Karabakh armed conflict participants. How the Karabakh conflict began: the legendary general reveals details

Fifteen years ago (1994), Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia signed the Bishkek Protocol on ceasefire on May 12, 1994 in the zone of the Karabakh conflict.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a region in the Caucasus, de jure part of Azerbaijan. The population is 138 thousand people, the vast majority are Armenians. The capital is the city of Stepanakert. The population is about 50 thousand people.

According to Armenian open sources, Nagorno-Karabakh (the ancient Armenian name is Artsakh) was first mentioned in the inscription of Sardur II, King of Urartu (763-734 BC). In the early Middle Ages, Nagorno-Karabakh was part of Armenia, according to Armenian sources. After most of this country was captured by Turkey and Iran in the Middle Ages, the Armenian principalities (meliks) of Nagorno-Karabakh retained a semi-independent status.

According to Azerbaijani sources, Karabakh is one of the oldest historical regions of Azerbaijan. According to the official version, the appearance of the term “Karabakh” refers to the 7th century and is interpreted as a combination of the Azerbaijani words “gara” (black) and “bug” (garden). Among other provinces of Karabakh (Ganja in Azerbaijani terminology) in the XVI century. was part of the Safavid state, later became an independent Karabakh khanate.

According to the Kurekchay Treaty of 1805, the Karabakh Khanate, as a Muslim-Azerbaijani land, was subordinated to Russia. IN 1813   under the Gulistan Peace Treaty, Nagorno-Karabakh became part of Russia. In the first third of the XIX century, according to the Turkmenchay treaty and the Edirne treaty, the artificial placement of Armenians resettled from Iran and Turkey began in Northern Azerbaijan, including Karabakh.

On May 28, 1918, the independent state of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) was created in Northern Azerbaijan, which retained its political power over Karabakh. At the same time, the declared Armenian (Ararat) Republic put forward its claims in Karabakh that were not recognized by the ADR government. In January 1919, the ADR government created the Karabakh province, which included Shusha, Javanshir, Jebrail and Zangezur districts.

IN july 1921 By the decision of the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (B.), Nagorno-Karabakh was included in the Azerbaijan SSR as a broad autonomy. In 1923, on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region was formed as part of Azerbaijan.

February 20, 1988   The extraordinary session of the regional Council of Deputies of the NKAR adopted a decision "On a petition to the Supreme Councils of the Azerbaijan SSR and ArmSSR for the transfer of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Republic from the AzSSR to the ArmSSR" The refusal of the allied and Azerbaijani authorities provoked demonstrations of protest by Armenians not only in Nagorno-Karabakh, but also in Yerevan.

On September 2, 1991, a joint session of the Nagorno-Karabakh Oblast and Shaumyan District Councils was held in Stepanakert. At the session, a Declaration on the proclamation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic within the borders of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, Shaumyan region and part of the Khanlar region of the former Azerbaijan SSR was adopted.

December 10, 1991, a few days before the official collapse of the Soviet Union, a referendum was held in Nagorno-Karabakh, in which the overwhelming majority of the population 99.89% voted in favor of complete independence from Azerbaijan.

Official Baku declared this act illegal and abolished the autonomy of Karabakh that existed in the Soviet years. Following this, an armed conflict began, during which Azerbaijan tried to keep Karabakh, and Armenian troops defended the independence of the region with the support of Yerevan and the Armenian diaspora from other countries.

During the conflict, regular Armenian units completely or partially captured seven regions, which Azerbaijan considered to be its own. As a result, Azerbaijan lost control of Nagorno-Karabakh.

At the same time, the Armenian side believes that part of Karabakh remains in the control of Azerbaijan - the villages of the Mardakert and Martuni regions, the entire Shaumyan district and Getashen subarea, as well as Nakhichevan.

In the description of the conflict, the parties give their figures on losses that differ from the data of the opposite side. According to consolidated data, the losses of both sides during the Karabakh conflict amounted to 15 to 25 thousand people killed, more than 25 thousand wounded, hundreds of thousands of civilians left their homes.

May 5, 1994   with the mediation of Russia, Kyrgyzstan and the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the CIS in the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia signed a protocol that went down in the history of the Karabakh conflict settlement as Bishkek, on the basis of which an agreement was reached on May 12.

On May 12 of the same year, a meeting was held between the Minister of Defense of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan (now President of Armenia), the Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan Mammadraffi Mammadov and the Commander of the NKR Defense Army Samvel Babayan, at which the parties confirmed their commitment to a ceasefire.

The negotiation process to resolve the conflict began in 1991. September 23, 1991in Zheleznovodsk a meeting of the presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Armenia took place. In March 1992, the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was established to resolve the Karabakh conflict, co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France. In mid-September 1993, the first meeting of the representatives of Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh took place in Moscow. Around the same time, a closed meeting was held in Moscow between the President of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, and the then Prime Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh, Robert Kocharian. Since 1999, regular meetings of the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia have been held.

Azerbaijan insists on maintaining its territorial integrity, Armenia defends the interests of the unrecognized republic, since the unrecognized NKR is not a party to the negotiations.

The most serious clashes have occurred in the zone of the Armenian-Azerbaijani confrontation since 1994 - from the moment the parties agreed on a cease-fire, stopping the hot phase of the war over Nagorno-Karabakh.

On the night of April 2, the situation in the Karabakh conflict zone sharply worsened. "I ordered not to succumb to provocations, but the enemy has completely gone wild," Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev explained. The Armenian Ministry of Defense announced "offensive actions from the Azerbaijani side."

Both sides announced significant losses in manpower and armored vehicles of the enemy and minimal losses on their part.

On April 5, the Defense Ministry of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic announced that it had reached a ceasefire in the conflict zone. However, Armenia and Azerbaijan have repeatedly accused each other of violating the ceasefire.

Conflict history

On February 20, 1988, the Council of Deputies of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO), mainly inhabited by Armenians, appealed to the leadership of the USSR, the Armenian SSR and the Azerbaijan SSR with a request to transfer Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. The Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU refused, which led to mass protests in Yerevan and Stepanakert, as well as to pogroms among both the Armenian and Azerbaijani people.

In December 1989, the authorities of the Armenian SSR and NKAO signed a joint resolution on the inclusion of the region in Armenia, to which Azerbaijan responded with shelling of the Karabakh border. In January 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR declared a state of emergency in the conflict zone.

In late April - early May 1991, the operation "Ring" was carried out in the NKAO by riot police of Azerbaijan and the troops of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. During the three weeks of deportation, the Armenian population of 24 Karabakh villages was subjected, more than 100 people were killed. The forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR and the Soviet army carried out actions to disarm the participants in the clashes until August 1991, when a coup began in Moscow, which led to the collapse of the USSR.

On September 2, 1991, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was proclaimed in Stepanakert. Official Baku declared this act illegal. During the war between Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia supporting it, the parties lost from 15 thousand to 25 thousand people, more than 25 thousand were injured, hundreds of thousands of civilians left their homes. From April to November 1993, the UN Security Council adopted four resolutions demanding a ceasefire in the region.

On May 5, 1994, the three parties signed a ceasefire agreement, as a result of which Azerbaijan actually lost control of Nagorno-Karabakh. Official Baku still considers the region to be occupied territory.

The international legal status of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic

According to the administrative-territorial division of Azerbaijan, the territory of the NKR is part of the Republic of Azerbaijan. In March 2008, the UN General Assembly adopted the resolution “The Situation in the Occupied Territories of Azerbaijan”, which was supported by 39 member states (the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, Russia and France voted against).

At present, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic has not received recognition from the UN member states and is not a member of it, therefore, in the official documents of the UN member states and the organizations they have formed, some political categories are not used in relation to the NKR (president, prime minister -minister, elections, government, parliament, flag, coat of arms, capital).

The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is recognized as partially recognized by the states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldavian Republic.

Aggravation of the conflict

In November 2014, relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan sharply worsened after the Azerbaijani military shot down an Mi-24 Armenian helicopter in Nagorno-Karabakh. Regular shelling resumed on the contact line, the parties for the first time since 1994 accused each other of using large-caliber artillery weapons. During the year, repeatedly reported dead and wounded in the conflict zone.

On the night of April 2, 2016, large-scale hostilities resumed in the conflict zone. The Armenian Ministry of Defense announced the “offensive actions” of Azerbaijan using tanks, artillery and aviation, Baku reported that the use of force was a response to shelling from mortars and heavy machine guns.

On April 3, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry announced a decision to unilaterally suspend hostilities. However, both Yerevan and Stepanakert reported that the fighting continued.

Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan said on April 4 that "fierce battles along the length of the contact line between the Karabakh and Azerbaijani forces continue."

Within three days, the parties to the conflict reported major losses to the enemy (from 100 to 200 killed), but this information was immediately refuted by the opposite side. According to independent estimates by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 33 people were killed in the conflict zone, more than 200 were injured.

On April 5, the Defense Ministry of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic announced that it had reached a ceasefire in the conflict zone. Azerbaijan announced the cessation of hostilities. Armenia announced the preparation of a bilateral ceasefire.

How Russia armed Armenia and Azerbaijan

According to the UN Register of Conventional Arms, in 2013 Russia supplied Armenia with heavy weapons for the first time: 35 tanks, 110 armored combat vehicles, 50 launchers and 200 missiles for them. In 2014, there were no supplies.

In September 2015, Moscow and Yerevan agreed to provide a $ 200 million credit to Armenia for the purchase of Russian weapons in 2015-2017. This amount should include launchers of the Smerch multiple launch rocket system, Igla-S anti-aircraft missile systems, TOS-1A heavy flamethrower systems, RPG-26 grenade launchers, Dragunov sniper rifles, Tiger armored vehicles, ground-based radio intelligence systems Avtobaza-M, engineering and communications equipment, as well as tank sights, designed to modernize the T-72 tanks and BMP of the Armed Forces of Armenia.

In the period 2010-2014, Azerbaijan concluded contracts with Moscow for the purchase of 2 divisions of S-300PMU-2 anti-aircraft missile systems, several batteries of Tor-2ME anti-aircraft missile systems, and about 100 combat and transport helicopters.

Also, agreements were signed for the purchase of at least 100 T-90S tanks and about 100 BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles, 18 Msta-S self-propelled artillery systems and the same heavy TOS-1A flamethrower systems, Smerch multiple launch rocket systems .

The total value of the package was estimated at no less than $ 4 billion. Most of the contracts have already been completed. For example, in 2015, the Azerbaijani military received the last 6 of 40 Mi-17B1 helicopters and the last 25 of 100 T-90S tanks (under 2010 contracts), as well as 6 of 18 TOS-1A heavy flamethrower systems (by agreement of 2011). In 2016, the Russian Federation will continue to supply BTR-82A armored personnel carriers and BMP-3 infantry armored vehicles (Azerbaijan received at least 30 units in 2015).

Evgeny Kozichev, Elena Fedotova, Dmitry Shelkovnikov

A military conflict arose here, since the vast majority of the inhabitants living in Armenia have the Armenian roots. Azerbaijan is making quite reasonable demands on this territory, but the region’s inhabitants are more inclined towards Armenia. On May 12, 1994, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh ratified the protocol establishing a ceasefire, resulting in an unconditional ceasefire in the conflict zone.

History tour

Armenian historical sources claim that Artsakh (the ancient Armenian name) was first mentioned in the VIII century BC. If you believe these sources, then Nagorno-Karabakh was part of Armenia in the early Middle Ages. As a result of the conquest wars of Turkey and Iran in this era, a significant part of Armenia came under the control of these countries. The Armenian principalities, or melikoms, at that time located on the territory of modern Karabakh, retained semi-independent status.

Azerbaijan takes its own point of view on this issue. According to local researchers, Karabakh is one of the most ancient historical regions of their country. The word “Karabakh” in Azerbaijani is translated as follows: “Gara” means black, and “bug” means garden. Already in the XVI century, together with other provinces, Karabakh was part of the Safavid state, and afterwards became an independent khanate.

Nagorno-Karabakh during the time of the Russian Empire

In 1805, the Karabakh khanate was subordinated to the Russian Empire, and in 1813, under the Gulistan peace treaty, Nagorno-Karabakh also became part of Russia. Then, under the Turkmenchay agreement, as well as the agreement concluded in the city of Edirne, the Armenians were relocated from Turkey and Iran and placed in the territories of Northern Azerbaijan, including Karabakh. Thus, the population of these lands is mainly of Armenian origin.

As part of the USSR

In 1918, the newly created Azerbaijan Democratic Republic gained control of Karabakh. Almost simultaneously, the Republic of Armenia makes claims to this area, but ADR claims data. In 1921, the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh with the rights of broad autonomy was included in the Azerbaijan SSR. Two years later, Karabakh receives status (NKAO).

In 1988, the Council of Deputies of the NKAR petitioned the authorities of the Azerbaijan SSR and the ArmSSR of the republics and proposed transferring the disputed territory to Armenia. was not satisfied, as a result of which a wave of protest swept through the cities of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Okrug. Solidarity demonstrations were also held in Yerevan.

Declaration of independence

In the early autumn of 1991, when the Soviet Union was already beginning to fall apart, a declaration was adopted in the NKAR proclaiming the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Moreover, besides the NKAR, a part of the territories of the former Azerbaijan SSR was included in its structure. According to the results of the referendum held on December 10 of the same year in Nagorno-Karabakh, more than 99% of the region’s population voted for complete independence from Azerbaijan.

It is quite obvious that the referendum was not recognized by the Azerbaijani authorities, and the act of proclamation was designated as illegal. Moreover, Baku decided to abolish the autonomy of Karabakh, which he possessed in Soviet times. However, the destructive process has already been launched.

Karabakh conflict

For the independence of the self-proclaimed republic, Armenian troops stood up, which Azerbaijan tried to resist. Nagorno-Karabakh received support from official Yerevan, as well as from the national diaspora in other countries, so the militia managed to defend the region. However, the Azerbaijani authorities still managed to establish control over several regions that were initially proclaimed part of the NKR.

Each of the warring parties gives its statistics of losses in the Karabakh conflict. Comparing these data, we can conclude that in the three years of clarification of relations 15-25 thousand people died. There were at least 25 thousand wounded, more than 100 thousand civilians were forced to leave their homes.

Peace settlement

The negotiations, during which the parties tried to resolve the conflict peacefully, began almost immediately after the independent NKR was proclaimed. For example, on September 23, 1991, a meeting was held, which was attended by the presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia, as well as Russia and Kazakhstan. In the spring of 1992, the OSCE established a group to resolve the Karabakh conflict.

Despite all the attempts of the international community to stop the bloodshed, ceasefire was possible only in the spring of 1994. On May 5, the Bishkek Protocol was signed, after which the participants ceased fire a week later.

The parties to the conflict failed to agree on the final status of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan demands respect for its sovereignty and insists on maintaining territorial integrity. The interests of the self-proclaimed republic are protected by Armenia. Nagorno-Karabakh stands for the peaceful resolution of controversial issues, while the authorities of the republic emphasize that the NKR is able to stand up for its independence.

On April 2, 2016, the press service of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia announced that the armed forces of Azerbaijan went on the offensive in the entire contact area with the defense army of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Azerbaijani side reported that hostilities began in response to shelling of its territory.

The press service of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) said that Azerbaijani troops went on the offensive in many sectors of the front, using large-caliber artillery, tanks and helicopters. Within a few days, Azerbaijani officials announced the occupation of several strategically important heights and settlements. In several sections of the front, the attacks were repelled by the NKR armed forces.

After several days of fierce fighting along the entire front line, military representatives of both sides met to discuss a ceasefire. It was reached on April 5, although, after this date, the ceasefire was repeatedly violated by both sides. However, in general, the situation at the front began to calm down. The Azerbaijani armed forces began to strengthen the positions recaptured from the enemy.

The Karabakh conflict is one of the oldest in the former USSR, Nagorno-Karabakh has become a hot spot even before the collapse of the country and has been in a state of frozen for more than twenty years. Why did he break out with renewed vigor today, what are the forces of the warring parties and what should be expected in the near future? Can this conflict develop into a full-scale war?

To understand what is happening in this region today, you should take a short excursion into history. This is the only way to understand the essence of this war.

Nagorno-Karabakh: background to the conflict

The Karabakh conflict has very long historical and ethnocultural roots; the situation in this region has become much more acute in the last years of the existence of the Soviet regime.

In ancient times, Karabakh was part of the Armenian kingdom, after its collapse, these lands became part of the Persian Empire. In 1813, Nagorno-Karabakh was annexed to Russia.

Bloody interethnic conflicts took place here more than once, the most serious of which occurred during the weakening of the metropolis: in 1905 and 1917. After the revolution in Transcaucasia, three states appeared: Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, which included Karabakh. However, this fact absolutely did not suit the Armenians, who at that time made up the majority of the population: the first war began in Karabakh. The Armenians won a tactical victory, but suffered a strategic defeat: the Bolsheviks included Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan.

