By Corinna Billmaier
In the southern Caucasus, ethnic tensions that have been smoldering for over a century, have escalated into heavy fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani armed forces once again. Since fighting began again on 27th September 2020, civilians repeatedly came under fire on both sides and Amnesty International reported the use of cluster bombs which seem to have been fired by Azerbaijani forces on Armenian targets. The use of cluster bombs is only one of the human rights violations which the Azerbaijani government is accused of, next to unlawful detentions and violating the right to freedom of expression by restricting internet access. While the opponents are accusing each other of having started the war, civilians on both sides are suffering equally. Cities are being destroyed in Azerbaijan as well as in Nagorno-Karabakh, and civilians are being killed and forced to flee their homes.
To understand and grasp the difficulty of an easy and long-lasting solution, this article gives an overview of the historical roots of the conflict and shows how history is used by both sides to legitimize their claim over the region.
Officially, the Nagorno-Karabakh region is part of Azerbaijan and internationally recognized as such. However, it has an Armenian majority population and since 1991 has been under de-facto autonomous rule by the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh, named after a part of the ancient Armenian kingdom. Its aim is to either gain independence or become part of Armenia. This article uses the name Nagorno-Karabakh to refer to this region, as this is the internationally recognized title. However, reports and articles representing the Armenian side refer to it as Artsakh. It is important to note that our choice for the former doesn’t reflect solidarity or antagonism towards any side, but rather an attempt to remain neutral.
Against common claims of “ancient hatreds” between Azeris and Armenians, the ethnically diverse population was not always in conflict, and used to live peacefully in a region that has been part of different empires and kingdoms throughout history. However, the region itself was continuously contested among different rulers and the subject of territorial disputes.
Armenian ancient and medieval traces in the region
Because Nagorno-Karabakh has seen many different rulers – Armenian, Russian, Persian to name just a few – there is a wide array of historical traditions with which the population identifies. Armenians claim the legitimacy of their control over the region based on the fact that it had been part of different Armenian kingdoms throughout ancient and medieval times and because historically the majority of the population is Armenian. Their wish to gain independence from Azerbaijan is grounded on a historical, ethnic, and cultural Armenian identity. However, the region has also formed close economic and cultural ties with Azerbaijan over the past century and the more recent history serves for them as a legitimation for being the rightful government of the region.
Modern times since 1804
After the Russo-Persian War (1804-1813) the Russian Empire took control over Nagorno-Karabakh for just over a century, until the Bolshevik Revolution in 1918. In the short period between the fall of the Russian Empire that year, and the establishment of the Soviet Union in 1922, both Azerbaijan and Armenia claimed Nagorno-Karabakh to be part of their state and turmoil broke out in the whole region. In several massacres perpetrated by both sides with their respective allies, in Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as in Azerbaijan proper around 12.000 Azeris and other Muslims and 30.000 Armenians were killed.
Soviet takeover
Relative peace was only established with the successful Bolshevik takeover of the whole Caucasus. However, this would only last as long as the Soviet Union was stable. The current conflict can be directly related to a decision Stalin made in 1923, when he appointed the region Nagorno-Karabakh to the Azerbaijani autonomous oblast (administrative unit), to appease Muslim Azerbaijan and Turkey, even though the region’s population consisted of more than 90% Christian Armenians. Moreover, the region had first been promised to Armenia by the Bolsheviks in their attempt to gain Armenia’s support in their revolution.
The majority of the people in Nagorno-Karabakh kept on emphasizing their Armenian ethnicity and identity. In 1967, a monument was constructed close to Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital Stepanakert, which draws heavily on Armenian heritage. The large sculpture represents the connection of the people from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenian land. The name “We Are Our Mountains” furthermore symbolizes their belonging to the mountains, therefore claiming Nagorno-Karabakh as their rightful home.
Although the monument stirred debate at first, the conflict died down during the Soviet era. In 1988, when Soviet influence was crumbling, Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia demanded the unification of both territories. The Soviet Union rejected their demands, and Azerbaijan answered to what they saw as an aggressive act by Armenia with a violent pogrom (“an act of organized cruel behaviour or killing that is done to a large group of people because of their race or religion”, see Cambridge Dictionary) against the Armenian population of the Azerbaijani city Sumgait in February 1988. Armenian residents of the city were massacred only based on their ethnicity, with a death toll ranging from 30 up to 200 victims.
In November 1988, anti-Armenian violence broke out again in the city of Kirovabad (today called Ganja), and dozens of ethnic Armenians were killed, after they demonstrated again for the transfer of Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. As this was denied, protests went on and led to several more pogroms against ethnic Armenians in Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh in the following years.
What we should keep in mind here is that not ethnic tensions alone led to the violence on both sides, but rather political actors that emphasize and exploit ethnic differences for their own agenda. In a report about communal violence in Nagorno-Karabakh in 1995, Human Rights Watch stated that:
“Communal violence is often seen simply as the product of 'deep-seated hatreds' or 'ancient animosities' that have been unleashed by the collapse of authoritarian structures that had previously contained them.
