History of Nagorno-Karabakh

none
the history of Nagorno Karabakh only

Nagorno Karabakh is located in the southern part of the Lesser Caucasus range, at the eastern edge of the Armenian Highlands, encompassing the highland part of the wider geographical region known as Karabakh. Under Russian and Soviet rule, the region came to be known as Nagorno Karabakh, meaning "Mountainous Karabakh" in Russian. The name Karabakh itself (derived from Persian and Turkic, and meaning "black vineyard") was first encountered in Georgian and Persian sources from the 13th and 14th centuries to refer to lowlands between the Kura and Aras rivers and the adjacent mountainous territory. Following the collapse of Soviet Union, most of this area came under the control of the de facto Artsakh Republic, which had economic, political, and military support from Armenia but has been internationally recognized as a de jure part of Azerbaijan. As a result of the 2020 war, all surrounding territories and some areas within Nagorno Karabakh were taken back by Azerbaijan. On 1 January 2024, the Republic of Artsakh was dissolved.

The region of Nagorno Karabakh, located between the Kura and Araxes rivers, was once occupied by the people known to modern archaeologists as the Kura Araxes. Little is known about the ancient history of the region, primarily because of a scarcity of historical sources. Jewelry has been found within the present confines of Nagorno Karabakh inscribed with the cuneiform name of Adad Nirari, King of Assyria (c. 800 BCE). The first mention of the territory of modern Nagorno Karabakh is in the inscriptions of Sardur II, King of Urartu (763–734 BC), found in the village of Tsovk in Armenia, where the region is referred to as Urtekhini. There are no additional documents until the Roman epoch. By the beginning of the Hellenistic period the population of Nagorno Karabakh was neither Armenian nor even Indo European, and it was Armenized only in the aftermath of Armenian conquest. Robert Hewsen does not exclude the possibility of the Armenian Orontid dynasty exercising control over Nagorno Karabakh in the 4th century BC, however, this hypothesis is disputed by many other scholars, who believe the extent of Orontid Armenia was limited to the vicinity of Lake Sevan. Similarly, Robert Hewsen in his earlier work and Soviet historiography date the inclusion of Nagorno Karabakh into Armenia to the 2nd century BC.

According to local traditions held by many people in the area, the two river valleys in Nagorno Karabakh were among the first lands to be settled by Noah's descendants. According to a 5th century CE Armenian tradition, a local chieftain named Aran (Առան) was appointed by the Parthian King Vologases I (Vagharsh I) as the first governor of this province. Ancient Armenian authors Movses Khorenatsi and Movses Kaghankatvatsi name Aran as the ancestor of the inhabitants of Artsakh and the neighboring province of Utik, the descendant of Sisak (the ancestor and eponym of the neighboring province of Sisakan, also transliterated Siunik). Through Sisak, Aran descended from Haik, the ancestor and eponym of all Armenians.

In the early 4th century Christianity spread in Artsakh. In 469 the Kingdom of Albania was transformed into a Sassanid Persian marzpanate (frontier province). In the early 5th century Mesrop Mashtots created the Armenian alphabet and founded one of the first schools in Armenia at the Amaras Monastery in Artsakh, sparking a flourishing culture and national identity. In the 5th century the eastern part of Armenia — including Artsakh — remained under Persian rule. But in 451 the Armenians rebelled against the Persians’ policy of compelling the practice of the Zoroastrian religion. Artsakh took part in this revolt, known as the Vardan war. Its cavalry particularly distinguished itself. After the Persians put the rebellion down, many Armenians took shelter in the impregnable fortresses and thick woods of Artsakh to continue the fight, leading to the Treaty of Nvarsak in 484 affirming Armenia's right to freely practise Christianity. At the end of the 5th century, Artsakh and neighboring Utik united under the rule of the Aranshakhiks headed by Vachagan III (487–510s), also known as Vachagan the Pious. During his reign culture and science continued to blossom in Artsakh. According to a contemporary, as many churches and monasteries were built in the land in those years as there are days in a year. At the turn of the 7th century the Albanian marzpanate broke up into several smaller principalities. In the south, Artsakh and Utik formed an Armenian principality under the Aranshakhiks. In the 7th century the Migranians or Mihranids replaced the Aranshakhiks. A dynasty of Persian origin, they became associated with the Aranshakhiks, turned to Christianity and Armenicized. In the 7th and 8th centuries a distinctive Christian culture took shape. The monasteries at Amaras, Orek, Katarovank, Djrvshtik and others acquired a significance that transcended the local area and spread across Armenia.