In the Soviet period, peace was maintained in the region, the issue of transferring Karabakh to Armenia was periodically raised, but did not find support from the country's leadership. Any manifestations of dissatisfaction were severely suppressed. In 1987, the first clashes between Armenians and Azerbaijanis began in Nagorno-Karabakh, which led to human casualties. Deputies of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region (NKAO) are asking to join them in Armenia.

In 1991, the creation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) was proclaimed and a large-scale war with Azerbaijan began. The fighting took place until 1994, at the front, the parties used aircraft, armored vehicles, heavy artillery. On May 12, 1994, a ceasefire agreement entered into force, and the Karabakh conflict goes into a frozen phase.

The result of the war was the actual gaining of independence by the NKR, as well as the occupation of several regions of Azerbaijan adjacent to the border with Armenia. In fact, in this war Azerbaijan suffered a crushing defeat, did not achieve its goals and lost part of its ancestral territories. Such a situation absolutely did not suit Baku, which for many years built its domestic policy on the desire for revenge and the return of lost lands.

The alignment of forces at the moment

In the last war, Armenia and NKR won, Azerbaijan lost territory and was forced to admit defeat. For many years, the Karabakh conflict was in a frozen state, which was accompanied by periodic skirmishes on the front line.

However, during this period, the economic situation of the warring countries changed dramatically, today Azerbaijan has a much more serious military potential. Over the years of high oil prices, Baku has managed to modernize the army and equip it with the latest weapons. Russia has always been the main supplier of weapons to Azerbaijan (this caused serious irritation in Yerevan), and modern weapons were also purchased in Turkey, Israel, Ukraine and even South Africa. The resources of Armenia did not allow it to qualitatively strengthen the army with new weapons. In Armenia, and even in Russia, many thought that this time the conflict would end in the same way as in 1994 - that is, the flight and defeat of the enemy.

If in 2003 Azerbaijan spent $ 135 million on the armed forces, then in 2018 the costs should exceed $ 1.7 billion. The peak of Baku’s military spending fell in 2013, when $ 3.7 billion was allocated for military needs. For comparison: the entire state budget of Armenia in 2018 amounted to $ 2.6 billion.

Today, the total strength of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces is 67 thousand people (57 thousand people are ground forces), another 300 thousand are in reserve. It should be noted that in recent years the army of Azerbaijan has been reformed according to the Western model, moving to NATO standards.

The ground forces of Azerbaijan are assembled in five corps, which include 23 brigades. Today, the Azerbaijani army has more than 400 tanks (T-55, T-72 and T-90), and from 2010 to 2014 Russia delivered 100 of the latest T-90s. The number of armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers and armored vehicles is 961 units. Most of them are products of the Soviet military-industrial complex (BMP-1, BMP-2, BTR-69, BTR-70 and MT-LB), but there are also the latest Russian and foreign vehicles (BMP-3, BTR-80A, armored cars produced Turkey, Israel and South Africa). Part of the Azerbaijani T-72 modernized by the Israelis.

Azerbaijan possesses almost 700 artillery pieces, among which there are both towed and self-propelled artillery, this also includes rocket artillery. Most of them were obtained during the division of Soviet military property, but there are newer models: 18 self-propelled guns "Msta-S", 18 self-propelled guns 2S31 "Vienna", 18 MLRS "Smerch" and 18 TOS-1A "Solntsepek". Separately, it should be noted the Israeli Lynx MLRS (caliber 300, 166 and 122 mm), which in their characteristics surpass (primarily in accuracy) their Russian counterparts. In addition, Israel delivered the Azerbaijani Armed Forces 155 mm self-propelled guns SOLTAM Atmos. Most of the towed artillery is represented by Soviet D-30 howitzers.

Antitank artillery is mainly represented by the Soviet MT-12 Rapira anti-tank missile system, and also are armed with Soviet-made ATGMs (Malyutka, Konkurs, Fagot, Metis) and foreign production (Israel - Spike, Ukraine - Skif "). In 2014, Russia delivered several self-propelled Chrysanthemum ATGMs.

Russia supplied Azerbaijan with serious sapper equipment that can be used to overcome the enemy’s fortified bands.

Also from Russia were obtained air defense systems: S-300PMU-2 Favorit (two divisions) and several Tor-M2E batteries. There are old Shilka and about 150 Soviet complexes Krug, Osa and Strela-10. There is also a Buk-MB and Buk-M1-2 air defense division transferred by Russia and an Israeli-made Barak 8 air defense division.

There are tactical complexes "Tochka-U", which were purchased from Ukraine.

Armenia has a much smaller military potential, due to its more modest share in the Soviet “legacy”. And with finances, Yerevan is much worse - there are no oil fields on its territory.

After the end of the war in 1994, large funds were allocated from the Armenian state budget for the creation of fortifications along the entire front line. The total number of ground forces in Armenia today is 48 thousand people, another 210 thousand are in reserve. Together with the NKR, the country can expose about 70 thousand soldiers, which is comparable with the army of Azerbaijan, but the technical equipment of the Armenian armed forces is clearly inferior to the enemy.

The total number of Armenian tanks is just over a hundred units (T-54, T-55 and T-72), armored vehicles - 345, most of them were made at the factories of the USSR. Armenia has practically no money to modernize the army. Russia gives her its old weapons and gives loans for the purchase of weapons (of course, Russian).

Armenian air defense has five S-300PS divisions in service, there is information that the Armenians maintain the equipment in good condition. There are older models of Soviet technology: S-200, S-125 and S-75, as well as Shilka. Their exact number is unknown.

The Armenian Air Force consists of 15 Su-25 attack aircraft, Mi-24 helicopters (11 units) and Mi-8, as well as multi-purpose Mi-2s.

It should be added that in Armenia (the city of Gyumri) there is a Russian military base on which the MiG-29 and the S-300V air defense system are deployed. In the event of an attack on Armenia, according to the CSTO treaty, Russia must help the ally.

Caucasian knot

Today, the situation in Azerbaijan looks much more preferable. The country managed to create a modern and very strong armed forces, which was proved in April 2018. It is not clear what will happen next: Armenia is beneficial to maintain the current situation, in fact, it controls about 20% of the territory of Azerbaijan. However, this is not too profitable for Baku.

Attention should be paid to the domestic political aspects of the April events. After the fall in oil prices, Azerbaijan is experiencing an economic crisis, and the best way to pacify the discontented at such a time is to start a “small victorious war”. In Armenia, business in the economy is traditionally bad. So for the Armenian leadership, war is also a very suitable way to refocus the attention of the people.

The number of armed forces on both sides is approximately comparable, but in their organization the army of Armenia and NKR lagged behind modern armed forces for decades. Events at the front clearly showed this. The opinion that the high Armenian morale and the difficulties of waging war in the highlands would equalize everything turned out to be erroneous.

The Israeli Lynx MLRS (300 mm caliber and 150 km range) are superior in accuracy and range to everything that has been done in the USSR and is now being produced in Russia. In conjunction with Israeli drones, the Azerbaijani army was able to deliver powerful and deep strikes at enemy targets.

The Armenians, having launched their counteroffensive, could not dislodge the enemy from all their positions.

With a high degree of probability, we can say that the war will not end. Azerbaijan demands the liberation of the areas surrounding Karabakh, but the Armenian leadership cannot do this. For him, this will be a political suicide. Azerbaijan feels like a winner and wants to continue the fighting. Baku has shown that it has a formidable and combat-ready army that can win.

Armenians are angry and confused, they demand to recapture the lost territories from the enemy at any cost. In addition to the myth of the superiority of its own army, another myth crashed: about Russia as a reliable ally. Over the past years, Azerbaijan has received the latest Russian weapons, and only the old Soviet ones were delivered to Armenia. In addition, it turned out that Russia was not eager to fulfill its obligations under the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

For Moscow, the state of the frozen conflict in the NKR was an ideal situation that allowed it to exert its influence on both sides of the conflict. Of course, Yerevan was more dependent on Moscow. Armenia has almost been squeezed surrounded by unfriendly countries, and if opposition supporters come to power in Georgia this year, it may be completely isolated.

There is one more factor - Iran. In the last war, he sided with the Armenians. But this time the situation may change. Iran has a large Azerbaijani diaspora, which the leadership of the country cannot ignore.

Recently, negotiations were held in Vienna between the presidents of the countries with the mediation of the United States. An ideal solution for Moscow would be the introduction of its own peacekeepers into the conflict zone, this would further strengthen Russian influence in the region. Yerevan will agree to this, but what needs to be offered to Baku to support such a move?

