Karabakh is Azerbaijan

6 min readDec 12, 2020

History of Karabakh

Karabakh is one of the ancient regions of Azerbaijan. That place locates in western part of Azerbaijan. “Karabakh” means is “Pleasant garden”. “Qara (Kara)” — “great, pleasant” at the same time “black”, “bağ (bakh)” — “garden”. Karabakh is famous with “Azikh Cave”. In Azikh Cave a part of the lower jawbone of a primitive man called “azykhantrop” was found in the Azykh cave. The discovery indicates that one of the earliest examples of proto-human habitation in Eurasia was in Karabakh.

Karabakh was the part of the Garagoyunlu, Aghgoyunlu and Safavid states of Azerbaijan, at the beginning of the XV — XVII centuries. In XVIII century was the creation of Karabakh Khante and khanate started to be ruled by the Javashir dynasty.

Everything changed with Kurekchay Treaty. It was in 1805 between Karabakh Khanate and Russian Empire. With that treaty Russian Empire started implementing the “divide and conquer” policy. Russian Empire started resettle Armenians to Karabakh from Ottoman Empire and Iran. After that Russian-Iranian and Russian-Ottoman wars happened. After wars in 1828–1830, 40 000 Armenians from Iran and 84 000 from Ottoman Empire moved to Azerbaijan. All of them relocated in Azerbaijan. For Armenians Russian Czar created Armenian province in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories.

The treaties were signed between Russia and Iran for distribute of Azerbaijan territories. These treaties were Gulistan Treaty (1813) and Turkmenchay Treaty (1828). In Gulistan Treaty all Azerbaijani khanates were given to Russia except Irevan and Nakhchivan khanates. In Turkmenchay treaty part of Nakhchivan and Irevan were given to Russia. The border between Russia and Iran was Araz River. End of this 300 thousand Armenians were moved from Turkey and Iran to Azerbaijan’s territory which are Nagorno — Karabakh, Nakhchivan, Zangezur and etc. In that time, Irevan’s population were 66% of Azerbaijanis and 34% of Armenians.

In total 2 million Azerbaijanis died or drove away drom their homes, because of two massacres by Armenians in the 19th century. These massacres happened in 1905–1907, 1918–1920. In 1905, Armenians committed a terrible genocide aganist the local Azerbaijanis, which went down in history as “Armenians-Muslim confilt”.

Azerbaijan was independent nation from 1918 to 1920 but then incorporated into Soviet Union. Azerbaijan declared sovereignty on september 23, 1989 and independence on August 30, 1991.

Azerbaijan In 1989, during August-December Armenians attacked to Azerbaijani settlemets, as a result of that 52 people were killed and 166 were injured by Armenians. On January 18, 1990, the village of Karki in Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic was occupied by Armenians. In other words, during the Soviet era, the territory of Azerbaijan was subjected to the military occupation of Armenia.

From 1988 to 1993 Armenians attacked to Karabakh. It was a genocide, as a result of that in Karabakh 900 settlemets, 150 000 houses, 7 000 public buildings, 695 medical institutions, 44 temples, 9 mosques, 473 historical monuments and etc were destroyed. They occupied Azerbaijan territories which are Khojaly, Shusha, Lachin, Khocavend, Kelbecer, Aghdere, Aghdam, Cebrayil, Fuzuli, Qubadli, Zengilan.

Azerbaijan’s map after Armenians attack to Azerbaijan end of the 20th century.

At that time, they made “Khojaly tradegy” or “Khojaly massacre”. It happened on 26 February 1992 in Khojaly town. The tragedy happened at the end of the century. The genocide was not only against the people of Azerbaijan, but it is one of the gravest crimes against humanity. As a result, 613 persons were killed, including 106 women, 63 children and 70 elderly people. 1,275 inhabitants were taken hostage, while the fate of 150 persons remains un- known to this day. In the course of the tragedy 487 inhabitants of Khojaly were severely maimed, including 76 children not yet of age. 8 families were completely wiped out, 25 children lost both parents, and 130 children one of their parents. Of those who perished, 56 persons were killed with especial cruelty: by burning alive, scalping, beheading, gouging out of eyes, and bayoneting of pregnant women in the abdomen.

Nagorno-Karabakh today.

In 2012, Nagorno — Karabakh’s population was almost entirely Armenian.

In 2016 on April, the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan started. It took 4 days — from 1 April to 5 April. This conflict was the worst conflict since 1994 ceasefire agreement. This agreement signed by Azerbaijan, Armenia and Nagorno — Karabakh.

In 2020, “Second Nagorno — Karabakh War” happened. It took 1 month and 2 weeks, from “27 September 2020” to “10 November 2020”. This conflict was between Azerbaijan, supported by Turkey and Republic of Artsakh together with Armenia. It happened morning of 27 September 2020. This war ended with victory of Azerbaijan.

During the war, Armenians attacked to the Azerbaijanis civilians. Armenians attacked to Ganja 4 times. Ganja is the second largest city of Azerbaijan. Population of Ganja is 335 thousand people. It is located 97 kilometres north of the Nagorno-Karabakh Line of Contact and 241 kilometres east of the Armenian-Azerbaijani state border. As a result, 25 people died, and 125 people injured by Armenians attack to Ganja. Here are some pictures of Ganja during the war:

A resident sits amid the rubble and awaits the search for his relatives as rescue teams work at a site hit by a rocket during fighting over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, in the city of Ganja, Azerbaijan early on October 17, 2020 [Bulent Kilic/AFP]

Rescue teams sift through rubble at a site in the city of Ganja, Azerbaijan [Bulent Kilic/AFP]

A man waits for news of his relatives as search and rescue teams work on the blast site hit by a rocket during the fighting over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, in the city of Ganja, Azerbaijan October 17, 2020. © Umit Bektas, Reuters

5 years old Bahtiyar Elnur, who was injured in an Armenian attack, plays with his sister Sehla

This picture shows the places that Armenians attacked during war:

On 9 November, Azerbaijan took Shusha back. After that “Ceasefire agreement” was signed between by the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, and the President of Russia, Vladimir Putinon 10 November 2020 at 00:00 Moscow time. Under the agreement Armenia will return the surrounding territories it occupied in 1994 to Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan will also gain land access to its Nakhchivan exclave bordering Turkey and Iran. Approximately 2,000 Russian soldiers will be deployed as peacekeeping forces along the Lachin corridor between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh for a mandate of at least five years.

After all of this, after 30 years, Azerbaijan take back its territories from Armenians. All Azerbaijanis people were so happy. Via this link, you can watch the happiness of Azerbaijanis people after take back our territories: https://jam-news.net/baku-holiday-victory-in-war-curfew-azerbaijan-news/