From the beginning of the 9th century, the Armenian princely houses of Khachen and Dizak were storing up strength. In 821, Amaras was plundered by Arab invaders, then restored by an opponent of the Caliphate—Yesai Arranshahik (Armenian: Եսայի Առանշահիկ, Yesai Abu Muse in Arabic sources), ruler of Dizak, whose battle against invaders and restoration of Amaras are told in Tovma Artsruni's 9th century ‘’History of the House of Artzrunik.’’ The prince of Khachen, Sahl Smbatean, clashed with Arab invaders beginning in 822, when they invaded Amaras. In the medieval period architecture flourished, particularly religious buildings such as the Church of Hovanes Mkrtich (John the Baptist) and its vestibule at the Gandzasar Monastery, built 1216–1260; the ancient residence of the Catholicos of Albania, best known among scholars for its richly decorated dome, the Dadivank Monastery Cathedral Church (1214), and the Gtichavank cathedral (1241–1248). These churches are considered masterpieces of Armenian architecture.

In the 11th century the Seljuk invasion swept the Middle East, including Transcaucasia. Nomadic Oghuz Seljuk tribes that came with this invasion became a dominant constituent of the ancestry of modern Azerbaijanis. From then until the beginning of the 20th century these tribes used mountainous Karabakh as their summer pastures, where they stayed for four or five of the warmer months of the year, and in fact owned the region. In the 12th and 13th century the Armenian Zakarian dynasty took control over the Khachen, but its sovereignty was brief. For 30–40 years of the 13th century the Tatar and Mongols conquered Transcaucasia. The efforts of the Artsakh Khachen prince Hasan Jalal succeeded in partially saving the land from destruction. However after his death in 1261, Khachen did become subject to Tatars and Mongols. The situation became still worse in the 14th century when the subsequent Turkic federations, the Qara Koyunlu and Aq Qoyunlu, replaced the Tatars and Mongols. Nomadic presence in Artsakh and the plains to the east of it continued in this period as well. and in the geographical work of Hamdallah Mustawfi Nuzhat al Qulub. The name became common after the 1230s when the region was conquered by the Mongols. In the beginning of the 16th century Karabakh was conquered by the Safavid Empire, which created Safavid Karabakh there, with some additional nearby territory, and centered it in the city of Ganja. In this period Karabakh nomads coalesced in the igirmi dörd (literally, 'twenty four' in Azerbaijani) and otuz iki ('thirty two') confederations that were among the key allies of the Safavids in this part of their empire. Christian Armenian denizens of Karabakh paid higher taxes. The centuries long subjection of the local Armenians to Muslim leaders, their relations with Turkic tribal elders and frequent Turkic Armenian Iranian intermarriage resulted in Armenians adopting elements of Perso Turkic Muslim culture, such as language, personal names, music, an increasingly humble position for women and, in some cases, even polygamy.

The Russian Provisional Government established after the Russian Revolution of 1917 lasted only until the Bolshevik revolution but Grand Duke Nicholas and the Special Transcaucasian Committee (особый Закавказский Комитет (ОЗАКОМ), osobyy Zakavkazskiy Komitet (OZAKOM)) established the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, of which Karabakh became a part. Following the October Revolution, a government of the local Soviet, led by ethnic Armenian Stepan Shaumyan, was established in Baku: the National Council of Baku (November 1917 – July 31, 1918). The Armenians, under Russian control, held a national congress in October 1917. The convention in Tiflis, with delegates from the former House of Romanov, ended in September 1917. The Muslim National Councils (MNC) passed a law to organize defense and devised a local control and administrative structure for Transcaucasia. The Council also selected a 15 member permanent executive committee, known as the Azerbaijani National Council.

Through 1918 1919, Mountainous Karabakh was under the de facto administration of the local Armenian Karabakh Council, supported by the region's overwhelmingly Armenian population. Azerbaijan tried several times to assert authority over the region. The British governor of Baku, Lieutenant General Thomson, appointed Dr. Khosrov bey Sultanov governor general of Karabakh and Zangezur, intending to annex Karabakh into Azerbaijan. In 1919, under threat of extermination (demonstrated by the Khaibalikend massacre), the Karabakh Council agreed under duress to provisionally recognize and submit to Azerbaijani jurisdiction until its status could be decided at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919.

In March 1918, ethnic and religious tension grew and Armenian Azeri conflict began in Baku. The Bolsheviks and their allies accused the Musavat and Ittihad parties of Pan Turkism. Armenian and Muslim militia engaged in armed confrontation, with the formally neutral Bolsheviks tacitly supporting the Armenians. As a result, between 3,000 and 12,000 Azerbaijanis and other Muslims were killed in what became known as the March Days. Muslims were expelled from Baku, or went underground. At the same time the Baku Commune engaged in heavy fighting with the advancing Ottoman Caucasian Army of Islam in and around Ganja. Major battles occurred in Yevlakh and Agdash, where the Turks routed and defeated Dashnak and Russian Bolshevik forces. The government of Azerbaijan declared the annexation of Karabakh into the newly established Azerbaijan Democratic Republic of Baku and Yelizavetpol Gubernias. However, Nagorno Karabakh and Zangezur refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the Azerbaijani Republic. The two Armenian uyezd (district) councils took power, organised and headed the struggle against Azerbaijan.

On October 31, 1918, the Ottoman Empire admitted defeat in World War I, and its troops retreated from Transcaucasia. British forces replaced them in December and took the area under their control.

The government of Azerbaijan tried to capture Nagorno Karabakh with the help of the British. The new borders of Transcaucasia could not be defined without the agreement of Great Britain. Stating that the fate of the disputed territories must be solved at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the British command in reality did everything to incorporate Nagorno Karabakh into Azerbaijan long before that. Establishing full control over the export of Baku oil, the British sought the secession of Transcaucasia from Russia; Azerbaijan, it was supposed, was to play a role of an advance post of the West in the South Caucasus and to create a barrier to the sovietization of the region. The policy of the Allied powers on Transcaucasia had a pro Azerbaijani bent. The Karabakhian problem was dragged out, on the calculation that the military political situation would become favourable to Azerbaijan, with a change in the ethnic structure of Nagorno Karabakh. On January 15, 1919, the Azerbaijani government, with "the knowledge of the British command" appointed Khosrov bey Sultanov governor general of Nagorno Karabakh, simultaneously giving an ultimatum to the Karabakhian National Council to recognize the power of Azerbaijan. On February 19, 1919, the 4th Congress of the Armenian population of Karabakh convened in Shushi, and decisively rejected this ultimatum and protested the appointment of Sultanov as governor general. The resolution adopted by the congress said: "Insisting on the principle of the self determination of a people, the Armenian population of Karabakh respects the right of the neighbouring Turkish people to self determination and, together with this, decisively protests against the attempts of the Azerbaijani government to eliminate this principle in relation to Nagorno Karabakh, which never will concede to Azerbaijani power over it". In the connection with the appointment of Sultanov the British mission came out with an official notification, which stated, that "by the British command's consent Dr. Khosrov Bek Sultanov is appointed provisional governor of Zangezur, Shusha, Jivanshir and Jebrail useds [sic]. The British Mission finds it necessary to confirm that belonging of the mentioned districts to one or another unit must be solved at a Peace Conference". The National Council of Karabakh answered: The National Council of the Armenians of Karabakh with its full complement, in common with the commanders of all the districts of Karabakh, having discussed the appointment of a general governor by the government of Azerbaijan, came to the conclusion that Armenian Karabakh cannot accept this, as the Armenian people of Karabakh consider dependence on the government of Azerbaijan, in whatever form it might be, unacceptable due to the violence and violations of rights which the Armenian people has been systematically subjected to by the Azerbaijani government until recently Armenian Karabakh showed the whole world that it in fact did not recognize and does not recognize within its borders the power of the Azerbaijani government Since the British command recognizes Armenian Karabakh as a territory that is not subordinated to any state prior to the solution of the Peace Conference, therefore and in particular with respect to Azerbaijan, the National Council considers the appointment of a British general governor the only acceptable form for the government of the Armenian Karabakh, and it asks the mission to solicit the Supreme English Command". However in spite of the Karabakhi protests the British continued to assist and support the Azerbaijani government to incorporate Armenian Karabakh into Azerbaijan. The British troops' commander in Baku, Colonel Digby Shuttleworth stated to the Karabakhian people:

Unable to force Nagorno Karabakh to its knees by threats or force, Schatelwort personally arrived in Shusha late in April 1919 to compel the National Council of Karabakh to recognize the power of Azerbaijan. On April 23 in Shusha, the Fifth Congress convened, and rejected Schatelwort's demands. The congress declared that "Azerbaijan has always acted as the helper and the accomplice in the atrocities carried out by Turkey concerning Armenians in general and Karabakhs of Armenians in particular." It accused Azerbaijan of robbery, murder and hunting down Armenians on the roads, and said that it "aspire(d) to destroy Armenians as a unique cultural element, gravitating not to the East, but to Europe". Therefore, the resolution declared, any program having any attachment to Azerbaijan was unacceptable to Armenians. Rejected by the Fifth Congress, Sultanov decided to subordinate Nagorno Karabakh by force. Almost the entire army of Azerbaijan gathered at the Nagorno Karabakh borders. At the beginning of June Sultanov tried to blockade the Armenian quarters of Shusha, attacked Armenian positions, and organized pogroms in order Armenian villages. Nomads under the leadership of Sultanov's brother completely massacred the villagers of Gayballu, 580 Armenians total. English troops withdrew from Nagorno Karabakh to give the Azerbaijani troops a free hand. The Sixth Congress of Karbaghi Armenians, which representatives of the English Mission and Azerbaijani government attended, was to discuss relations between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan prior to the Peace Conference in Paris. However the English mission and the government of Azerbaijan arrived at the Congress after it had finished its work and negotiations did not take place. To find out whether Nagorno Karabgh would be able to defend its independence in case of war, the Congress established a commission which came to the conclusion that the Karabakhians could not. Therefore the Congress, under the threat of armed assault from Azerbaijan, felt compelled to start negotiations.

Eager to gain time to gather its forces, the Congress convened on August 13, 1919 and concluded an agreement on August 22, under which Nagorno Karabgh considered itself within the borders of the Azerbaijani Republic pending the solution of the problem at the Peace Conference in Paris. However the Azerbaijani armies were in peacetime status. Azerbaijan cannot enter into area of an army without the permission of National Council. Disarmament of the population stopped until the peace conference. In February, Azerbaijan started to focus around Karabakh military and irregular groups. The Karabakh Armenians declared that Sultanov had “organized large gangs of Tatars, Kurds, prepare(d) grandiose massacre of Armenians ( ) On roads kill travellers, rape women, steal the cattle. Proclaimed the economic blockade of Karabakh. Sultanov had demanded the entry of garrisons into the heart of Armenian Karabakh: Varanda, Dzraberd, and broken the agreement of VII Congress".

