TWO SIDES TO NAGORNO-KARABAKH
By Catherine Reilly
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Thursday, February 26, 2009, 17:54
With Nagorno-Karabakh, as with any long-standing political conflict,
diametrically opposed viewpoints exist on its origins and escalation.
Visit the website of Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and an
icon on the screen’s right grabs the attention, such is its starkness.
It features an outline of Azerbaijan, as computer-generated fire-fumes
emanate from the Nagorno-Karabakh region in the southwest. The text
‘ARMENIAN AGGRESSION! Towards Azerbaijan’ accompanies it, and leaves
the viewer in little doubt as to the troubled relationship between
these Caucasus neighbours.
Armenia’s corresponding ministry site also carries an icon – although
less dramatically imaged – which is labelled ‘KARABAKH CONFLICT’.
Both ministries claim to have right on their site, and both countries
and their peoples have suffered greatly from the conflict, not least
those in Nagorno-Karabakh itself.
Today, the region is technically part of Azerbaijan, but
is self-governed under the auspices of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic. Armen-ians have comprised an ab-solute demographic majority
in Nagorno-Karabakh since at least the early Middle Ages In 1924,
the Soviet Union – of which modern-day Armenia and Azerbaijan were
then a part – created the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region
within Azerbaijan, even though the population in the area was almost
entirely Armenian. As the Azerbaijani population grew, the Armenians
claimed discrimination, and tensions mounted on both sides.
By the late 1980s, these frictions had exploded into a full-on
conflict. As violence increased, the ethnic Azeri (Azerbaijani)
population fled the region, while ethnic Armenians were forced to
escape from other parts of Azerbaijan.
A declaration of war never emanated from either Armenia or Azerbaijan,
but large-scale combat took place between Azerbaijani and ethnic
Armenian forces. The ethnic Armenians won out, and occupied some of
Azerbaijani territory outside Karabakh, which acted as a buffer zone
linking it with Armenia.
In 1994, a Russian-brokered ceasefire was signed, leaving the region
under de facto ethnic Armenian control. It also left areas of Azeri
territory around the enclave in Armenian hands.
More than 30,000 people have lost their lives since the eruption of
tensions, and more than one million Armenians and Azeris have had to
flee their homes.
Russia, France and the US co-chair the OSCE’s Minsk Group, which has
been attempting to broker an end to the dispute for over a decade. Last
November, both the Armenian and Azeri governments pledged to increase
their efforts towards a peaceful solution.