At times, this view is promoted by journalists who lack the time or inclination to trace more complex causes. Governments presiding over communal violence may also promote this view, since if 'ancient animosities' are seen as the 'cause', then communal violence takes on the appearance of a natural phenomenon which outsiders have no right to condemn and no hope to prevent.”
Post-Soviet era
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the conflict eventually evolved into an all-out war, with Azerbaijan as well as Armenia claiming Nagorno-Karabakh as part of their territory. A referendum was held in Nagorno-Karabakh in which an overwhelming majority (except for the ethnic Azeris living in Nagorno-Karabakh which boycotted the referendum) chose to become an independent state. However, up until today not a single country has officially recognized Nagorno-Karabakh as a state.
For Azerbaijan, this meant an act of aggression by the government of Nagorno-Karabakh as well as by Armenia, claiming they were illegally occupying territory of Azerbaijan. As a consequence, fighting broke out and both sides suffered from civilian casualties and thousands of displaced people. In 1992, Armenian forces committed a massacre on ethnic Azerbaijanis in Nagorno-Karabakh, killing more than 600 civilians. In total 400.000 Armenians fled Azerbaijan, and 700.000 ethnic Azeris, Kurds and other ethnic groups fled Armenian controlled territory. All 40.000 ethnic Azeris living in Nagorno-Karabakh fled to Azerbaijan or were expelled. Human Rights Watch estimated that a total of 25.000 soldiers and civilians were killed between 1988 and 1994. Other estimates even go up to 30.000 only between 1991 and 1994.
In 1994 Armenian forces won the military victory over Nagorno-Karabakh but no peace-agreement was reached. The cease-fire was very fragile and there were several incidents in which it was broken, and with the 2020 clashes it is regarded obsolete.
Today
The renewed outbreak of the conflict in 2020 shows that long-lasting peace can only be achieved with a solution that settles the dispute once and for all. With both sides claiming their rightful ownership of the region, based on history and culture, a solution that satisfies all fighting parties is very unlikely.
Another historical factor playing a role in the current phase of the conflict on the Armenian side is the memory of the Armenian Genocide, perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire in 1915 which killed around 1,5 million Armenians. Today, Azerbaijan is supported by Turkey, which still hasn’t acknowledged the genocide, and this raises fears among Armenians that history might repeat itself. The support of Armenian citizens, as well as from the Armenian diaspora, to fight for Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence from Azerbaijan is therefore high, and many are willing to risk their lives at the frontlines.
In all those incidents of violence, the Armenian and the Azeri narratives are conflicting. Both sides are accusing each other of having ignited the spark of violence and neither of them can be named solely victim or perpetrator. Civilians on either side are the ones suffering the most. This is only going to get worse, because with the conflict ongoing, anti-Armenian sentiments in Azerbaijan, and vice versa, are getting stronger, leading to a hardening of relations between the two ethnic groups. This gets exacerbated by the state-controlled one-sided reporting in Azerbaijan in which Nagorno-Karabakh, with Armenia’s support, is portrayed as the aggressor in order to legitimize devastating retaliation strikes. So long-lasting peace is becoming more difficult to achieve.
To end this on a brighter note, it needs to be stressed that in all episodes of violence there were people on both sides not taking part in it, and even risking their own safety by giving shelter to those under threat.
Sources
David Rieff, “Case Study in Ethnic Strife. (Nagorno-Karabakh)” in Foreign Affairs v76, n2 1997): Council on Foreign Relations
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/10/armenia-azerbaijan-civilians-must-be-protected-from-use-of-banned-cluster-bombs/
https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/nagorno-karabakhs-myth-ancient-hatreds
https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1995/communal/
https://www.hrw.org/report/1994/12/01/seven-years-conflict-nagorno-karabakh
https://adst.org/2013/08/stalins-legacy-the-nagorno-karabakh-conflict/
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/we-are-our-mountains
https://theconversation.com/nagorno-karabakh-are-armenia-and-azerbaijan-sliding-towards-all-out-war-147066
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/01/the-guardian-view-on-nagorno-karabakh-new-interests-in-an-old-conflict
https://www.crisisgroup.org/europe-central-asia/caucasus/nagorno-karabakh-azerbaijan/244-nagorno-karabakhs-gathering-war-clouds
Images: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Nagorno-Karabakh_conflict#/media/File:QarabaghWarMap(2020).svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagorno-Karabakh#/media/File:%C2%AB%D4%BC%D6%87%D5%AB%C2%BB_%D5%AF%D5%AB%D6%80%D5%B302.JPG https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandzasar_monastery#/media/File:DJI_-Gandzasar.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2014_Stepanakert,_Monument_My_i_Nasze_G%C3%B3ry_(02).jpg