Foreign relations of Armenia: Encyclopedia II - Foreign relations of Armenia - Nagorno-Karabakh

Foreign relations of Armenia - Nagorno-Karabakh

In 1988, the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly ethnic Armenian enclave within Soviet Azerbaijan, voted to secede and join Armenia. This secession eventually developed into a full-scale armed conflict, when Azerbaijan responded with force and Armenian pogroms in Sumgait, Baku, Gance and other cities. Armenian support for the Karabakh Armenians led to an economic embargo by Azerbaijan, which has crippled Armenia's foreign trade and restricted its imports of food and fuel, three-quarters of which transited Azerbaijan under Soviet rule.

Peace talks in early 1993 were disrupted by renewed clashes around Nagorno-Karabakh. Turkey - which shares with Azerbaijan common Moslem religion and ethnic Turkic background - in protest then followed with an embargo of its own against Armenia. A cease-fire was declared between Azeri and Nagorno-Karabakh forces in 1994 and has been maintained by both sides since then in spite of occasional shooting along the line of contact between the two. All Armenian governments have thus far resisted domestic pressure to recognize the self-proclaimed independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, while at the same time announcing they would not accept any peace accords that forces Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani rule. Some 750,000 ethnic Azeris who fled during the Karabakhi offensives still live as internally displaced persons in Azerbaijan, while roughly 400,000 ethnic Armenians who fled Azerbaijan since 1988 remain refugees, although around 35,000 have accepted Armenian citizenship since 1998.

Negotiations to peacefully resolve the conflict have been ongoing since 1992 under the aegis of the Minsk Group of the OSCE. The Minsk Group is currently co-chaired by the U.S., France, and Russia and comprises Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, the U.S., and several western European nations. The talks have focused on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, the return of refugees, the lifting of blockades, the withdrawal from occupied territories, and the status of the Lachin corridor, which connects Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.

Karabakh Armenians, supported by the Republic of Armenia, now hold about 14% of Azerbaijan and have refused to withdraw from occupied territories until an agreement on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh is reached. On its turn, Azerbaijan still occupies the formerly Armenian-populated and now ethnically cleansed Shahumian district, as well as eastern parts of Mardakert and Martuni districts of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia and Azerbaijan continue to observe the cease-fire which has been in effect since May 1994, and in late 1995 both also agreed to OSCE field representatives being based in Tbilisi, Georgia, to monitor the cease-fire and facilitate the peace process.

Disputes - international: Armenia supports ethnic Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh region in the longstanding, conflict against the Azerbaijani Government; traditional demands regarding historical Armenian lands in Turkey have subsided, but haven't been forgotten.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Nagorno-Karabakh", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki