Years in Asia: | 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 |
Centuries: | 20th century · 21st century · 22nd century |
Decades: | 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s 2050s |
Years: | 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 |
This is a list of events that took place in Asia in 2023 .
Nagorno-Karabakh is a region in Azerbaijan, covering the southeastern stretch of the Lesser Caucasus mountain range. Part of the greater region of Karabakh, it spans the area between Lower Karabakh and Syunik. Its terrain mostly consists of mountains and forestland.
Artsakh, officially the Republic of Artsakh or the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, was a breakaway state in the South Caucasus whose territory was internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan. Between 1991 and 2023, Artsakh controlled parts of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, including its capital Stepanakert. It had been an enclave within Azerbaijan from the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war until the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive, when the Azerbaijani military took control over the remaining territory controlled by Artsakh. Its only overland access route to Armenia after the 2020 war was via the five kilometres (3.1 mi)–wide Lachin corridor, which was placed under the supervision of Russian peacekeeping forces.
Politics of Artsakh took place within the constraints of a written constitution, approved by a popular vote, that recognises three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. The executive branch of government was exercised within a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Artsakh was both the head of state and the head of government. The legislative branch of government was composed of both the Government and the National Assembly. Elections to the National Assembly were on the basis of a multi-party system. As of 2009, the American-based non-governmental organisation, Freedom House, ranks Artsakh above both Armenia and Azerbaijan in terms of political and civil rights. The republic was de facto independent and de jure a part of Azerbaijan. None of the elections in Artsakh were recognised by international bodies such as the OSCE Minsk Group, the European Union or the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Both Azerbaijan and Turkey had condemned the elections and called them a source of increased tensions.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is an ethnic and territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians until 2023, and seven surrounding districts, inhabited mostly by Azerbaijanis until their expulsion during the 1990s. The Nagorno-Karabakh region was entirely claimed by and partially controlled by the breakaway Republic of Artsakh, but was recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan gradually re-established control over Nagorno-Karabakh region and the seven surrounding districts.
Samvel Andraniki Babayan is an Armenian military officer and politician. He was one of the founders and main commanders of the Artsakh Defence Army during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and became a war hero among Armenians for the military victories achieved under his command.
The president of the Republic of Artsakh is the head of state and head of government of the government-in-exile of the once de facto Republic of Artsakh.
Bako Sahaki Sahakyan is an Armenian politician who served as the third president of the de facto-independent Republic of Artsakh from 2007 to 2020. He is the longest-serving president of Artsakh.
Arayik Vladimiri Harutyunyan is an Armenian politician who served as the fourth president of the Republic of Artsakh from May 2020 to September 2023. Under his predecessor Bako Sahakyan, he served as the sixth and last Prime Minister from 2007 until the abolishment of that position in 2017 and as the first State Minister of the Republic of Artsakh from 2017 until his resignation in 2018. Harutyunyan led Artsakh through the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War with Azerbaijan, during which the republic lost most of the territory under its control. He resigned on 1 September 2023 in the midst of the Azerbaijani blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh.
This page lists in alphabetical order articles related to the Republic of Artsakh and Nagorno-Karabakh region. For a topically arranged list of articles, please see Outline of the Republic of Artsakh.
The political status of Nagorno-Karabakh remained unresolved from its declaration of independence on 10 December 1991 to its September 2023 collapse. During Soviet times, it had been an ethnic Armenian autonomous oblast of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a conflict arose between local Armenians who sought to have Nagorno-Karabakh join Armenia and local Azerbaijanis who opposed this.
The Karabakh movement, also known as the Artsakh movement, was a national mass movement in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh from 1988 to 1991 that advocated for the transfer of the mainly Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of neighboring Azerbaijan to the jurisdiction of Armenia.
David Klimi Babayan is a politician who served as the advisor to the president of Artsakh from 17 January 2023 until the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh. He previously served as the foreign minister of Artsakh. From 28 December 2013 he served as Head of the Central Information Department of the Artsakh Republic. He also served as the Deputy Chief of Staff in the office of the President of the Republic. On 26 May 2020, he was appointed as an adviser to the President on foreign relations. On 4 January 2021, Babayan was appointed the Minister of Foreign Relations taking over from Masis Mayilyan. He founded and currently leads the Artsakh Conservative Party. After the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh, he surrendered himself to the Azerbaijani authorities and is currently facing criminal charges in Azerbaijan.
The Government of the Republic of Artsakh is the governing authority of the Republic of Artsakh.
Events of the year 2023 in Armenia.
This is a list of individuals and events related to Azerbaijan in 2023.
Snap indirect presidential elections were held on 9 September 2023, in the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh. The President of the National Assembly of Artsakh acted as president until the election. The sole candidate, Samvel Shahramanyan, was elected in a 22–1 vote out of 23 deputies present. Several countries and supranational organizations, including the Council of Europe and the European Union, declared the elections as unlawful.
Samvel Sergeyi Shahramanyan is an Armenian politician who served as the 5th and final president of the Republic of Artsakh, from 10 September 2023 to 1 January 2024. He was also State Minister from August to September 2023. He also served as Minister of Military Patriotic Upbringing, Youth, Sports and Tourism, Secretary of the Security Council of Artsakh and a Major General in the Artsakh Defence Army.
Between 19 and 20 September 2023, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military offensive against the self-declared breakaway state of Artsakh, a move seen as a violation of the ceasefire agreement signed in the aftermath of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020. The offensive took place in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is de jure a part of Azerbaijan, and was a de facto independent republic. The stated goal of the offensive was the complete disarmament and unconditional surrender of Artsakh, as well as the withdrawal of all ethnic Armenian soldiers present in the region. The offensive occurred in the midst of an escalating crisis caused by Azerbaijan blockading Artsakh, which has resulted in significant scarcities of essential supplies such as food, medicine, and other goods in the affected region.
On 20 September 2023 a ceasefire agreement ending the Azerbaijani military offensive against the self-proclaimed ethnic Armenian Republic of Artsakh in Nagorno-Karabakh was reached. The agreement was brokered by the Russian peacekeeping contingent stationed in the region since the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020. Under the terms of the agreement, the Artsakh Defence Army was disbanded. The Russian peacekeepers sheltered at their base camp 2,261 people, of whom 1,049 were children.
State Sovereignty Day is a day commemorating the reclaiming of Nagorno-Karabakh by the Republic of Azerbaijan following the 2023 offensive in the disputed region. It is celebrated according to the decree "On establishing the Day of State Sovereignty in the Republic of Azerbaijan" signed by President Ilham Aliyev on September 19, 2024.