Nagorno Karabakh Region

Context:

The heads of both Armenia and Azerbaijan have come forward to setup a delimitation commission and border security to resolve the issue bilaterally.

This region which is subject to conflict is a land locked region within the boundaries of Azerbaijan.
The point of conflict here is that it hosts a predominantly ethnic Armenian population along with the Azeris living in a minority.
It is located in the south Caucasus region and is roughly made up of modern-day Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.
These regions which were ruled by several empires including the Armenian Kingdom, Ottomans and the Russians has today been separated into three different Republics including Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, while Azerbaijan has incorporated Nagorno Karabakh into their territory.
During the first world war The Ottomans aided by the Azeris attacked Armenia after the Ottomans retreated, Azerbaijan and Armenia entered into a full fledged war.

The Soviet influence was expanded to this region and Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia became Soviet Republics.
This region was placed as an autonomous region by the Soviets.
With the declining influence of the Soviets after the 1980s, the ethnic Armenians started expressing their desire to be a part of Armenia.
In 1993, Armenia took control of this region, this conflict ended in 1994 when both sides agreed to enter into a ceasefire agreement brokered by Russia.
Recently in both 2016 and 2020 clashes broke out between both the groups, this has led to loss of thousands of lives.

Both the sides had entered into a ceasefire in 2020, despite that the violence has not ended.
Despite of the efforts by the Minsk group the clashes have remained and now Azerbaijan has itself proposed peace talks.
It has proposed that the region must be accepted to be as part of Azerbaijan’s territory and both sides must mutually accept the territorial integrity.
The European Union, meanwhile, has emerged as a potential peace broker.

Source : The Hindu.

For more update, click here to join our telegram channel