Nagorno-Karabakh Dispute

Pope Francis’ recollections of the Armenian Genocide and the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh dispute angered Azerbaijan and Turkey. His words came a few weeks prior to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, and he aimed to provide peace in a region embattled in bitter tension due to the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.

This dispute caused the strenuous relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan – with each country claiming Nagorno-Karabakh as its own.

This mountainous, forested region that lies between the South Caucasus and the Lesser Caucasus holds strong historical connections. It holds a strong Armenian influence ever since the partition in 387 C.E. between the Byzantine Empire and the Sassanid Empire of Persia.

The influence stemmed from Christianity and the development of the Armenian language. Eventually in the 7th and 8th centuries C.E, the princes under the protection of the Islamic Caliphates gripped their control over Armenia.

With the increasing intensity of nomadic migrations from the North and East, Nagorno-Karabakh was soon under the hegemony of Turkic tribes such as the Aq-Qoyunlu and Qara-Qoyunlu. Nevertheless, their rule in Armenia was usually through local Armenian princes; this freedom allowed Armenian culture to flourish, and created five Armenian noble families.

These families were vital to foreign powers, such as Russia, since it created a form of control over a weaker state. Russian involvement allowed the sovereign status of the princes, who controlled pockets of power known as meliks, to be achieved. After the conclusion of Armenian control over Nagorno-Karabakh, the – anachronistic title - “Napoleon of the East,” Nader Shah Afshar conquered the region, and controlled it for a brief period in 1735.

Once Nader Shah’s control over Nagorno-Karabakh was at an end, it came under the protection of the Russian Empire after the treaty of Kurukchay (1805) – and officially confirmed once Persia ceded its territory after the Treaty of Gulestan (1813) - after a brief independence when it was known as the Karabakh Khanate. This is a vital aspect in the region’s history because the Russians finally had complete control over Armenian and Azerbaijani lands.

After the Karabakh Khanate’s disestablishment in 1822, the Russian government invited Armenians in Persia to settle in Karabakh, while the Azerbaijani population immigrated to Persia. Although this move did not spark a conflict between the two groups, it planted the seeds for the eventual Russian Revolution of 1917’s impact on the communities.

Armenia and Azerbaijan became autonomous states after the dissolution of the short state Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic (1918). After their independence, they set about capturing territories, which they claimed was rightfully theirs, including Karabakh. Eventually, after many short wars, First Armenian Assembly of Nagorno-Karabakh declared the region as self-governing, only to have the Ottomans occupy Karabakh.

After the end of World War I, and subsequently the end of the long lasting Ottoman Empire, the British controlled Karabakh, who preferred to install an Azerbaijani governor in Karabakh, which was fiercely opposed by the Karabakh Armenians epitomized through their guerilla warfare. Azerbaijani and Armenian independence was brief, since in 1920 and 1921 respectively, the region was under the rule of the Soviet Union. The Bolsheviks under Joseph Stalin promised Karabakh to be in the Armenian SSR; however, this arrangement depended on whether Turkey would join the Communist lines. Seeing that the Turks did not, the Bolsheviks placed Nagorno-Karabakh under the control of the Azerbaijan SSR. With the Soviets in full control of Azerbaijan and Armenia, the war was at an end, but the tensions were strong.During the wavering of Soviet power, the question of ruler-ship over Nagorno-Karabakh remerged. In the late 1980s, the majority Armenian population in Karabakh, backed by the Armenian SSR, accused the Azerbaijan SSR of “forced Azerification” of the region. This led to a bloody war, where since 1991 30,000 people have been killed and one million have fled their homes, in 1988, which eventually led to Armenian control over Nagorno-Karabakh after a truce in 1994. During this war, 25% of the total Azeri population fled Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, while Armenians also fled Azerbaijan – never to return to their homes. Since the ceasefire, the war, at times, appears like it could ignite once again – with the shooting down of an Armenian helicopter in 2014 by Azerbaijan, however, there have been negotiations of further peace between the two leaders of the countries. Nevertheless, as the BBC says the “frozen conflict” threatens to reignite, we must hope that, in the words of Pope Francis, “peace also spring forth in Nagorno-Karabakh.”

Sources:

1 http://vostlit.info/Texts/rus2/Bakihanov/frametext5.htm

2 George A. Bournoutian. A History of Qarabagh: An Annotated Translation of Mirza Jamal Javanshir Qarabaghi's Tarikh-e Qarabagh.

3 Penny Cyclopædia Society Diffusion Useful Knowledge George Long4 Service, Robert. Stalin: A Biography. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006 p. 2045 Audrey L. Altstadt. The Azerbaijani Turks: power and identity under Russian rule. Hoover Press, 1992.6 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-18270325