Exploring Azerbaijan's Enclaves In Armenian Territory

The topic of 'why does Azerbaijan have land in Armenia' is a complex and sensitive issue with a long history. The border between Azerbaijan and Armenia has been a source of conflict and tension for decades, with both countries having competing claims to the region.

The roots of the conflict can be traced back to the early 20th century when the Caucasus region was contested between the declining Ottoman Empire, Persia, and Russia. Over time, Russia expanded southwards at the expense of the Persian and Ottoman Empires, eventually incorporating what is now Azerbaijan and Armenia into its territories.

During the Soviet era, the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which was inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians, became a source of tension between the two countries. When the Soviet Union began to dissolve in the late 1980s, the ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh voted to secede and join Armenia, leading to the First Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988-1994). This war resulted in the de facto occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding Azerbaijani territories by Armenian forces, with a ceasefire agreement being reached in 1994.

Despite the ceasefire, tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan remained high, and occasional clashes continued to break out along the border. In 2020, the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War resulted in a significant Azerbaijani victory, with Azerbaijan regaining control of the seven surrounding districts and parts of Nagorno-Karabakh itself. This led to a new ceasefire agreement, mediated by Russia, which included the return of occupied territories to Azerbaijani control and the deployment of Russian peacekeepers in the region.

Since the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, there have been ongoing border disputes and clashes between the two countries, with Azerbaijan making numerous incursions into Armenian territory and regularly violating the ceasefire agreement. In April 2024, Armenia and Azerbaijan reached an agreement to demarcate their common border based on the Alma-Ata declaration, which fixed the borders between the former Soviet republics. This agreement included the transfer of four villages in the Qazax District, which were already part of Azerbaijan but had been controlled by Armenia since the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, back to Azerbaijani control.

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has had a significant impact on the region, resulting in thousands of casualties, the displacement of civilians, and the destruction of infrastructure. The international community has made efforts to mediate and resolve the conflict, but a lasting peace agreement between the two countries has yet to be achieved.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

The conflict can be broken down into two wars: the First Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988-1994) and the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War (2020).

First Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988-1994)

In 1988, the Armenians of Karabakh voted to secede and join Armenia. This was met with pogroms (attacks) of Armenians in three cities of Azerbaijan: Sumgait, Baku, and Kirovabad. These attacks led to the military conflict that became known as the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. The Soviet government in Moscow initially backed Azerbaijan in return for Azerbaijan supporting Mikhail Gorbachev's attempts to keep the Soviet Union together. Soviet and Soviet Azerbaijani troops forcibly uprooted Armenian civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh during Operation Ring.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the war clearly became an international conflict between sovereign states. The war resulted in de facto Armenian occupation of former Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding Azerbaijani territories. In late 1995, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to find a negotiated resolution to the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.

The war resulted in expulsions of ethnic Armenians from Azerbaijan and ethnic Azerbaijanis from Armenia and the Armenian-controlled areas. The ceasefire ending the war, signed in 1994 in Bishkek, was followed by two decades of relative stability, which significantly deteriorated in the 2010s. A four-day escalation in April 2016 resulted in hundreds of casualties but only minor changes to the front line.

Second Nagorno-Karabakh War (2020)

In late 2020, the large-scale Second Nagorno-Karabakh War resulted in thousands of casualties and a significant Azerbaijani victory. An armistice was established by a tripartite ceasefire agreement on November 10, resulting in Azerbaijan regaining all of the occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh as well as capturing one-third of Nagorno-Karabakh itself. Ceasefire violations in Nagorno-Karabakh and on the Armenian–Azerbaijani border continued following the 2020 war. Azerbaijan began blockading Nagorno-Karabakh in December 2022, and launched a large-scale military offensive in September 2023, resulting in a ceasefire agreement. Most ethnic Armenians fled, and Artsakh was officially dissolved on January 1, 2024.

The First Nagorno-Karabakh War

The conflict began when the enclave's parliament voted to unite with Armenia, and a referendum was held in which 99.89% voted in favour of independence. This demand to unify with Armenia began relatively peacefully in 1988, but as the Soviet Union disintegrated, it gradually grew into an increasingly violent conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, resulting in ethnic cleansing and pogroms.

Full-scale fighting erupted in early 1992. Turkey sent mercenaries to fight for Azerbaijan and assisted in blockading trade to Armenia, including humanitarian aid. International mediation attempts failed, and in early 1993, Armenian forces captured seven Azerbaijani-majority districts outside the enclave, threatening the involvement of other countries in the region. By the end of the war in 1994, the Armenians were in full control of the enclave and surrounding Azerbaijani territories, most notably the Lachin corridor, a mountain pass that links Nagorno-Karabakh with mainland Armenia. A Russian-brokered ceasefire was signed in May 1994.

The conflict resulted in approximately 724,000 Azerbaijanis being expelled from Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and the surrounding territories, while 300,000-500,000 Armenians living in Azerbaijan or Armenian border areas were displaced. Regular peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan were mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group but failed to result in a peace treaty, leaving the Nagorno-Karabakh area in a state of legal limbo, with the Republic of Artsakh remaining de facto independent but internationally unrecognized.

