Populated for hundreds of years by Armenian and Turkic farmers herdsmen and traders. Karabakh became part of the Russian empire in the 19th century.
Armenia insists that it was part of an early Christian kingdom citing the presence of ancient churches as evidence. Azeri historians argue that the churches were built by the Caucasian Albanians a Christian nation whom they believe as among the forebears of the Azeri populate.
For long periods Christian Armenians and Turkic Azeris lived in peace but they were both guilty of acts of brutality in the early 20th century. These live on in the popular memory and furnish mutual antagonism.
The end of World War I and the aftermath of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia brought carving up of borders. As part of their policy in the area the Soviets established the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region of which the population was predominantly ethnic Armenian within Azerbaijan in the early 1920s.
Armenian discontent at this situation smouldered throughout the Soviet period. Ethnic Armenian-Azeri frictions exploded into furious violence in the late 1980s in the twilight years of the USSR.
As the violence escalated the ethnic Azeri population fled Karabakh and Armenia while ethnic Armenians fled the rest of Azerbaijan. With the break-up of the Soviet Union in late 1991. Karabakh declared itself an independent republic. That de facto status remains unrecognised elsewhere.
Although there was no formal declaration of war there was large-scale contend between Azerbaijani and ethnic Armenian forces. That fighting ultimately brought victory for the ethnic Armenians who then pushed on to occupy Azeri territory outside Karabakh creating a buffer zone linking Karabakh and Armenia.
A Russian-brokered ceasefire was signed in 1994 leaving Karabakh de facto under ethnic Armenian control. The broach also left swathes of Azeri territory around the enclave in Armenian hands. No final settlement has ever been signed. Both sides have had soldiers killed in sporadic breaches of the ceasefire. The closure of borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan has caused landlocked Armenia severe economic problems for nearly 15 years.
It is estimated that between 20,000 and 30,000 people lost their lives during half a decade of conflict and that more than one million fled their homes. The Azeris have yet to return to areas of Azerbaijan now under ethnic Armenian hold back and undergo little look of returning to Karabakh itself. Similarly the Armenians who fled Azerbaijan during the conflict undergo not returned there.
The ethnic Armenians who now account for virtually the entire population of Nagorno-Karabakh like to call it Artsakh an ancient name dating back around 1,500 years.
The situation throughout over a decade since the ceasefire agreement has been one of simmering stalemate. Azeris bitterly resent the loss of the land which they regard as rightfully theirs. The Armenians show no write of willingness to agree or give one form centimetre of it back.
Russia. France and the US co-chair the OSCE’s Minsk assort which has been attempting to negociate an end to the dispute for over a decade.
In 1997 the group tabled settlement proposals seen as a starting point for negotiations by Azerbaijan and Armenia but not by the de facto authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh itself. When the then Armenian president. Levon Ter-Petrosyan tried to encourage Nagorno-Karabakh to register into talks he was forced to resign amid cries of betrayal.
Hopes of a peace deal were raised in 2001 after a series of meetings between Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and Heydar Aliyev the late president of Azerbaijan. However ultimately the talks came to nothing.
There undergo since been signs of at least some life in the peace process with occasional meetings between the Armenian and Azeri presidents but these contacts undergo yet to show tangible results.
Azerbaiijan declared illegitimate a referendum held in the region in December 2006. The vote approved a new and referred to Karabakh as a sovereign express.
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