Armenians and Azeris, constant armed conflict, Nagorno Karabakh, 1991(?)-present, territorial disputes and ethnic hatred.

The 27th of September, 2020, was probably an insignificant day for most of us. With the surge of COVID-19 infections, several institutions were forced to close across the globe as humanity sought to contain the spread of illness and death. Unbeknownst to the majority of us who were trying to get used to the contemporary way of life, death and misery had manifested itself on the other side of the world, taking the shape of something far more grotesque than any disease. For the citizens of the predominantly Christian Armenia and primarily muslim Azerbaijan, two former-soviet nations in the Caucasus region, the 27th of September was a day that defined their nations, either in glory or in shame, as war would violently kick off between the two for six weeks in an area called Nagorno-Karabakh. After more than 3,000 combined military deaths and over 90,000 having fled the conflict, a ceasefire brokered by Russia ended the armed conflict on the 9th of November that same year. Two years on and approaching the third, military tensions and hostilities only continue for the belligerent nations as worries for renewed fighting and ethnic cleansing rise amidst recent developments. But why? What does a land area comparable to the size of Delaware have that could be worth the substantial losses of human life both then and now? Why has fighting been persistent over the past 30 years?

By 2016, Azerbaijan had already commenced its retrieval of occupied lands in what came to be known as the Four-Day War, but full-fledged war wouldn’t start until 2020. On the fateful Sunday of September 27th, 2020, armed conflict flared up as Azerbaijan launched aerial and artillery strikes on Armenian and separatist positions, killing over 16 adversaries on the first day alone. What ensued was fierce fighting and heavy casualties on both ends as Azerbaijan, Armenia, and the separatist counterpart of the latter declared martial law and mobilized their male populations. However, Azerbaijan’s amassing of funding and weapons would prove to be Armenia’s undoing, as perfectly exemplified by Azerbaijan's use of Turkish Bayraktar TB2 unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs). This formidable and stealthy new component of the Azerbaijani Air Forces proved to be devastating for the Armenian infantry on the ground, who were wiped out in clusters alongside any nearby armor or vehicle in an instant. The ominous buzzing that filled the air upon the arrival of this killer machine was feared by Armenian civilians and soldiers alike. Surrounded by Azeri-aligned Turkey and Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic to the west, the somewhat neutral Iran to the south, and the hostile Azerbaijan mainland to the east, Armenia could only rely on Russia to the North for the supplement of arms. For this reason, the Armenian inventory was very limited and their primarily Soviet-era weapons and equipment were drastically inferior compared to the modern tech utilized by Azerbaijan, which they purchased from Turkey and Israel with their aforementioned bolstered military budget. 

The ceasefire, brokered by Russia, dictated the deployment of 2,000 Russian soldiers to the region for the purpose of peacekeeping, and also decreed land concessions to Azerbaijan, including the surrender of the Lachin Corridor, a region that held the only road connecting Artsakh to Armenia and the world as a whole. The Russian peacekeepers were mandated to protect the road and to keep it open, but towards the end of 2022, Azeri protesters blocked the road and all supplies going in and out of Artsakh as a result. Whilst they claimed they wanted an end to alleged illegal mining by Armenians, many Western governments instead believe that this was merely just a ploy conjured up by Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev, the nation’s president since 2003. For a while it stood, Armenians in Artsakh were with minimal supplies in face of this new phase. And without any warning, on the 19th of September this year, Azerbaijan had launched a sudden and fierce military operation against the Armenains, but it only lasted for about a day before another ceasefire deal was reached between the two. The dilapidated and weakened separatist government of Artsakh, in compliance with the Azeris’ demands, agreed to disarm and disband its national militia, and the separatist government will cease to exist entirely by January 1st of the upcoming year. Despite Azeri promises to reintegrate the region and respect the rights of remaining Armenians, the future for the region’s displaced and enduring populations is a blinding fog, as those who've already left have also reportedly abandoned any hope for returning, citing a refusal to continue life in the region under Turkic authority. 

The side you support in this conflict doesn’t necessitate being blind towards the immense loss of life on both ends of the war, the likes of which are nothing short of tragic and gut wrenching. What’s more, the widespread boasting of brutal and violent acts towards civilians and combatants alike is atrocious, sickening, and heartbreaking to see. What comes next in this complicated scuffle is something nobody is entirely sure of, but the best we can do to counteract the affliction of war is find means to support those directly impacted by the conflict, and hope that the recent resolution can finally bring an end to decades of misery and hatred as opposed to continuing it.

1 The start of conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan can be traced back to the early 20th century. As Russia underwent its Bolshevik Revolution, the Bolsheviks formed the Workers’ and Peasants’ Army (colloquially called the Red Army) as a means of militarily combating their adversaries in the Russian Civil War. However, the Red Army would also be utilized to carry out the expansionist desires of the Bolsheviks, leading to their invasion of the Caucasus and the capture of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia (Sakartvelo). Subsequently, these formerly independent nations were converted Into Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs) and absorbed into the Soviet Union, with the predominantly-Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh region within Azerbaijan’s borders entering the Soviet Union as the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. For a while it stood as such with occasional outbreaks of unrest as Armenians demanded unification, but reforms within the Soviet Union during the late 1980s meant that individuals and constituent nations of the USSR were permitted to behave more independently, leading to a rift between the Armenian and Azeri SSRs. Finally, amidst the mass onset of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Azerbaijan all declare independence and break away from the Soviets. The issue was that the people within Nagorno-Karabakh had long pushed for unification with Armenia, citing grievances faced by Azeri authorities in the region, leading to a large-scale conflict directly after independence as Armenians sought to unify each other whilst Azeris desired to retain their claim over the region, which lies within their internationally recognized borders. With that, from 1991-1994, the First Nagorno-Karabakh War passed, leading to over 30,000 deaths. The Armenians stood proud and tall in the name of victory as the Armenian Armed Forces occupied swabs of Azeri territory and successfully defended Nagorno-Karabakh and its separatist government, which then decided to call itself the Republic of Artsakh. Long-standing ethnic hatred and tensions began to erupt as pogroms were launched by Azeris and Armenians against the other, and periodic border clashes were frequent between the two.