The worst development for the Kremlin will be the start of a full-scale war in the region. Having the liabilities of Donbass and Syria, Russia may simply not pull another armed conflict on its periphery.

Video on the Karabakh conflict

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The history of the Karabakh conflict is a small episode in an almost 200-year-old chronicle of the contact of the Armenian ethnic group with the Caucasian peoples. Dramatic changes in the South Caucasus are associated with large-scale resettlement policies of the XIX-XX centuries. started by Tsarist Russia and then continued by the USSR, right up to the collapse of the Soviet state. In this case, the resettlement process can be divided into two phases:

1) XIX-early XX centuries. When the Armenian people moved from Persia, Ottoman Turkey, the Middle East to the Caucasus.

2) During the 20th century, when intra-Caucasian migration processes were carried out, as a result of which autochthons (local population) were displaced from the territories already populated by Armenians: Azerbaijanis, Georgians, and small Caucasian peoples, and thereby an Armenian majority was created on these lands, with the aim of further substantiation of territorial claims against the peoples of the Caucasus.

For a clear understanding of the causes of the Karabakh conflict, a historical and geographical excursion should be made on the path traveled by the Armenian people. The self-name of the Armenians is high, and the mythical homeland is called Hayastan.

Nand the current geographical area of \u200b\u200btheir residence is the South Caucasus, the Armenian (Hai) people fell under the influence of historical events and the geopolitical struggle of world powers in the Middle East, Asia Minor and the Caucasus. In today's world historiography, most scholars of the Ancient East agree that the Balkans (Southeastern Europe) were the original homeland of the Khai people.

"Father of History" - Herodotus, pointed out that the Armenians are descendants of the Phrygians who lived in southern Europe. The 19th century Russian Caucasian scholar I. Chopin also believed that “Armenians are aliens. This is the tribe of the Phrygians and Ionians who crossed into the northern valleys of the Anatolian mountains. ”

The famous Armenist M. Abeghyan pointed out: “They suggest that the ancestors of the Armenians (hai) long before our era lived in Europe, near the ancestors of the Greeks and Thracians, from where they crossed to Asia Minor. At the time of Herodotus in the 5th century BC we still clearly remembered that the Armenians came to their country from the west. ”

The ancestors of the present Armenian people - hai, migrated from the Balkans to the Armenian Highlands (East of Asia Minor), where the ancient Medes and Persians living in the neighborhood called them by the name of their former neighbors - Armenians. The ancient Greeks and Romans began to name the new people and the territory occupied by them, through which these names - the ethnonym “Armenians” and the toponym “Armenia” were spread in the current historical science, although the Armenians themselves still continue to call themselves hi, which further confirms them foreigners in Armenia.

The Russian Caucasus expert V.L. Velichko noted at the beginning of the 20th century: “Armenians, people of unknown origin, with undoubtedly significant admixture of Jewish, Syro-Chaldean and gypsy blood ..; far from all who consider themselves to be Armenians belong to the indigenous Armenian tribe. ”

From Asia Minor, Armenian immigrants began to fall into the Caucasus - in present-day Armenia and Karabakh. In this regard, the researcher S.P. Zelinsky noted that the Armenians, who appeared at different times in Karabakh, did not understand each other's language: “The main difference between the Armenians of different localities of Zangezur (which was part of the Karabakh Khanate) is the dialects they speak. There are almost as many dialects as there are districts or individual villages ”.

Several conclusions can be drawn from the above statements of the Russian Caucasian historians of the XIX - early XX centuries: the Armenian ethnos could not be an autochthon not only in Karabakh or in Azerbaijan, but also in the South Caucasus as a whole. Arriving in the Caucasus at different periods of history, the "Armenians" did not suspect the existence of each other, and spoke different dialects, that is, at that time there was no concept of a single Armenian language and people.

So, in stages, the ancestors of the Armenians found their homeland in the South Caucasus, where they occupied the primordial lands of Azerbaijanis. Mass e tap resettlement of Armenians in the South Caucasus is marked by the benevolent attitude of the Arab caliphate , who was looking for social support in the conquered territories, therefore he was sympathetic towards the resettlement of Armenians. Armenians found shelter in the Caucasus on the territory of the state of Caucasian Albania, but very soon such hospitality cost the Albanians dearly (the ancestors of today's Azerbaijanis). With the help of the Arab Caliphate in 704, the Armenian Gregorian Church tried to subjugate the Albanian Church, and the library of the Albanian Catholicos Nerses Bakur, which passed into the hands of Armenian church dignitaries, was destroyed. The Arab caliph Abd al-Malik Omeyyad (685-705) ordered the merger of the Aftokefal Albanian Church and Albanian Christians who did not convert to Islam with the Armenian-Gregorian church. But at that time it was not possible to fully implement this plan, and the Albans managed to defend the independence of their church and statehood.

At the beginning of the 15th century, the situation of Armenians in Byzantium worsened, and the Armenian Church turned its eyes to the loyal Caucasus, where it set a goal to create its statehood. The Armenian high priests made a number of trips and wrote a large number of letters to the Albanian patriarchs with a request to give them refuge in the Caucasus "as Christian brothers in distress." The Armenian Church, forced to wander around the cities of Byzantium, eventually lost most of the Armenian flock, which converted to Catholicism, thereby jeopardizing the very existence of the Armenian Church. As a result, with the permission of the Albanian patriarch, some of the Armenian dignitaries, around 1441, moved to the South Caucasus, to Uchkilisa monastery in Etchmiadzin (Three Muezzins): in the territory of present-day Armenia, where they received long-awaited peace and a place to implement further political plans.

From here, Armenian immigrants began to fall into Karabakh, which they now decided to call Artsakh, thereby trying to prove that these are Armenian lands. It is worth noting that the toponym ARTSAKH, as Nagorno-Karabakh is sometimes called, is of local origin. In the modern Udi language, which belongs to one of the languages \u200b\u200bof Caucasian Albania, artsesun means "sit, sit down."From this verb form is formed artsi - "settled; sedentary people. ”   In Azerbaijan and the North Caucasus, dozens of geographical names are known with formants such as -ax, -ex, -ux, -oh, -ih, -uh, -yh. To this day, toponyms with the same formants are preserved in Azerbaijan: Kurm-uh, Kokhm-uh, Mamr-uh, Flies, Jimjim-ah, Sam-uh, Arts-ah, Shad-uh, Az-yh.

In the fundamental academic work “Caucasian Albania and Albanians”, a specialist in ancient Armenian language and history, an Albanologist, Farida Mammadova, who studied medieval Armenian manuscripts in Soviet times and revealed that many of them were written 200-300 years ago, but appear to be “ancient”. Many Armenian chronicles are compiled on the basis of ancient Albanian books that fell into the hands of the Armenians after the Russian Empire abolished the Albanian Church in 1836 and transferred its entire legacy to the Armenian Church, which collected on this basis the “ancient” Armenian history. In fact, the Armenian chroniclers, having got to the Caucasus in a hurry, strewn the history of their people in the literal sense on the grave of Albanian culture.

During the XV-XVII centuries, during the time of the powerful Azerbaijani states of Ak-Koyunlu, Gara-Koyunlu and Safavids, the Armenian Catholics wrote humble letters to the rulers of these states, where they swore allegiance and prayed to help with the resettlement of Armenians in the Caucasus for the sake of salvation from "from the yoke of treacherous Ottomans. " Using this method, using the confrontation between the Ottoman and Safavid empires, a large number of Armenians moved to the Safavid territories bordering between these states - present-day Armenia, Nakhchivan and Karabakh.