In March–April 1920 there was a short war between Azerbaijan and Armenia for Nagorno Karabakh. It began on March 22 (Nowruz), when Armenian forces broke the armistice and unexpectedly attacked Atskeran and Khankendi. The Armenians assumed that the Azerbaijanians would be celebrating Nowruz and therefore would not be prepared to defend themselves, but their attack on the Azerbaijan garrison in Shusha failed because of poor coordination. In response Azerbaijanis burned down the Armenian part of Shusha and massacred its population. "The most beautiful Armenian city has been destroyed, crushed to its foundations; we have seen corpses of women and children in wells", recollected Soviet communist leader Grigoriy Ordzhonikidze. The massacre and expulsion of Shushi's majority Armenian population was the largest escalation of the conflict to date. Armenian sources give different numbers for Armenian casualties, from 500 persons in R. Hovannisian
to 35,000; most say 20–30 thousand. Estimates for the number of the burned homes ranged from R. Hovannisian's two thousand to the more usual figure of seven thousand. According to the Greater Soviet Encyclopedia, 20% of the population of Nagorno Karabakh was lost in the fighting. That amounts to 30,000, mostly Armenians, who were 94% of the population of the area. The Paris Peace Conference did not resolve the Transcaucasian territorial disputes, so Armenia decided to liberate Karabakh from Azerbaijan. An uprising in Karabakh, timed to coincide with Azerbaijani Novruz celebrations, failed due to poor coordination. Azerbaijani garrisons remained in Shushi and neighboring Khankend, and a pogrom followed in Shusha. Azerbaijani soldiers and residents burned and looted half of the city, murdering, raping and expelling its Armenian inhabitants. After the uprising, the Armenian government ordered its forces under Garegin Nzhdeh and Dro Kanayan to help the Karabakh rebels, and Azerbaijan moved its army west to crush the Armenian resistance and cut off any reinforcements, despite the threat of the approaching 11th Red Army of Bolshevik Russia from the north. By Azerbaijan's Sovietization barely a month after the uprising began, Azerbaijani forces were able to maintain control over the central cities of Karabakh, Shusha and Khankend, whilst its immediate surroundings were in the control of local partisans and Armenian army reinforcements. Since the Armenian government had explicitly ordered Dro not to engage the Red Army, he was unable to capture Shusha, where the Red Army had replaced its Azerbaijani defenders. Eventually the Bolshevik army overwhelmed the Armenian army detachments and drove them from the region. The fears of the Armenians of Karabakh were alleviated by virtue of returning to the stability of Russian control.

In April 1920, the Ninth Congress of the Karabakhi Armenians was held and proclaimed Nagorno Karabakh part of Armenia. The concluding document reads:

