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A constitutional referendum was held in the unrecognised Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh on 10 December 2006 to approve a draft constitution, [1] which defined Nagorno-Karabakh as a sovereign state. [2] Azerbaijan condemned the referendum, saying it is an unconstitutional attempt to damage the peace process. [3]
The constitution was approved by 99.28% of voters, with a turnout of 87%. [4]
| Choice | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| For | 77,279 | 99.28 |
| Against | 554 | 0.72 |
| Invalid/blank votes | 556 | – |
| Total | 78,389 | 100 |
| Registered voters/turnout | 90,077 | 87.02 |
| Source: Direct Democracy | ||
Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, within the mountainous range of Karabakh, lying between Lower Karabakh and Syunik, and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains. The region is mostly mountainous and forested.
Robert Sedraki Kocharyan is an Armenian politician. He served as the President of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic from 1994 to 1997 and Prime Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh from 1992 to 1994. He served as the second President of Armenia between 1998 and 2008 and as Prime Minister of Armenia from 1997 to 1998.
Artsakh, officially the Republic of Artsakh, formerly the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, NKR, is a breakaway state in the South Caucasus supported by Armenia, whose territory is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. Artsakh controls a part of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, including the capital of Stepanakert. It is an enclave within Azerbaijan. Its only overland access route to Armenia is via the 5 km (3.1 mi) wide Lachin corridor which is under the control of Russian peacekeepers.
The First Nagorno-Karabakh War was an ethnic and territorial conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan. As the war progressed, Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former Soviet Republics, entangled themselves in protracted, undeclared mountain warfare in the mountainous heights of Karabakh as Azerbaijan attempted to curb the secessionist movement in Nagorno-Karabakh. The enclave's parliament had voted in favor of uniting itself with Armenia and a referendum, boycotted by the Azerbaijani population of Nagorno-Karabakh, was held, whereby a majority voted in favor of independence. The demand to unify with Armenia began in a relatively peaceful manner in 1988; in the following months, as the Soviet Union disintegrated, it gradually grew into an increasingly violent conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, resulting in ethnic cleansing, with the Sumgait (1988) and Baku (1990) pogroms directed against Armenians, and the Gugark pogrom (1988) and Khojaly Massacre (1992) directed against Azerbaijanis being notable examples. Inter-ethnic clashes between the two broke out shortly after the parliament of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) in Azerbaijan voted to unify the region with Armenia on 20 February 1988. The declaration of secession from Azerbaijan was the final result of a territorial conflict regarding the land. As Azerbaijan declared its independence from the Soviet Union and removed the powers held by the enclave's government, the Armenian majority voted to secede from Azerbaijan and in the process proclaimed the unrecognized Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Serzh Azati Sargsyan is an Armenian politician who served as the third President of Armenia from 2008 to 2018, and twice as the Prime Minister of Armenia from 2007 to 2008 and again from 17 to 23 April 2018, when he was forced to resign in the 2018 Armenian revolution.
Nagorno-Karabakh is located in the southern part of the Lesser Caucasus range, at the eastern edge of the Armenian Highlands, encompassing the highland part of the wider geographical region known as Karabakh. Under Russian and Soviet rule, the region came to be known as Nagorno-Karabakh, meaning "Mountainous Karabakh" in Russian. The name Karabakh itself was first encountered in Georgian and Persian sources from the 13th and 14th centuries to refer to lowlands between the Kura and Aras rivers and adjacent mountainous territory.
Operation Ring, known in Azerbaijan as the Operation Chaykend was the codename for the May 1991 military operation conducted by Soviet Internal Security Forces and OMON units in the Armenian-populated Shahumyan District of the Azerbaijani SSR in the Lesser Caucasus mountains, the Shusha, Martakert and Hadrut regions of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, and along the northwestern border of the Armenian SSR in Noyemberyan, Goris and Tavush. Officially dubbed a "passport checking operation," the ostensible goal launched by the Soviet Union's internal and defence ministries was to disarm Armenian militia detachments that had been organized in "[illegally] armed formations." The operation involved the use of ground troops who accompanied a complement of military vehicles, artillery and helicopter gunships to be used to root out the self-described Armenian fedayeen.
The following outline is provided as an overview and topical guide of the Republic of Artsakh and Nagorno-Karabakh region:
This page list topics related to the Republic of Artsakh and Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The Constitution of the Republic of Artsakh is the basic law of the Republic of Artsakh. It was approved by the people of Artsakh in a referendum that was held on 20 February 2017. It supersedes the constitution previously ratified by the people in 2006. Over 76.5% of the electorate participated in the 2017 referendum. Of these, over 90% voted for its adoption with just under 10% voting against its adoption. This constitution proclaimed the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic to be a sovereign, democratic state that was based on social justice and the rule of law. The constitution states that the names "Republic of Artsakh" and "Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh" are synonymous. The constitution affirms that all power is vested in its citizens, who exercise it directly through constitutional referendums and indirectly through their elected representatives. Proposed changes to the constitution or to an alteration of the borders of the State must be ratified by the people in a referendum. Stepanakert is defined as the state's capital.