However, the period of power of the Azerbaijani state of the Safavids was replaced by the beginning of the 18th century with feudal fragmentation, as a result of which 20 khanates were formed, where there was practically no single centralized power. The heyday of the Russian Empire came when, during the reign of Peter I (1682-1725), the Armenian Church, which had high hopes for the Russian crown in the restoration of Armenian statehood, began to expand its contacts and ties with Russian political circles. In 1714, the Armenian wardaped Minas submitted to Emperor Peter I "a proposal in the interests of the alleged war of Russia with the Safavid state to build a monastery on the Caspian Sea, which could replace the fortress during the period of hostilities." The main goal of the wardpedo was that Russia take into its citizenship the scattered Armenians of the world, about which the same Minas asked Peter I later, in 1718. At the same time, he interceded on behalf of “all Armenians” and asked "Free them from the Basurman yoke and accept Russian citizenship."   However, the Caspian campaign of Peter I (1722) was not completed, due to its failure, and the emperor did not have time to populate the Caspian coast with Armenians, whom he considered "The best means" for securing to Russia the territories acquired in the Caucasus. "

But the Armenians did not lose hope and sent numerous appeals to the name of Emperor Peter I, continued to cry for intercession. Responding to these requests, Peter I sent a letter to the Armenians, according to which they could freely come to Russia for trade and "it was ordered to reassure the Armenian people with imperial mercy, to assure the sovereign of the readiness to accept them under his protection." At the same time, on September 24, 1724, the emperor sent to Istanbul, A. Rumyantsev, instructed the persuasion of Armenians to move to the Caspian lands, provided that the locals “will be sent, and they, the Armenians, will be given their lands.” The policy of Peter I in the “Armenian issue” was continued by Catherine II (1762-1796), "Expressing consent to the restoration of the Armenian kingdom under the auspices of Russia."   That is, the Russian Empire decided to "restore" the account of the Caucasian lands, which once existed in Asia Minor (now Turkey) for only several decades, the Armenian state of Tigran I.

The dignitaries of Catherine II developed a plan, which stated: "the first case should be established in Derbend, take possession of Shamakhi and Ganja, then from Karabakh and Sygnakh, having gathered a sufficient number of troops, you can easily master Erivan". As a result, already at the beginning of the 19th century, Armenians in considerable numbers began to move to the South Caucasus, since the Russian Empire had already taken possession of this region, including Northern Azerbaijan.

During the XVII - early XIX centuries, the Russian Empire waged eight wars with the Ottoman Empire, as a result of which Russia became the mistress of the three seas - the Caspian, Azov, Black, took control of the Caucasus, Crimea, gained advantages in the Balkans. The territory of the Russian Empire expanded even more in the Caucasus after the end of the Russian-Persian wars of 1804-1813 and 1826-1828. All this could not but affect the change in orientation of the Armenians, who, with each new victory of Russian weapons, were increasingly leaning toward Russia.

In 1804-1813 Russia was negotiating with the Armenians of the Ottoman Erzurum province in Asia Minor. It was a question of their relocation to the South Caucasus, mainly to Azerbaijani lands. The response of the Armenians was: "When Erivan will be occupied by the Russian troops with the grace of God, then by all means the Armenians will agree to enter into the patronage of Russia and to reside in the Erivan province."

Before proceeding with the description of the process of resettlement of Armenians, one should dwell on the history of Yerevan, named after the seizure by the Russian troops of the Irevan Khanate and the city of Irevan (Erivan).Another fact of the arrival of Armenians in the Caucasus and in particular in present-day Armenia is the history of the celebration of the founding of the city of Yerevan. It seems many have already forgotten that until the 1950s, Armenians did not know how old the city of Yerevan was.

Having made a small digression, we note that according to historical facts, Irevan (Yerevan) was founded at the beginning of the 16th century as a supporting fortress of the Safavid (Azerbaijan) Empire on the border with the Ottoman Empire. To stop the advance of the Ottoman Empire to the east, Shah Ismail I Safavi in \u200b\u200b1515 ordered the construction of a fortress on the Zengi River. The construction was entrusted to the Reverend Ghuli Khan. Hence the name of the fortress - Revan-kala. Subsequently, Revan-kala became the city of Revan, then Irevan. Then, during the weakening of the Safavid empire, over 20 independent Azerbaijani khanates were formed, one of which was Irevan, which lasted until the invasion of the Russian Empire and the seizure of Irevan in the early 19th century.

However, let us return to the artificial aging of the history of the city of Yerevan that took place in Soviet times. This happened after the 1950s. Soviet archaeologists found a cuneiform tablet near Lake Sevan (formerly called Goycha). Although three cuneiform signs “RBN” are mentioned in the inscription (in ancient times there were no vowels), it was immediately interpreted by the Armenian side as “Erebuni”. This name   the Urartian fortress Erebuni, allegedly founded in 782 BC, which instantly became the basis for the authorities of the Armenian SSR to celebrate the 2750th anniversary of Yerevan in 1968.

Researcher Schnirelman writes about this strange story: “At the same time, there was no direct connection between the archaeological discovery and the later festivities (in Soviet Armenia). Indeed, the magnificent nation-wide holiday was organized not by archaeologists, but by the Armenian authorities, who spent huge amounts of money on this. ... And what does the capital of Armenia, Yerevan, have to do with the Urartian fortress, whose connection with the Armenians still requires proof? The answer to these questions is not a secret for anyone who knows the recent history of Armenia. We need to look for him in the events of 1965, which stirred up, as we shall see below, the whole of Armenia and gave a powerful impetus to the rise of Armenian nationalism. ” (Wars of memory, Myths, identity and politics in Transcaucasia, V.A.Shnirelman).

That is, if there had not been an accidental and incorrectly deciphered archaeological find, then the Armenians would not have known that their "native" Yerevan is now over 2800 years old. But if Yerevan is part of the ancient Armenian culture, then this would have been preserved in the memory, the history of the Armenian people and the Armenians all these 28 centuries should have celebrated the foundation of their city.

Returning to the process of resettlement of the Armenian people in the Caucasus, Armenia and Karabakh, we turn to famous Armenian scholars. In particular, the Armenian historian, professor of Columbia University George (Gevorg) Burnutyan writes: “A number of Armenian historians, speaking about statistics after the 1830s, incorrectly assesses the number of Armenians in Eastern Armenia (by this term Burnutyan means present-day Armenia) during the years of Persian possession (that is, before the Turkmenchay Treaty of 1828), citing a figure from 30 to 50 percent of the total population. In fact, according to official statistics, after the Russian conquest, Armenians hardly reached 20 percent of the total population of Eastern Armenia, while Muslims made up more than 80 percent ... Thus, there is no evidence of the Armenian majority in any district during the Persian years administration (before the conquest of the region by the Russian Empire) ... only after the Russian-Turkish wars of 1855-56 and 1877-78, as a result of which even more Armenians arrived in the region from the Ottoman Empire, even more m left from here Sulman, Armenians have finally reached the majority of the population here. And even after that, until the beginning of the 20th century, the city of Irevan remained predominantly Muslim.».   The same data is confirmed by another Armenian scientist Ronald Sunee. (George Burnutyan, article “The Ethnic Composition and the Socio-Economic Condition of Eastern Armenia in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century”, in the book Transcaucasia: nationalism and social change ”(Transcaucasua, Nationalism and Social Change. Essays in the History of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia), 1996,ss. 77-80.)

Regarding the settlement of Karabakh by Armenians, armenian scholar professor of the University of Michigan, Ronald G. Suny, in his book “A Look Toward Ararat,”   writes: “From ancient times and in the Middle Ages, Karabakh was part of the princedom (in the original“ kingdom ”) of the Caucasian Albanians. This independent ethno-religious group, which no longer exists today, was converted to Christianity in the 4th century and became close to the Armenian Church. Over time, the upper stratum of the Albanian elite was Armenized ... This people (Caucasian Albans), a direct ancestor of today's Azerbaijanis, spoke the Turkic language and adopted Shiite Islam, spread in neighboring Iran. The upland part (Karabakh) remained predominantly Christian, and over time, the Karabakh Albans merged with the (settlers) Armenians. The center of the Albanian church of Ganzasar became one of the bishoprics of the Armenian Church. The echoes of the once independent national church have survived only in the status of a local archbishop, called the Catholicos ” (Prof. Ronald Grigor Suny, “Looking Towards Ararat”, 1993, p. 193).

Another Western historian, Svante Cornell, based on Russian statistics, also cites the dynamics of the growth of the Armenian population in Karabakh in the 19th century: « According to the Russian census, in 1823 Armenians accounted for 9 percent of the total population of Karabakh(the remaining 91 percent were registered as Muslims), in 1832 - 35 percent, and in 1880 they already reached the majority - 53 percent ”   (Svante Cornell, “Small Nations and Great Powers: A Question of Ethnic Political Conflicts in the Caucasus” (Svante Cornell, “Small Nations and Great Powers: A Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict in the Caucasus”, RoutledgeCurzon Press), 2001, p. 68).

The Russian Empire at the end of the 18th-beginning of the 19th centuries, squeezing the Persian and Ottoman empires, expanded its possessions in the southern direction due to the territory of the Azerbaijani khanates. In this difficult geopolitical situation, the fate of the Karabakh Khanate, which became the struggle between the Russian, Ottoman Empire and Persia, was interesting.