"To consider the agreement, which was concluded with the government of Azerbaijan on behalf of the Seventh Congress of Karabakh, violated by the latter, in view of the organized attack of Azerbaijani troops on the civilian Armenian population in Shusha and villages. To proclaim the joining of Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia as an essential part of Armenia". This decision was taken without local deliberation or plebiscite. As a result, the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) was established within the Azerbaijan SSR in 1923. Most of the decisions on the transfer of the territories, and the establishment of new autonomous entities, were made under pressure from Stalin. Armenians still blame him for this decision, made against their national interests. For 65 years of the NKAO's existence, the Karabakh Armenians felt they were restricted by Azerbaijan. Armenian discontent stemmed from Azerbaijan severing ties between the oblast and Armenia and pursuing a policy of cultural de Armenization, planned Azeri settlement, squeezing the Armenian population out of the NKAO and neglecting its economic needs. The census of 1979 showed 162,200 inhabitants of Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Region, of whom 123,100 Armenians (75.9%) and 37,300 Azerbaijani (22.9%). Armenians compared this to the data from 1923 — 94% Armenian. In addition they noted that "as of 1980 in Nagorno Karabakh 85 Armenian villages (30%) have been liquidated and no Azerbaijani villages at all." Armenians also accused the government of Azerbaijan of a “purposeful policy of discrimination and replacement". They believed that Baku's plan was to supersede absolutely all Armenians from Nagorno Karabakh. Azerbaijani residents of the NKAO, meanwhile, complained of discrimination by the Armenian majority of the autonomous oblast and of economic marginalization. Thomas De Waal in his ‘’Black Garden’’ points out that NKAO was economically worse off than Armenia SSR. However, he noted elsewhere, economically Azerbaijan SSR overall had the most poverty in the South Caucasus. Nevertheless, NKAO's economic indicators were better than Azerbaijan's as a whole, a possible motivation for Karabakh Armenians to join Armenia SSR. When the dissolution of the Soviet Union began in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the question of Nagorno Karabakh re emerged. On February 20, 1988, the Oblast Soviet of the NKAO weighed up the results of an unofficial referendum on the reattachment of Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia, held in the form of a petition signed by 80,000 people. On the basis of that referendum, the Oblast Soviet of Nagorno Karabakh adopted appeals to the Supreme Soviets of the USSR, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, asking them to authorize the secession of Karabakh from Azerbaijan and its attachment to Armenia. an Azeri, shot and killed two Azerbaijanis – Bakhtiyar Guliyev, 16, and Ali Hajiyev, 23. On February 27, 1988, while speaking on Central TV, the USSR Deputy Prosecutor General A. Katusev mentioned the nationality of those killed. Within hours, a pogrom against Armenian residents began in the city of Sumgait, 25 km north of Baku, where many Azerbaijani refugees resided. The pogrom lasted for three days. The exact mortality is disputed. The official investigation reported 32 deaths – six Azerbaijanis and 26 Armenians, while the US Library of Congress put the number of Armenian victims at over 100. A similar attack on Azerbaijanis occurred in the Armenian towns of Spitak, and others. Azerbaijani sources put the number of Azerbaijanis killed in clashes in Armenia at 216 total, including 57 women, five infants and 18 children of different ages. Large numbers of refugees left Armenia and Azerbaijan as pogroms began against the minority populations of each of the two countries. In the fall of 1989, intensified inter ethnic conflict in and around Nagorno Karabakh led Moscow to grant Azerbaijani authorities greater leeway in controlling that region. The Soviet policy backfired, however, when a joint session of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and the National Council, the legislative body of Nagorno Karabakh, proclaimed the unification of Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia. In mid January 1990, Azerbaijani protesters in Baku went on a rampage against the remaining Armenians there. Moscow intervened only after almost no Armenian population remained in Baku. It sent army troops, who violently suppressed the Azerbaijan Popular Front (APF) and installed Ayaz Mutallibov as president. The troops reportedly killed 122 Azerbaijanis in quelling the uprisining, in what became known as Black January, and Gorbachev denounced the APF for striving to establish an Islamic Republic. In a December 1991 referendum, boycotted by most of the local Azerbaijanis, the Armenian population, still a majority in Nagorno Karabakh, approved the creation of an independent state. However, the Constitution of the USSR was the instrument in accordance with which only the fifteen Soviet Republics could vote for independence and Nagorno Karabakh was not one of the Soviet Republics. A Soviet proposal for enhanced autonomy for Nagorno Karabakh within Azerbaijan satisfied neither side and subsequently led to the eruption of war between Armenia backed Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan.