The 2010 Mardakert clashes were a series of violations of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War ceasefire. They took place across the line of contact dividing Azerbaijan and the ethnic Armenian military forces of the unrecognized but de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Both sides accused the other of violating the ceasefire regime. These were the worst violations of the cease fire in two years and left Armenian forces with the heaviest casualties since the Mardakert clashes of March 2008.
The Law on Abolishment of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast was a motion passed by the National Assembly of Azerbaijan and signed into law by the President of Azerbaijan Ayaz Mutalibov on November 26, 1991. The law had been prompted by a vote in the National Assembly of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast in favor of uniting itself with the Armenian SSR on 20 February 1988. The vote was followed by an independence referendum in 1991 which was boycotted by the Azerbaijani population of the Oblast; most voted in favor of independence. While these votes and elections had mainly been conducted in a relatively peaceful manner, in the following months, as the Soviet Union disintegrated, it gradually grew into an increasingly violent conflict between ethnic Armenians and ethnic Azerbaijanis. Both sides claimed that ethnic cleansing was being carried out. The declaration of secession from Azerbaijan was the final result of a territorial conflict regarding the land.
An independence referendum was held in Nagorno-Karabakh on 10 December 1991. It was approved by 99.98% of voters.
The political status of Nagorno-Karabakh has remained unresolved since Azerbaijan's recognition as an independent state in 1991. During the Soviet Union, it had been an ethnic Armenian autonomous oblast of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic; however, the disintegration of the USSR was accompanied by the conflict between local Armenians who sought to join Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, and local Azerbaijanis who opposed this. The conflict soon boiled over into open warfare in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and ethnic cleansing, as a result of which Karabakh - as well as 7 surrounding regions of Azerbaijan - came to be occupied by an Armenia-allied de facto state, the Republic of Artsakh. Negotiations took place sporadically over the following decades, during which a ceasefire generally prevailed between Armenia / Artsakh and Azerbaijan. Turkey and Azerbaijan closed their borders to Armenia and Artsakh, and took other diplomatic steps to isolate them. Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council, OSCE Minsk Group, and other bodies made various statements and proposed dialogue initiatives; none of them successful. In the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, Azerbaijani forces, backed by Turkey, entered the Artsakh-held territories and retook the southern half of the region, including Shusha. Armenia was forced to concede additional territories in order to preserve Stepanakert and the northern half of the Republic of Artsakh under local Armenian control. The political status of this reduced region was not specified in the agreement, and remains unresolved.
A constitutional referendum was held in the unrecognised Nagorno-Karabakh Republic on 20 February 2017. At least 25% of registered voters needed to vote in favour in order to validate the result. The referendum passed with about three quarters of voters voting.
The European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD) is a grassroots umbrella organization which represents a significant part of the Armenian diaspora in Europe. The EAFJD is the main interlocutor promoting Armenian issues in the European Union and other international organizations.
The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war was an armed conflict in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding territories. The main combatants were Azerbaijan, with support from Turkey and foreign mercenary groups, on one side and the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh and Armenia on the other side. It was the latest escalation of an unresolved conflict over the region, which was annexed to Azerbaijan during the Soviet era and internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but partially governed by Artsakh, a breakaway state with an Armenian ethnic majority. The 2020 war was a major escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict which takes its origins in the early 20th century.
The bombardment of Stepanakert began on September 27, 2020, the first day of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, and lasted throughout the duration of the war. Stepanakert is the capital and largest city of the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and was home to 60,000 Armenians on the eve of the war. Throughout the 6-week bombardment, international third parties consistently confirmed evidence of the indiscriminate use of cluster bombs and missiles by Azerbaijan against civilian areas lacking any military installations in Stepanakert; this was denied by Azerbaijan. The prolonged bombardment forced many residents to flee, and the rest to take cover in crowded bomb shelters, leading to a severe outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the city, infecting a majority of the remaining residents. Throughout the course of the bombardment, 13 residents were killed, 51 were injured, and 4,258 buildings in the city were damaged.
The Republic of Artsakh and the United States do not have official diplomatic relations as the United States is among the vast majority of countries that does not recognize Artsakh as a sovereign nation and instead recognizes the region of Artsakh, or Nagorno-Karabakh, as part of Azerbaijan. Despite no formal relations, the Republic of Artsakh has a representative office in Washington, D.C. since November 1997.
The bombardment of Martuni was the bombardment of the cities, towns, and villages in the Martuni Province of the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh. It was carried out by Azerbaijani Armed Forces during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. The city Martuni, along with the de facto capital Stepanakert, were badly damaged as a result of shelling. The shelling resulted in the deaths of civilians. 1,203 buildings were damaged in the province throughout the bombardment. Victoria Gevorgyan, a resident of the Martuni Province of Nagorno-Karabakh, became the first child killed on the very first day of the war.
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