Of particular danger to the Azerbaijani khanates was Persia, where, in 1794, Aga Muhammad Khan Kajar of Azerbaijani origin, becoming a shah, decided to restore the former greatness of the Safavid state, relying on the idea of \u200b\u200buniting the Caucasian lands with the administrative and political center in South Azerbaijan and Persia. This idea did not inspire many khans of Northern Azerbaijan, gravitating to the rapidly growing Russian empire. In such a responsible and difficult time, the ruler of the Karabakh Khanate, Ibrahim Khalil Khan, initiated the creation of the anti-Cajar coalition. Bloody wars began on the Karabakh land, the Persian Shah Kajar personally led campaigns against the Karabakh khan and its capital city of Shusha.

But all the attempts of the Persian Shah to conquer these lands were unsuccessful, and in the end, despite the successful capture of the Shush fortress, he was killed here by his own courtiers, after which the remnants of his troops fled to Persia. The victory of Karabakh Ibrahim Khalil Khan, allowed him to begin the final negotiations on the entry of his possessions into the subjects of the Russian Empire. May 14, 1805 was signed A treatise between the Karabakh khan and the Russian Empire on the transfer of the khanate to Russian rule, which connected the further fate of these lands with Tsarist Russia.   It is worth noting that the treaty signed by Ibrahim Khan Shushinsky and Karabakh and the Russian general, Prince Tsitsianov, consisting of 11 articles, does not mention the presence of Armenians anywhere. At that time, there were 5 Albanian melikovs subordinate to the Karabakh Khan, and there is no talk of Armenian political entities, otherwise their presence would certainly have been noted in Russian sources.

Despite the successful end of the Russian-Persian war (1826-1828), Russia was in no hurry to conclude a peace treaty with Persia. Finally, on February 10, 1828, the Turkmenchay Treaty was signed between the Russian Empire and the Persian state, according to which the Irevan and Nakhchivan khanates also went to Russia. According to its terms, Azerbaijan was divided into two parts - North and South, and the Araz River was defined as a demarcation line.

A special place was occupied by Article 15 of the Turkmenchay Treaty, which gave"All residents and officials of the Azerbaijan region have a one-year period for a free transition with their families from the Persian regions to the Russian."   First of all, she touched "Persian Armenians." In pursuance of this plan, the “highest decree” of the Russian Senate of March 21, 1828 was adopted, which stated: “By the power of the treaty with Persia concluded on February 10, 1828, annexed to Russia - the Khanate of Erivan and the Khanate of Nakhichevan are commanded in all matters to henceforth be called the Armenian region.”

Thus, the foundation was laid for future Armenian statehood in the Caucasus.A resettlement committee was created, which monitored the migration processes, equipping the resettled Armenians in new places so that the residents of the created settlements did not come into contact with the already existing Azerbaijani villages. Not having time to equip a huge flow of immigrants in the Irevan province, the Caucasian administration decides to persuade a large part of the Armenian immigrants to settle in Karabakh. As a result of the mass resettlement of Armenians from Persia in 1828-1829, 35,560 migrants were here in Northern Azerbaijan. Of these, 2,558 families or 10,000 people. posted in Nakhichevan province. In the Garabagh (Karabakh) province placed about 15 thousand people. During 1828-1829, 1,458 Armenian families (about 5 thousand people) were settled in the Irevan province. Tsatur Aghayan cited data for 1832: then there were 164,450 inhabitants in the Armenian region, of which 82,317 were Armenians (50%), and, as Tsatur Aghayan noted, out of the indicated number of local Armenians, there were 25,151 (15%) of the total population , and the rest were immigrants from Persia and the Ottoman Empire.

In general, as a result of the Turkmenchay treaty, 40,000 Armenian families moved from Persia to Azerbaijan within a few months. Then, relying on an agreement with the Ottoman Empire, in 1830 Russia resettled another 12,655 Armenian families from Asia Minor to the Caucasus. In the years 1828-30, the empire resettled 84,600 families from Turkey to the Caucasus and placed a part of them in the most beautiful lands of Karabakh. In the period 1828-39. 200 thousand Armenians were resettled in the mountainous parts of Karabakh. In the years 1877-79, another 185 thousand Armenians were resettled to the south of the Caucasus during the Russo-Turkish war. As a result, significant demographic changes took place in Northern Azerbaijan, which were further intensified by the departure of the indigenous population from the territories inhabited by Armenians. These oncoming flows were completely “legal” in nature, since the official Russian authorities, resettling the Armenians in Northern Azerbaijan, did not prevent the Azeri Turk from leaving here in the Iranian and Ottoman borders .

The largest migration was in 1893-94. Already in 1896, the number of Armenians who arrived reached 900 thousand. Due to the resettlement in 1908 in Transcaucasia, the number of Armenians reached 1 million 300 thousand people, 1 million of which were resettled by the tsarist government from foreign countries. Due to this, the Armenian state appeared in Transcaucasia in 1921. Professor V. A. Parsamyan writes in the “History of the Armenian People-Ayastan 1801-1900.” “Before joining Russia, the population of Eastern Armenia (Irevan Khanate) was 169,155 people - of which 57,305 (33.8%) Armenians ... After the capture of the Kars region of the Armenian Dashnak Republic (1918), the population grew to 1 million 510 thousand people. Of these, there were 795 thousand Armenians, 575 thousand Azerbaijanis, 140 thousand were representatives of other nationalities. ”

Towards the end of the 19th century, a new phase of activization of Armenians began, connected with the national awakening of peoples, a phenomenon that migrated from Europe to Asia. In the years 1912-1913. Balkan wars began between the Ottoman Empire and the Balkan peoples, which directly influenced the situation in the Caucasus. During these years, Russia dramatically changed its policy towards Armenians. On the eve of World War I, the Russian Empire began to assign the Ottoman Armenians the role of its ally against the Ottoman Turkey, where the Armenians rebelled against their state, hoping with the support of Russia and European countries to create an Armenian state on Turkish lands.

However, the victories in 1915-16. The Ottoman Empire on the fronts of the First World War interfered with these plans: the mass deportation of Armenians from the war zone in Asia Minor towards Mesopotamia and Syria began. But the bulk of the Armenians - more than 300,000 fled along with the retreating Russian army to the South Caucasus, mainly to Azerbaijani lands.

After the collapse of the Russian Empire in Transcaucasia in 1917, the Transcaucasian Confederation was formed and the Sejm was created in Tiflis, in which the Georgian, Azerbaijani, and Armenian parliamentarians played an active role. However, disagreements and the difficult military situation did not allow preserving the confederal structure and, following the results of the last Seimas meetings in May 1918, independent states appeared in the South Caucasus: the Georgian, Ararat (Armenian) and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR). On May 28, 1918, ADR became the first democratic republic with a parliamentary form of government in the East and in the Muslim world.

But the leaders of Dashnak Armenia began the massacre of the Azerbaijani population of the former Erivan province, Zangezur and other areas that now constitute the territory of the Republic of Armenia. At the same time, Armenian troops, assembled from units deserting from the fronts of the First World War, began to advance through the territory, with the goal of “clearing the place” for the creation of the state of Armenia. In this difficult time, trying to stop the bloodshed and massacre of civilians by the Armenian troops, a group of representatives of the leadership of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic agreed to cede the city of Yerevan and its environs to create an Armenian state. The condition for this concession, which still causes great controversy in Azerbaijani historiography, was that the Armenian side would stop the massacre of the Azerbaijani population and would no longer have territorial claims against ADRs. When in June 1918, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia signed, individually, "peace and friendship treaties with Turkey," the territory of Armenia was defined as 10,400 sq. Km. The undisputed territory of the ADR was about 98 thousand square kilometers. (together with the disputed sections 114 thousand sq. km.).

However, the Armenian leadership did not keep its word. In 1918, part of the Russian and Armenian soldiers were withdrawn from the Turkish front, and as a result, troops consisting of Armenians deserting from the fronts of the First World War were skillfully directed towards Azerbaijan and its oil capital Baku. Along the way, they used scorched earth tactics, leaving behind the ashes of Azerbaijani villages.

The hastily formed Armenian militia consisted of those who agreed under the Bolshevik slogans to obey the orders of the Dashnak leaders led by Stepan Shaumyan, sent from Moscow to lead the Baku Communists (Baksovet). Then, on their basis, Shaumyan managed to equip and fully arm 20,000 groups of 90% Armenians in Baku.

The Armenian historian Ronald Sunee in his book “The Baku Commune” (1972) described in detail how the leaders of the Armenian movement, under the auspices of communist ideas, created the Armenian nation-state.