The struggle over Nagorno Karabakh escalated after both Armenia and Azerbaijan attained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. In the post Soviet power vacuum, military action between Azerbaijan and Armenia was heavily influenced by the Russian military. Extensive Russian military support was exposed by the Head of the Standing Commission of the Russian Duma, General Lev Rokhlin. He claimed that munitions worth one billion US dollars had been illegally transferred to Armenia between 1992 and 1996. According to Armenian news agency Noyan Tapan, Rokhlin openly lobbied for the interests of Azerbaijan. According to The Washington Times,Unreliable source: date=February 2022 Western intelligence sources said that the weapons played a crucial role in Armenia's seizure of large areas of Azerbaijan. Other Western sources disputed that assessment, because Russia continued to provide military support to Azerbaijan as well throughout the military conflict. Russian Minister of Defense Igor Rodionov in his letter to Aman Tuleyev, Minister of cooperation with CIS countries, said that a Defense Ministry commission had determined that a large quantity of Russian weapons, including 84 T 72 tanks and 50 armored personnel carriers, were illegally transferred to Armenia between 1994 and 96, after the ceasefire, for free and without authorization by the Russian government. The Washington Times article suggested that Russia's military support for Armenia was intended to force "pro Western Azerbaijan and its strategic oil reserves into Russia's orbit". Armenia officially denied any such weapons delivery. and some of them were killed or captured by the Azerbaijan army. According to The Wall Street Journal, Azerbaijani President Heydər Əliyev recruited thousands of mujahedeen fighters from Afghanistan and mercenaries from Iran and elsewhere, and brought in even more Turkish officers to organize his army. The Washington Post discovered that Azerbaijan hired more than 1,000 guerrilla fighters from Afghanistan's radical prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Meanwhile, Turkey and Iran supplied trainers, and the republic also was aided by 200 Russian officers who taught basic tactics to Azerbaijani soldiers in the northwest city of Barda. Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, generally considered a notorious terrorist, personally engaged Armenian forces in NKR. According to EurasiaNet, unidentified sources have stated that Arab guerrilla Ibn al Khattab joined Basayev in Azerbaijan between 1992 and 1993, although that is dismissed by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense. In addition, officers from the Russian 4th Army participated in combat missions for Azerbaijan on a mercenary basis. According to Human Rights Watch, "from the beginning of the Karabakh conflict, Armenia provided aid, weapons, and volunteers from Russia. In February 1992, 161 ethnic Azerbaijani civilians were murdered by ethnic Armenian armed forces in what is known as the Khojaly Massacre. Armenian involvement in Karabakh escalated after a December 1993 Azerbaijani offensive. The Republic of Armenia began sending conscripts and regular Army and Interior Ministry troops to fight in Karabakh. In January 1994, several active duty Armenian Army soldiers were captured near the village of Chaply, Azerbaijan. To bolster the ranks of its army, the Armenian government resorted to press gang raids to enlist recruits. Draft raids intensified in early spring, after Decree no. 129 was issued, instituting a three month call up for men up to age 45. Military police would seal off public areas, such as squares, and round up anyone who looked the right age". By the end of 1993, the conflict over Nagorno Karabakh had caused thousands of casualties and created hundreds of thousands of refugees on both sides. In a national address in November 1993, Əliyev stated that 16,000 Azerbaijani troops had died and 22,000 had been injured in nearly six years of fighting. The UN estimated that just under one million Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced person were in Azerbaijan at the end of 1993. Mediation was attempted by officials from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Iran, among other countries, and by organizations, including the UN and the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which began sponsoring peace talks in mid 1992. All negotiations met with little success, and several cease fires broke down. In mid 1993, Əliyev launched efforts to negotiate a solution directly with the Karabakh Armenians, a step which Abulfaz Elchibey had refused to take. Əliyev's efforts achieved several relatively long cease fires in Nagorno Karabakh, but outside the region Armenians occupied large sections of southwestern Azerbaijan near the Iranian border during offensives in August and October 1993. Iran and Turkey warned the Nagorno Karabakh Armenians to cease the offensive operations that threatened to spill over into foreign territory. The Armenians responded by claiming that they were driving back Azerbaijani forces to protect Nagorno Karabakh from shelling. In 1993, the UN Security Council called for Armenian forces to cease their attacks on and occupation of a number of Azerbaijani regions. In September 1993, Turkey strengthened its forces along its border with Armenia and issued a warning to Armenia to withdraw its troops from Azerbaijan immediately and unconditionally. At the same time, Iran was conducting military maneuvers near the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic in a move widely regarded as a warning to Armenia. Iran proposed creation of a twenty kilometer security zone along the Iranian Azerbaijani border, where Azerbaijanis would be protected by Iranian firepower. Iran also contributed to the upkeep of camps in southwestern Azerbaijan to house and feed up to 200,000 Azerbaijanis fleeing the fighting. Fighting continued into early 1994, with Azerbaijani forces reportedly winning some engagements and regaining some territory lost in previous months. In January 1994, Əliyev pledged that in the coming year occupied territory would be liberated and Azerbaijani refugees would return to their homes. At that point, Armenian forces held an estimated 14 percent of the area recognized as Azerbaijan, with Nagorno Karabakh proper comprising 5 percent. However, during the first three months of 1994 the Nagorno Karabakh Defense Army started a new offensive campaign and captured some areas, creating a wider safety and buffer zone around Nagorno Karabakh. By May 1994 the Armenians were in control of 20% of the territory of Azerbaijan. At that stage the Government of Azerbaijan for the first time during the conflict recognised Nagorno Karabakh as a third party of the war and started direct negotiations with the Karabakhi authorities. As a result a cease fire was reached on May 12, 1994, through Russian negotiations, which ended entirely with the outbreak of the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh war. As a result of the first Nagorno Karabakh war, Azerbaijanis were driven out of Nagorno Karabakh and territories adjacent to Nagorno Karabakh. With the support of Soviet/Russian military forces, Azerbaijanis forced tens of thousands of Armenians out of Shahumyan region. Armenians remained in control of the Soviet era autonomous region, and a strip of land called the Lachin corridor linking it with the Republic of Armenia, as well as seven surrounding districts of Azerbaijan. The Shahumyan region remained under the control of Azerbaijan.

