It started in the last century … This is the reason for the conflict in Armenia and Azerbaijan

Last update: Monday 10 صفر 1442 هـ – September 28, 2020 KSA 10:31 – GMT 07:31
Publication date: Monday 10 صفر 1442 هـ – September 28, 2020 KSA 09:54 – GMT 06:54

Source: Al Arabiya.net – Taha Abdel Nasser Ramadan

On Sunday, the Nagorno-Karabakh region witnessed violence between Azerbaijanis and Armenians, which resulted in 16 deaths and dozens of injuries, in a dangerous event that brought back to many the memory of the armed conflict that broke out between the two sides at the end of the last century and that lasted for years, causing tens of thousands of deaths. The dead and wounded.

Although Armenians make up 94% of its demographic fabric, the Nagorno-Karabakh region remains in dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan, as the latter refuses to give up this mountainous region in the South Caucasus.

Failed peace and separation

The phases of the crisis in this region date back to the last century, just before the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the tsarist regime collapsed in Russia and the Bolsheviks were able to take the reins after the November Revolution of 1917.

Simultaneously, the Armenians, Azerbaijanis and Georgians announced the creation of their independent state in the Caucasus, which became known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Transcaucasia.

Meanwhile, this modern republic came to an end after weeks, as these three peoples differed in principles and objectives, so Georgia resorted to declaring its independence on May 26, 1918, followed by Armenia and Azerbaijan, who declared their separation after two days.

And quickly, armed clashes broke out between Azerbaijanis and Armenians in various regions, including Karabakh, as the two sides at the time contested the demarcation of the border between them.

Coinciding with the fall of the Ottomans and their defeat in World War I, Armenian forces managed to approach the city of Shusha, the capital of the Karabakh region, but were forced to stop following a request made by the British and demanding through it, resolve the crisis at the Paris Peace Conference.

During the Paris conference, participants tended to demand a reconciliation between the two conflicting parties.

With the tension easing, the negotiations suddenly turned sour, as Azerbaijanis carried out a disoriented ethnic cleansing during the month of March 1920, which resulted in the death of hundreds of Armenians, and brought to mind the Armenian massacres. led by the Turks in the First World War and which resulted in the death of around 1.5 million who are.

Crisis for Stalin and the Soviet Union

In April 1920, Soviet forces invaded the region, annexing Armenia and Azerbaijan to their possessions, turning them into Soviet republics, and entrusting an important part of the affairs of this region to the then People’s Commissioner for Nationalities, Joseph Stalin.

As a result, the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict met a temporary end, but along with all these events, Soviet officials initially voted to annex the Karabakh region to Armenia, because it contained 94% of the Armenians, but they soon withdrew and preferred to apply the term “divide and conquer” from keeping it under control of Azerbaijan, in the hope of preserving tension between the two sides and diverting them from interest in the affairs and problems of the Soviet Union.

The tension returns

With Mikhail Gorbachev in charge and the collapse of the Soviet Union looming, the Armenians in Karabakh passed a bill to join the Republic of Armenia.

Coinciding with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, this autonomous region did not hesitate to declare its secession from Azerbaijan, and a fierce war broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Karabakh, causing the death of more than 30 thousand people, injuries and the displacement of dozens of thousands before knowing its end thanks to a ceasefire agreement in which it contributed in some way. The president of the Minsk organization that appeared in the early 1990s to find a solution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani crisis.