Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Nagorno-Karabakh : What the recent conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is all about?

(Nagorno-Karabakh) So you may have noticed that things have become a little heated between Armenia and Azerbaijan these past few days and like most conflicts the roots here are rooted in the past. Around 207 years ago the Russians captured what is now modern day Azerbaijan from Iran which was followed a few years later (1827) with the capture of what is today modern day Armenia..



In 1920 Stalin wanting to entice the failing Ottoman Empire into the communist world decided to hand over parts of Armenia to Turkman Azerbaijan which he did by turning over Nagorno-Karabakh and Nakhchivan over to Azerbaijan , but to no avail as the Turks as Muslims were having nothing to do with socialism were everybody (of all faiths and genders)  were equal. 


Over the next 100 years Nakhchivan bordering Iran saw the Christian Armenian population ethnically cleansed , but  Nagorno-Karabakh due to its very mountainous geography retained its christian identity  and in 1988 when the Soviet Union started to fall apart, the area voted to be independent of Islamic Azerbaijan and instead be aligned with the mother country of their kin Armenia. and due to that mountainous terrain it has remained in the hands of the separatists. since then Azerbaijan  has spent a lot of its oil revenue in building up its armed forces in which to take back what its wayward state. Until recently all attempts to do so have failed. But in July Turkey carried out a huge military exercise in Azerbaijan 
and it is widely believed that the Turks took the opportunity of the exercise to deliver around 4000 Syrian jihadists to spearhead the attack on Armenia, a large number of Drones , electronic warfare equipment and it is reported F16s. whilst the Turks have denied doing so , with evidence saying otherwise the Turks have issued a press release that they are willing to support Azerbaijan regain  Nagorno-Karabakh.

History of Dispute:

1920: Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region was established within Azerbaijan by the then Soviet Union.

1988: Nagorno-Karabakh legislature passed a resolution to join Armenia despite the region's legal location within Azerbaijan’s borders.

1991 : The autonomous region officially declared that it would not join either of the countries after a referendum which was boycotted by Azerbaijan. War erupted between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the region, leaving roughly tens of thousands of casualties and hundreds of thousands of refugees.

1994: Russia mediated a cease-fire which has remained in place since.

2016: In April 2016, the region was particularly tense because of violent fighting between the two countries, which was known as the Four Day War.