On May 23, 2010, people in the territory went to polling stations to elect the state's parliament; more than 70 international observers were reported as attending.

Three Armenian police officers and two Azerbaijani soldiers are killed on 5 March during border clashes near the Lachin Corridor. Both nations accuse each other of opening fire first. On 25 March, the Ministry of Defence in Russia accuses Azerbaijan of violating the 2020 ceasefire agreement after a unit of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces crosses the Line of Contact in Shushi Province, Artsakh, and seizes control of dirt roads near the Lachin corridor. On 11 July, Azerbaijan's State Border Service temporarily shuts down the Lachin corridor, the only road between Armenia and the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region, alleging smuggling by the Armenian Red Cross Society. The corridor is reopened on 17 July to allow the Red Cross to conduct medical evacuations from Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia amid protests over the corridor's closure on July 11 and humanitarian concerns. On 9 September, Samvel Shahramanyan, the sole candidate, is elected in the territory's presidential elections in a 22–1 vote out of 23 deputies present. On 19 September, Azerbaijan launches an offensive on Nagorno Karabakh after blaming Armenian sabotage groups for an incident in which four Azerbaijani police officers and two civilians were killed by separate mine explosions in the region. As a result of the offensive, Azerbaijan demands the withdrawal of ethnic Armenian forces from the region, with the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan announcing that Armenia must hand over all weapons present in the territory in order to stop "anti terrorism" activities. Azerbaijan claims its forces broke through the contact line and captured over 60 military posts in Nagorno Karabakh. Artsakh forces, however, deny this. According to Republic of Artsakh government officials, 25 people, including a child, are killed due to the fighting, and 138 others are injured. Azerbaijan claims that one civilian was killed by shelling in Shusha. It is also reported that Azerbaijani forces struck Stepanakert, the de facto capital of Nagorno Karabakh, with artillery, damaging several residential buildings. On the next day, 20 September, Armenian separatist forces in Nagorno Karabakh surrender and agree to a Russian proposal for a ceasefire with Azerbaijan effective from 1 pm on Wednesday. In response, Azerbaijan calls for the "total surrender" of ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno Karabakh, and orders the Republic of Artsakh government to dissolve itself, saying its military offensive will continue until the region is under its full control. Peace talks between Azerbaijan and the separatists are set for the following day in Yevlakh. Russia's peacekeeping contingent are reported to have an assisting role in coordinating the ceasefire. As a result of the surrender, thousands of Artsakh residents gather at Stepanakert Airport, where some Russian peacekeepers are stationed, seeking evacuation. On 21 September, delegates of Azerbaijan and Artsakh meet in the Azeri city of Yevlakh. No formal agreement is adopted after two hours of talks. The government of Artsakh announced on 24 September that most of its population will leave following Azerbaijan's takeover of the territory with Armenia confirming that 1,050 refugees from Artsakh have arrived in the country. The number of refugees fleeing to Armenia from Artsakh increases to 6,500 by the next day. By 27 September, the number of refugees fleeing Artsakh to Armenia increased to 50,243, comprising more than a third of the region's population. Azerbaijan also reports that day that 192 of its troops were killed and more than 500 others were injured during last week's offensive on Nagorno Karabakh. Former State Minister of Artsakh Ruben Vardanyan is arrested by Azerbaijan after attempting to cross the border into Armenia. On 29 September, Samvel Shahramanyan, president of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh, signs a decree to dissolve all state institutions of Artsakh beginning at the start of 2024. On 3 October, the number of refugees fleeing Artsakh to Armenia reached 100,617, which is the majority of the region's population. Davit Ishkhanyan and three former presidents of Artsakh, Arkadi Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan and Arayik Harutyunyan, were detained by the State Security Service of Azerbaijan and brought to Baku.