Brief History of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)
HISTORY OF ARTSAKH (Nagorno-Karabakh)
By Vic Gerami
Artsakh has for millennia been an integral part of historic Armenia and has never been a part of independent Azerbaijan. Dating back to the 9-6th century BCE, the region was governed by various Armenian kingdoms, and in the 17th Century, it was annexed by the Russian Empire. In 1921, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin gave the newly formed Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic a sinister gift. Responding to economic blackmail from oil-rich Azerbaijan and Turkish threats of aggression, Stalin thumbed his nose at international law and his own country’s Bureau of the Communist Party, which—just a day earlier—had confirmed Artsakh’s rightful status as part of Armenia. In 1921, Stalin placed Artsakh under the administration of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic as an autonomous oblast.
Artsakh, however, remained demographically Armenian and preserved its autonomous status despite widespread oppression and discrimination at the hands of Soviet Azerbaijan. On December 10, 1991, the population of Artsakh declared the establishment of the Artsakh Republic by plebiscite. Taking care to fully comply with both international law and globally accepted democratic norms as well as the letter and spirit of the USSR’s own laws of that time, the act was widely seen as legally binding. Thus, on the territory of the former Azerbaijani SSR two equal states were created: Artsakh Republic and the Republic of Azerbaijan. Artsakh’s declaration of independence further increased Azerbaijan’s persecution of the Armenians and its aim to ethnically cleanse Armenians reached its peak.
Artsakh Genocide
Between September 2020 and September 2023, the state of Azerbaijan committed the Artsakh Genocide. On September 27, 2020, Azerbaijan, with help from Turkiye, Russia, and Israel, and hired jihadist mercenaries from Syria, Libya, and Pakistan invaded the Republic of Artsakh, also known by its Soviet name, Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan released the monstrous firepower of humanity’s latest, most sophisticated battlefield technology, including illegal and banned weapons, supplied by Turkiye, Russia, and Israel massacred 5,000+ indigenous Armenians and occupied 90% of Artsakh.
On November 9, 2020, Russia brokered a ceasefire agreement that Azerbaijan has broken many times since and made it null and void. Then Azerbaijan unleashed a violent and deadly campaign to frighten Armenians to leave Artsakh. What was left of Artsakh was surrounded by the Azerbaijani military, who routinely fired and killed Armenians, invaded and burned their homes, and committed other crimes against humanity.
Starting on December 12, 2022, Azerbaijan blockaded Artsakh in an attempt to force the Armenians to flee their native lands and take over the region. Aliyev’s government ordered a group of fake self-styled environmental activists set up a roadblock on the Lachin corridor, the sole overland route linking the region with Armenia. Many of these so-called activists were later revealed to be connected with the Azerbaijani government. In the next nine months, Azerbaijan attempted to starve Armenians and drive them out of Artsakh.
On September 19, Azerbaijan began bombardment of Artsakh and intentionally shelled civilian towns. In a September 5 report, ‘Risk Factors and Indicators of the Crime of Genocide in the Republic of Artsakh, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention stated, ‘The total blockade of Artsakh civilians from access to the outside world led to the complete interruption of any imports through the Lachin Corridor. Russian peacekeepers and the International Committee of the Red Cross were also forbidden from providing external relief supplies. This left Artsakh’s 120,000 civilians—including approximately 30,000 children—with rapidly dwindling stocks of food, medicine, baby formula and other indispensable supplies that could not be produced on the ground, rendering them vulnerable to illness and starvation.’
On 22 February 2023, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered provisional measures to ensure that Azerbaijan ends the blockade of the Lachin Corridor. However, on 23 April 2023, Azerbaijani forces illegally installed a checkpoint in the Lachin Corridor, at the Hakari Bridge.
Following Azerbaijan’s illegal, cruel, and inhumane blockade of Artsakh that deprived the region’s 120,000 civilians, including 30,000 children of food, medicine, and other necessities for more than nine months, on September 19th Azerbaijan launched an unprovoked military offensive on Artsakh in an attempt to subjugate the region’s ethnically Armenian population by force. Following a 24-hour assault that saw the displacement of several thousand civilians and more than 200 deaths, Artsakh’s authorities chose to disarm to avoid further bloodshed. The remaining 120,000 Armenians fled to Armenia as refugees.
On November 17, 2023, the International Court of Justice ordered Azerbaijan to ensure the ‘safe and unimpeded’ return of individuals who left Artsakh after September 19, when Azerbaijan launched a massive attack on Artsakh forcing the exodus of more than 120,000 Armenians from their homes. But Azerbaijan ignored this new demand from the ICJ too.
Yes, it’s Genocide
Leading international genocide prevention organizations and experts have concluded that Azerbaijan committed genocide against the Armenians of Artsakh. On September 29, 2023, Genocide Watch published Genocide and Forced Deportation: Nagorno-Karabakh. On August 7, 23, Luis Moreno Ocampo, the founding prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, published his expert opinion, Genocide against Armenians in 2023, in September 2024, the International Association of Genocide Scholars passed a comprehensive resolution which among other measures, stated, the ‘blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh as genocide.’ Then on December 12, 2024, O’Brien, president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars reaffirmed her position by calling it genocide. On September 19, 2024, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention published On the One Year Anniversary of the Artsakh Genocide.