It was with the help of the shock and well-armed 20 thousandth group, consisting of soldiers and officers who went through the fronts of the First World War, in the spring of 1918, the Dashnak leaders, under the cover of the ideas of Bolshevism, managed to organize an unprecedented massacre of the civilian population of Baku and the regions of Azerbaijan. In a short period of time, 50-60 Azerbaijanis were killed, a total of 500-600 thousand Azerbaijanis were slaughtered in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Persia.

The Dashnak groups then decided for the first time to try to tear off the fertile lands of Karabakh from Azerbaijan. In June 1918, 1 congress of the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians was held in Shusha, and here they declared themselves independent. The newly formed Armenian Republic, sending troops, carried out unprecedented pogroms and bloodshed in Karabakh in Azerbaijani villages. Objecting to the Armenian unreasonable demands, on May 22, 1919 in the information given to V. Lenin by the Baku Communist Anastas Mikoyan, it was reported: “The agents of the Armenian leadership - the Dashnaks are trying to annex Karabakh to Armenia. For the Karabakh Armenians, this would mean abandoning their places of residence in Baku and combining their destinies with nothing that does not connect Yerevan. The Armenians at their 5th congress decided to accept the Azerbaijani government and unite with it. ”

Then the efforts of the Armenian nationalists to conquer Nagorno-Karabakh and annex it to Armenia were unsuccessful. On November 23, 1919 in Tbilisi, thanks to the efforts of the Azerbaijani leadership, it was possible to conclude a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan and stop the bloodshed.

But the situation in the region continued to be tense, and on the night of April 26-27, 1920, the 72,000th 11th Red Army, crossing the borders of Azerbaijan, went to Baku. As a result of the military assault, Baku was occupied by the troops of Soviet Russia, and Soviet power was established in Azerbaijan, under which the position of the Armenians was further strengthened. And in these years, the Armenians, not forgetting their plans, continued the struggle against Azerbaijan. The issue of Nagorno-Karabakh was repeatedly discussed at the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), the Transcaucasian branch of the RCP (b), at the Bureau of the Central Committee of the AKP (b).

On July 15, 1920, at a meeting of the Central Committee of the Azerbaijan Communist Party (b), a decision was made to join Karabakh and Zangezur to Azerbaijan. But the situation did not begin to develop in favor of Armenia, and on December 2, 1920, the Dashnak government transferred power without resistance to the Military Revolutionary Committee, headed by the Bolsheviks. Soviet power was established in Armenia. Despite this, the Armenians again raised the question of the division of Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan. On July 27, 1921, the political and organizational bureau of the Central Committee of the AKP (b) considered the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh. This bureau did not agree with the proposal of the representative of Soviet Armenia A. Bekzadyan and stated that dividing the population by nationality and joining part of it to Armenia, and the other to Azerbaijan, was not acceptable, both from an administrative and from an economic point of view.

Regarding this adventure, the Dashnak leader, Armenian leader Hovhannes Kachaznuni wrote in 1923: « From the very first day of our state life, we perfectly understood that such a small, poor, devastated and cut off from the rest of the world country, like Armenia, cannot become truly independent and independent; that we need support, some external force ... Two real forces exist today, and we must reckon with them: these forces are Russia and Turkey. By coincidence, today our country enters the Russian orbit and is more than adequately secured from the invasion of Turkey ... The issue of expanding our borders can be resolved only by relying on Russia. ”

After the establishment of Soviet power in the Caucasus in 1920-1921, Moscow decided not to redraw the borders between the former independent local states existing in the region as a result of Armenian aggression

But this did not diminish the appetites of the ideologists of Armenian national separatism. In Soviet times, the leaders of the Armenian SSR repeatedly in the 1950-1970s. appealed to the Kremlin with requests and even demands to transfer the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region (NKAO) of Azerbaijan to Armenia. However, then the union leadership categorically refused to satisfy the baseless claims of the Armenian side. Changes in the position of the leadership of the USSR occurred in the mid-1980s. in the era of Gorbachev's "perestroika". It is no accident, precisely with the beginning in 1987 of perestroika innovations in the USSR, the claims of Armenia to the NKAR gained a new impetus and character.

Appearing like mushrooms after the “perestroika rain”, the Armenian organizations “Krunk” in the NKAO itself and the “Karabakh” Committee in Yerevan, began the implementation of the project of the actual rejection of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Dashnaktsutyun party again revived: at its XXIII Congress in Athens in 1985, it decided to consider “creating a unified and independent Armenia” as its first priority and to implement this slogan at the expense of Nagorno-Karabakh, Nakhchivan (Azerbaijan) and Javakheti (Georgia). As always, the Armenian Church, the nationalist-minded strata of the intelligentsia and the foreign diaspora were involved in the realization of the undertaking. As noted later by Russian researcher S.I. Chernyavsky: « Unlike Armenia, Azerbaijan did not have, and there is no organized and politically active diaspora, and the Karabakh conflict deprived Azerbaijanis of any support from the leading Western countries, taking into account their traditionally pro-Armenian positions. ”

The process began in 1988 with the deportation of new groups of Azerbaijanis from Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. On February 21, 1988, the Regional Council of the NKAR announced the withdrawal from the Azerbaijan SSR and accession to Armenia. The first blood in the Karabakh conflict was shed on February 25, 1988 in Askeran (Karabakh), when two young Azerbaijanis were killed. Later in Baku, in the village of Vorovsky, an Armenian killed an Azerbaijani police officer. On July 18, 1988, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR confirmed that Nagorno-Karabakh should be part of Azerbaijan and no territorial changes are possible.

But the Armenians, continued to distribute leaflets, threatened the Azerbaijanis and set fire to their homes. As a result of all this, on September 21, the last Azerbaijani left the administrative center of Nagorno-Karabakh, the city of Khankendi (Stepanakert).

An escalation of the ripening conflict followed, accompanied by the expulsion of Azerbaijanis from Armenia and all of Nagorno-Karabakh. In Azerbaijan, power was paralyzed, flows of refugees, and the growing anger of the Azerbaijani people would inevitably lead to massive Armenian-Azerbaijani clashes. In February 1988, a tragedy provocation took place in the city of Sumgait (Azerbaijan),   as a result of which, Armenians, Azerbaijanis and representatives of other peoples died.

Anti-Azerbaijani hysteria was organized in the Soviet press, where they tried to present the Azerbaijani people as cannibals, monsters, “pan-Islamists” and “pan-Turkists”. Passions around Nagorno-Karabakh were running high: Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia were stationed in 42 cities and regions of Azerbaijan. Here are the tragic results of the first phase of the Karabakh conflict: About 200 thousand Azerbaijanis, 18 thousand Muslim Kurds, thousands of Russians were expelled from Armenia by force, at gunpoint. 255 Azerbaijanis were killed: two were cut off their heads; 11 people were burned alive, 3 were cut into pieces; 23 crushed by cars; 41 beaten to death; 19 froze in the mountains; 8 were missing, etc. Also, 57 women and 23 children were brutally murdered. After that, on December 10, 1988, modern Dashnaks declared Armenia a "republic without Turks." The books of the Baku Armenian tell the story of the nationalist hysteria that swept Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh and the difficult fate of the Armenians who moved here. Robert Arakelov: “The Karabakh notebook” and “Nagorno-Karabakh: The culprits of the tragedy are known.”

After the Sumgait events initiated by the Soviet KGB and emissaries from Armenia in February 1988, an open anti-Azerbaijani campaign began in the Soviet press and television.

The Soviet leadership and the media, silent when the Armenian nationalists drove the Azerbaijanis out of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, suddenly “woke up” and raised hysteria about the “Armenian pogroms” in Azerbaijan. The leadership of the USSR openly accepted the position of Armenia, and sought to blame Azerbaijan for everything. The main target of the Kremlin authorities was the growing national liberation movement of the Azerbaijani people. On the night of January 19 to 20, 1990, the Soviet government, led by Gorbachev, committed a terrible criminal act in Baku in its cruelty. As a result of this criminal operation, 134 civilians were killed, 700 injured, 400 people were missing.

Perhaps the most terrible and inhuman action of Armenian nationalists in Nagorno-Karabakh was the genocide of the population of the Azerbaijani city of Khojaly. From February 25 to 26, at night of 1992, the greatest tragedy of the 20th century occurred - the Khojaly genocide. At first, the sleeping city, with the participation of the 366th motorized rifle regiment of the CIS, was surrounded by Armenian troops, after which Khojaly was subjected to massive shelling from artillery and heavy military equipment. With the support of armored vehicles of the 366th regiment, the city was captured by Armenian occupiers. Everywhere, the armed Armenians shot the fleeing civilians, mercilessly cracking down on them. Thus, on a cold, snowy February night, those who were able to escape from the ambushes arranged by the Armenians and escape to the nearby forests and mountains, most of them died from the cold, frost.

