History of Nagorno-Karabakh

[citation needed] 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.

[10] 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.

[22] Armenian historian Faustus of Byzantium wrote that during the epoch of upheaval that followed the Persian invasion of Armenia around 370AD, Artsakh was one of the provinces that rose in revolt, while Utik was seized by the Caucasus Albanians.

[citation needed] However Azerbaijani historian I. Aliev asserted that by 66 BC Armenian king Tigray II had relinquished most of greater Armenia, and by the end of the first century AD Utik and Artsakh were part of the Kingdom of Albania, whose southern border shifted to the Arax River.

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.

After the Persians put the rebellion down, many Armenians took shelter in the impregnable fortresses and thick woods of Artsakh to continue the fight,[27] leading to the Treaty of Nvarsak in 484 affirming Armenia's right to freely practise Christianity.

In the early 18th century, Persia's military genius and new ruler, Nadir Shah, took Karabakh away from the Ganja Khanate to retaliate for their support of the Safavids, and placed the region directly under his own control.

Instead of the promised help, Peter the Great advised the Armenians of Karabakh to leave their homes and move to Derbent, Baku, Gilan, or Mazandaran, where Russian power had recently been established in the war.

Potyomkin gave orders, that "at an opportunity its (Ibrahim-khans of Shusha) area which is made of people Armenian to give in board national and thus to renew in Asia the Christian state".

[59] In 1797, Karabakh suffered the invasion of armies of Persian shah Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, who had just recently dealt with his Georgian subjects in the Battle of Krtsanisi.

[71] 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.

[citation needed] In essence, however, its structure remained the same: On July 24, the Declaration of the People's government of Karabakh was adopted, which set forth the objectives of the newly established state power.

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.

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.

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.

The Congress accused Sultanov of numerous infringements of the peace agreement, entry of armies into Karabakh without the permission of the National Council and organizing murders of Armenians, in particular the massacre on February 22 in Khankendy, Askeran and on the Shusha-Evlakh road.

[94] However, in all these events, the aspirations and wishes of the Azerbaijani population of Karabakh were continuously violated by Armenian inhabitants "who had no right to represent in its Congress the will of the entire population of the region"[93] In accordance with the decision of the Congress the diplomatic and military representatives of the Allies, or Entente states, three Transcaucasian republics and the provisional governor-general were informed that "the repetition of these events will compel the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to turn to the appropriate means for defense.

[99][100] "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.

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.

These clashes left about 50 Armenians wounded, and a local policeman, according to information from International Historical-enlightenment Human rights Society – Memorial,[123] an Azeri, shot and killed two Azerbaijanis – Bakhtiyar Guliyev, 16, and Ali Hajiyev, 23.

[135] 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.

[citation needed] 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.

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.

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.

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.

[146] On 25 March, the Ministry of Defence in Russia accused Azerbaijan of violating the 2020 ceasefire agreement after a unit of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces crossed the Line of Contact in Shushi Province, Artsakh, and seized control of dirt roads near the Lachin corridor.

[147] On 11 July, Azerbaijan's State Border Service temporarily shut down the Lachin corridor, the only road between Armenia and the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, alleging smuggling by the Armenian Red Cross Society.

[150][151] On 19 September, Azerbaijan launched 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.

[158] In response, Azerbaijan called for the "total surrender" of ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, and ordered the Republic of Artsakh government to dissolve itself, saying its military offensive will continue until the region is under its full control.

[168] 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.