The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War

The conflict can be traced back to the Soviet era, when the predominantly Armenian-populated region was governed as an autonomous oblast within the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. As the Soviet Union began to disintegrate in the late 1980s, the question of Nagorno-Karabakh's status re-emerged, and the region's parliament passed a resolution requesting a transfer of the oblast from the Azerbaijan SSR to the Armenian SSR. Azerbaijan rejected the request, and ethnic violence ensued, with pogroms against Armenians in Sumgait, Ganja and Baku, and against Azerbaijanis in Gugark and Stepanakert.

The First Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988-1994) resulted in the displacement of approximately 725,000 Azerbaijanis and 300,000-500,000 Armenians. The 1994 Bishkek Protocol brought the fighting to an end, resulting in significant Armenian territorial gains. The terms of the Bishkek agreement produced a frozen conflict, with long-standing international mediation attempts to create a peace process led by the OSCE Minsk Group.

The conflict began on the morning of September 27, with an Azerbaijani offensive along the line of contact established in the aftermath of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. Clashes were particularly intense in the less mountainous districts of southern Nagorno-Karabakh. Turkey provided military support to Azerbaijan.

The war resulted in high casualties, with officially low thousands killed and many more wounded. According to official figures, Armenia lost 3,825 troops, while Azerbaijan lost 2,906. During the conflict, both sides downplayed their casualties and exaggerated the numbers of enemy casualties and injuries. The conflict also resulted in the displacement of over half of Nagorno-Karabakh's population, or approximately 90,000 people.

Following the capture of Shusha, the second-largest city in Nagorno-Karabakh, a ceasefire agreement was signed on November 10, 2020, ending all hostilities in the area. The agreement resulted in a major shift in the control of territories in Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding areas. Approximately 2,000 Russian soldiers were deployed as peacekeeping forces along the Lachin corridor connecting Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, with a mandate of at least five years.

The peace agreement was seen as a victory in Azerbaijan and was widely celebrated. In contrast, violent protests erupted in Armenia against Nikol Pashinyan, claiming he was a "traitor" for accepting the peace deal. The war also had geopolitical implications, with Russia, China, and Turkey all standing to benefit economically.

The Armenia-Azerbaijan border crisis

The crisis escalated further in September 2022 when Azerbaijan initiated its largest attack on the Republic of Armenia in the history of the conflict between the two countries. This attack resulted in casualties on both sides and marked the largest attack by Azerbaijan on Armenia. Since Azerbaijan's offensives, Armenia's borders with Azerbaijan have become militarised, disrupting the livelihoods of residents in border communities. Armenia has unsuccessfully requested assistance from the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) and Russia during Azerbaijan's incursions.

The issue of border demarcation between Armenia and Azerbaijan arose immediately after Armenia's defeat in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, which resulted in Azerbaijan regaining control over its occupied territories. Before the 2020 war, there was no mutually agreed-upon border between the two countries, and certain Armenian villages and agricultural workers crossed over into Azerbaijan. The current crisis can be understood in the context of the long-running Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which involves a dispute over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians until 2023, and seven surrounding districts, inhabited mostly by Azerbaijanis until their expulsion during the 1990s.

In April 2024, Armenia and Azerbaijan reached an agreement to demarcate their common border based on the Alma-Ata declaration, which fixed the borders that existed between the former Soviet republics. As part of this agreement, Armenia handed over four villages within Azerbaijan's de-jure border, which had been controlled by Armenia since the 1990s. This agreement was welcomed by the international community, including the US Secretary of State, the President of the European Council, and the UN Secretary-General.

The Armenia-Azerbaijan border demarcation

In April 2024, Armenia and Azerbaijan took the first steps towards demarcating their common border based on Soviet-era maps. This process began with Armenia handing over four villages within Azerbaijan's de jure border, which had been under Armenian control since the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. The villages in question were Bağanis Ayrum, Aşağı Əskipara, Xeyrimli, and Qızılhacılı, located in the Tavush Province along the border. This move was met with protests in Armenia, particularly from residents of neighbouring villages who feared the potential loss of land.

The border demarcation efforts are part of a broader push for a potential peace agreement between the two countries. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, along with European Council President Charles Michel, played key roles in facilitating these negotiations. Despite this progress, Azerbaijan has continued its military incursions and provocations along the border, occupying internationally recognised Armenian territory.

The issue of enclaves further complicates the border demarcation process. There is an Armenian exclave called Artsvashen, which is formally part of Soviet-era Armenia but is controlled by and situated entirely within the current Republic of Azerbaijan. Conversely, there are four Azerbaijani exclave villages (Karki, Yukhari Askipara, Barxudarlı, and Sofulu) that were formally part of Soviet-era Azerbaijan but are now controlled by and situated within Armenia.

The complex history of the region, including the First Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988-1994) and the more recent clashes in 2020 and 2022, has left a legacy of mistrust and ongoing tensions. The international community has been closely monitoring the situation, with various organisations such as the European Union, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), and the OSCE offering diplomatic support and calling for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

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