As a result of the atrocities of the criminal Armenian forces from the Khojaly population, 613 people were killed, 487 people became crippled, 1275 civilians - old people, children, women who were captured, were subjected to the mind of incomprehensible Armenian torment, insult and humiliation. The fate of 150 people is still unknown. It was a real genocide. Of the 613 people killed in Khojaly, 106 were women, 63 children, 70 old people. 8 families were completely destroyed, 24 children lost both parents, and 130 children - one of the parents. 56 people were killed with particular cruelty and ruthlessness. They were burned alive, their heads were chopped off, their skin was torn off their faces, their babies' eyes were gouged out, the stomachs of pregnant women were opened with bayonets. Armenians insulted even the dead. The Azerbaijani state and its people will never forget the Khojaly tragedy.

The Khojaly events put an end to any chance of a peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict before. Two Armenian presidents - Robert Kocharyan and current Serzh Sargsyan, as well as Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan, took an active part in the military operations in the Karabakh war, in the destruction of the peaceful Azerbaijani population, in particular in Khojaly.

After the Khojaly tragedy of February 1992, the just anger of the Azerbaijani people at the atrocities and impunity of Armenian nationalists resulted in an open phase of the Armenian-Azerbaijani military confrontation. Bloody military operations began with the use of aviation, armored vehicles, rocket launchers, heavy artillery and large military units.

The Armenian side used prohibited chemical weapons against the civilian Azerbaijani population. Amid the practical lack of serious external support from the world powers, Azerbaijan was able to liberate most of the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh as a result of a series of counter-attacks.

In this situation, Armenia and the Karabakh separatists, several times through the mediation of world powers, sought a ceasefire and sat down at the negotiating table, but then, treacherously violating the ongoing negotiations, unexpectedly switched to a military offensive on the front. So, for example, on August 19, 1993, at the initiative of Iran, negotiations between the Azerbaijani and Armenian delegations were held in Tehran, but just at that moment, the Armenian troops, having foiled all agreements, treacherously went on the offensive on the Karabakh front in the direction of the Agdam, Fizuli and Jabrail districts . The blockade of Nakhchivan by Armenia continued with the aim of further tearing it away from Azerbaijan.

On June 4, 1993, in Ganja, the rebellion of Suret Huseynov began, which turned its troops from the line of the Karabakh front to Baku in order to seize power in the country. Azerbaijan was on the verge of a new now civil war. In addition to the Armenian aggression, Azerbaijan faced open separatism in the south of the country, where the rebel field commander Alikram Gumbatov announced the creation of the Talysh-Mugan Republic. In this difficult situation, on June 15, 1993, the Milli Majlis (Parliament) of Azerbaijan elected Heydar Aliyev the head of the Supreme Council of the country. On July 17, President Abulfaz Elchibey resigned from his presidency, which the Milli Majlis handed over to Heydar Aliyev.

In the north of Azerbaijan, separatist sentiments arose among Lezghian nationalists, who were also going to tear away the Azerbaijani regions bordering Russia. The situation has become even more complicated, since Azerbaijan has also found itself on the verge of a civil war between various political and paramilitary groups within the country. As a result of the power crisis and the attempted military coup in Azerbaijan, where there was a struggle for power, neighboring Armenia went on the offensive and occupied Azerbaijani lands adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh. On July 23, the Armenians captured one of the ancient cities of Azerbaijan - Agdam.On September 14-15, the Armenians tried to break into the territory of Azerbaijan from military positions in Kazakh, then in Tovuz, Kedabek, Zangelan. On September 21, villages and villages of Zangelan, Dzhabrail, Tovuz and Ordubad regions underwent massive shelling.

On November 30, 1993, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan G. Hasanov spoke at an OSCE meeting in Rome, stating that as a result of the aggressive policy pursued by Armenia, in the name of creating "Great Armenia", it occupied 20% of Azerbaijani lands. More than 18 thousand civilians were killed, about 50 thousand people were wounded, 4 thousand people were taken prisoner, 88 thousand settlements, more than a thousand economic facilities, 250 schools and educational institutions were destroyed.

After the accession of Azerbaijan and Armenia to the UN and the OSCE, Armenia, declaring that it would follow the principles of these organizations, captured the city of Shusha. At a time when a group of UN representatives was in Azerbaijan to collect evidence of Armenian aggression, Armenian troops captured the Lachin region, thereby connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia. During an informal meeting of the Geneva Five, the Armenians occupied the Kelbajar region, and during the visit of the head of the OSCE Minsk Group to the region, they captured the Agdam region. After the adoption of the resolution that the Armenians should unconditionally liberate the occupied Azerbaijani territories by them, they captured the Fizuli region. And while the head of the OSCE Margaret af-Iglas was in the region, Armenia occupied the Zangelan region. After that, at the end of November 1993, the Armenians captured the area near the Khudaferin bridge and, thus, took control of 161 km of the Azerbaijani border with Iran.

Finally, on December 23, 1993, with the mediation of the Turkmen President S. Niyazov, a meeting was held between Ter-Petrosyan and G. Aliyev. Numerous meetings were held with representatives of Russia, Turkey, Armenia. On May 11, 1994, a temporary truce was declared. On December 5-6, 1994, at a summit of the heads of state in Budapest and May 13-15 in Morocco, at the 7th summit of Islamic states, G. Aliyev condemned Armenian politics and aggression against Azerbaijan. He also indicated that they failed to comply with UN resolutions Nos. 822, 853, 874 and 884   in which the aggressive actions of Armenia were condemned, and a demand was put forward to immediately release the occupied Azerbaijani lands.

Following the First Karabakh WarArmenia occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and seven more Azerbaijani regions - Agdam, Fizuli, Jabrail, Zangilan, Gubadlinsky, Lachinsky, Kelbajar, from where the Azerbaijani population was expelled, and all these places as a result of aggression turned into ruins. Now about 20% of the territory (17 thousand square kilometers): 12 regions and 700 settlements of Azerbaijan are under the occupation of Armenians. As a result of the struggle of the Armenians for the creation of "Great Armenia", for the entire period of confrontation they 20 thousand were brutally killed and 4 thousand people of the Azerbaijani population were taken prisoner.

In the occupied territories they destroyed about 4 thousand industrial and agricultural facilities with a total area of \u200b\u200b6 million square meters. m, about a thousand educational organizations, about 180 thousand apartments, 3 thousand cultural centers and 700 medical institutions. 616 schools, 225 kindergartens, 11 vocational schools, 4 technical schools, 1 higher educational institution, 842 clubs, 962 libraries, 13 museums, 2 theaters and 183 movie devices were destroyed.

In Azerbaijan, 1 million refugees and internally displaced persons - that is, every eighth citizen of the country. The wounds inflicted by Armenians on the Azerbaijani people are innumerable. In total, over 1 million Azerbaijanis were killed during the 20th century, and 1.5 million Azerbaijanis were expelled from Armenia.

Armenia organized mass terror on Azerbaijani soil: bombings in buses, trains, and the Baku Metro did not stop. In 1989-1994, Armenian terrorists and separatists carried out 373 terrorist attacks on the territory of Azerbaijan, as a result of which 1568 people were killed and 1808 were injured.

It should be noted that the adventure of the Armenian nationalists to recreate “Great Armenia” was very expensive for the simple Armenian people. Now in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh the population has almost halved. 1.8 million remained in Armenia, and 80-90 thousand Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, which is half the figures of 1989. The resumption of hostilities on the Karabakh front may lead to the fact that the Armenian population will almost completely leave the region of the South Caucasus and, as statistics show, will move to the Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories of Russia and the Ukrainian Crimea. This will be the logical result of the incompetent policies of nationalists and criminals who usurped power in the Republic of Armenia and occupied Azerbaijani lands.

The Azerbaijani people and leadership are making every effort to restore the territorial integrity of the country and liberate the territories occupied by the Armenian side as soon as possible. To this end, Azerbaijan pursues a comprehensive foreign policy, and also builds its military-industrial complex, modernizes the army, which will restore the sovereignty of Azerbaijan by force, if the aggressor country Armenia does not liberate the occupied Azerbaijani lands peacefully.