round of the Karabakh conflict.
By 1988, the first clashes between the Armenian and Azerbaijani populations were recorded. The impetus for them was the dismissal in one of the villages of the head of the collective farm - an Armenian. Mass riots were suspended, but in parallel, a collection of signatures in favor of unification was launched in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia. With this initiative, a group of delegates was sent to Moscow.
In the winter of 1988, refugees from Armenia began to arrive in the region. They talked about the oppression of the Azerbaijani people in the Armenian territories, which added tension to an already difficult situation. Gradually, the population of Azerbaijan was divided into two opposing groups. Some believed that Nagorno-Karabakh should finally become part of Armenia, while otherstraced separatist tendencies in the unfolding events.
At the end of February, the Armenian people's deputies voted for an appeal to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR with a request to consider the sore point with Karabakh. Azerbaijani deputies refused to vote and defiantly left the meeting room. The conflict gradually got out of control. Many feared bloody clashes among the local population. And they didn't keep them waiting.
On February 22, two groups of people from Aghdam and Askeran were hardly separated. Quite strong opposition groups with weapons in their arsenal have formed in both settlements. We can say that this clash was the signal for the start of a real war.
In early March, a wave of strikes swept through Nagorno-Karabakh. In the future, the people will more than once resort to this method of attracting attention to themselves. In parallel, people began to take to the streets of Azerbaijani cities, speaking in support of the decision on the impossibility of revising the status of Karabakh. The most massive were similar processions in Baku.
The Armenian authorities tried to contain the pressure of the people, who increasingly advocated unification with once disputed areas. Several official groups have even formed in the republic, collecting signatures in support of the Karabakh Armenians and conducting explanatory work on this issue among the masses. Moscow, despite numerous appeals from the Armenian population, continued to adhere to the decision on the previous statusKarabakh. However, she encouraged the representatives of this autonomy with promises to establish cultural ties with Armenia and provide a number of indulgences to the local population. Unfortunately, such half-measures could not satisfy both sides.
Everywhere rumors spread about the oppression of certain nationalities, people took to the streets, many of them had weapons. The situation finally got out of control in late February. At that time, bloody pogroms of the Armenian quarters took place in Sumgayit. For two days, law enforcement agencies could not restore order. The official reports did not include reliable information about the number of victims. The authorities still hoped to hide the real state of affairs. However, the Azerbaijanis were determined to carry out mass pogroms, destroying the Armenian population. With difficulty, it was possible to prevent a repetition of the situation with Sumgayit in Kirovobad.
In the summer of 1988, the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan reached a new level. The republics began to use conditionally "legal" methods in the confrontation. These include a partial economic blockade and the adoption of laws regarding Nagorno-Karabakh without considering the views of the opposite side.
Armenian-Azerbaijani war of 1991-1994
Until 1994, the situation in the region was extremely difficult. A Soviet group of troops was introduced into Yerevan, in some cities, including Baku, the authorities established a curfew. Popular unrest often resulted in massacres, which even the military contingent could not stop. In Armenianartillery shelling became the norm on the Azerbaijani border. The conflict escalated into a full-scale war between the two republics.
Nagorno-Karabakh was proclaimed a republic in 1991, which caused another round of hostilities. Armored vehicles, aviation and artillery were used at the fronts. Casu alties on both sides only provoked more military operations.
Summing up
Today, the causes and consequences of the Karabakh conflict (in brief) can be found in any school history textbook. After all, he is an example of a frozen situation that has not found its final solution.
In 1994, the warring parties entered into a ceasefire agreement. An intermediate result of the conflict can be considered an official change in the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the loss of several Azerbaijani territories that previously belonged to the border. Naturally, Azerbaijan itself considered the military conflict not resolved, but merely frozen. Therefore, in 2016, the shelling of the territories adjacent to Karabakh began back in 2016.
Today the situation threatens to escalate into a full-fledged military conflict again, because the Armenians do not at all want to return to their neighbors the lands annexed several years ago. The Russian government advocates a truce and seeks to keep the conflict frozen. However, many analysts believe that this is impossible, and sooner or later the situation in the region will again become uncontrollable.
