It was difficult for those who grew up and grew up in the 80s of the 20th century to imagine that soon the expressions “Azerbaijani tanks attack the Armenian positions” or “Armenian aviation launched a bomb attack assault on the positions of the Azerbaijani army” will come into use and will not be perceived as excerpts from a bad joke.
Immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the declaration of national sovereignty, armed conflicts began to arise within the former republics of the USSR. Where peace reigned for a long time, albeit thin, supported by force, a real war began. Nagorno-Karabakh became one of the first regions where hostility reached its maximum intensity.
Internal territorial disputes became possible when, after the Bolsheviks came to power , the former territory of the Russian Empire was divided not by administrative, but by nationality. NKAO with a predominantly Armenian population became part of Soviet Azerbaijan in 1923. The history of Nagorno-Karabakh originates in articles by Lenin and Stalin on national politics.
The conflict that arose during the armed confrontation between the Ottoman Empire and the Christian population, was the beginning of ethnic strife and recognized in many countries as genocide. The low culture of Soviet leaders and government officials over the decades did not contribute to the harmony, but, on the contrary, deepened the contradictions, therefore, as soon as the central government weakened, the war began. Nagorno-Karabakh began to hold a rally in the midst of Gorbachev's perestroika, in 1987. The main requirement was the accession of the rebel region to the Armenian SSR.
In the same period, ethnic cleansing begins, carried out so far relatively bloodlessly. Azerbaijanis are created the conditions under which they “voluntarily” leave their homes and “repatriate”.
When the country's economy is going through hard times, nationalism and mutual intolerance receive fertile soil. Demonstrations, rallies and protests begin. The Armenian SSR, still in the USSR, announces the annexation of the NKAR by the decision of its Supreme Council on June 17, 1988. When such anschluss is produced by independent states, war usually begins. Nagorno-Karabakh is becoming the subject of territorial disputes of the two Union republics, which in itself looks absurd, for the time being. But in a huge country, blood is already pouring ...
Then there was the massacre in Sumgait, the events in Baku, during which mass pogroms began. The collapse of the USSR caused a parade of sovereignty, the conflicting parties became independent and hostile countries, each of which accused the neighbor of aggressive aspirations.
In 1992, a war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Until 1993, Nagorno-Karabakh became a theater of active hostilities, as a result of which Baku lost control of the fifth part of the territory allotted to it on the map of the USSR. The price of this result is more than a million refugees, tens of thousands of dead and wounded. The bloody battle ended in the signing of the Bishkek agreement in May 1994.
For Azerbaijan, the sovereignty of the NKAR is a matter of the territorial integrity of the state. For Armenia, this conflict is also fundamental, the country protects its fellow citizens living in seven regions of the region. Neither side wants to cede and surrender Nagorno-Karabakh. The war is not over. There is a truce.