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The Azerbaijan America Alliance is a non-partisan, non-profit organization providing information broadly about the people, culture, society, industry, history and current events of the Azeri people. The purpose includes research and advocacy on issues of interest to the alliance.
According to the alliance's website: "The mission of the alliance is to foster an atmosphere of mutual understanding and respect between the people of Azerbaijan and America. Through academic discussion, cultural programming, and political discourse, the alliance aims to become the premier organization dedicated to promoting a lasting partnership between Azerbaijan and the United States." [1]
The Azerbaijan America Alliance advocates for Americans to contact elected representatives to educate them on issues related to Azerbaijan. [2]
The alliance has opposed a provision of the 1992 Freedom Support Act, an aid package which excludes Azerbaijan pending Congressional approval. [3] [4]
The alliance supports United Nations General Assembly Resolution 62/243 from 2008, which reaffirmed the Azerbaijan's territorial sovereignty as related to Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. [5] The organization has advocated for elected leaders to resolve this conflict. [6]
The alliance has described itself as a grassroots organization. [7]
The alliance promotes academic on Azerbaijan and the larger Caucasus region, [8] and promotes Azeri-American business ties, such as through foreign investment, [9] specifically the energy sector. [10]
The organization has promoted ties to the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus, [11] co-chaired by Congressmen Bill Shuster (R-PA) and Dan Boren (D-OK). [12]
The Alliance has advocated for "greater recognition and support from [Azerbaijan's] allies in NATO – particularly the United States". [10]
According to the alliance's website, it "supports the development of closer ties between the EU and Azerbaijan." [13]
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.
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 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.
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 with support from Turkey. 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 OSCE Minsk Group was created in 1992 by the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), now Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), to encourage a peaceful, negotiated resolution to the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.
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.
The Republic of Artsakh was a republic with limited recognition in the South Caucasus region. The Republic of Artsakh controlled most of the territory of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. It was recognized only by three other non-UN member states, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria. The rest of the international community recognized Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan. In November 2012, a member of Uruguay's foreign relations committee stated that his country could recognize Nagorno-Karabakh's independence. In 2012, Armenia and Tuvalu established diplomatic relations, which led to speculation of possible recognition of Artsakh by Tuvalu. In October 2012, the Australian state of New South Wales recognized Nagorno-Karabakh. In September 2014, the Basque Parliament in Spain adopted a motion supporting Artsakh's right to self-determination and in November 2014, the Parliament of Navarre, also in Spain, issued a statement supporting Artsakh's inclusion in taking part in settlement negotiations.
The region of Nagorno-Karabakh and areas around it are considered to be some of the most heavily mined regions of the former Soviet Union. Mines were laid from the early 1990s by both Azerbaijani and Armenian forces during and after the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. The worst-affected areas are along the fortified former contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces, in particular in the districts of Aghdam, Fuzuli and Jabrayil. According to military experts from both Azerbaijan and Armenia, the ground in those areas is covered with "carpets of land mines." The region has the highest per capita rate in the world of accidents due to unexploded ordnance.
Anti-Armenian sentiment, also known as anti-Armenianism and Armenophobia, is a diverse spectrum of negative feelings, dislikes, fears, aversion, racism, derision and/or prejudice towards Armenians, Armenia, and Armenian culture.
Relations have always been strong between Azerbaijan and Turkey, the only two predominantly Turkic countries located west of the Caspian Sea. Former Azerbaijani president Heydar Aliyev often described the two as being "one nation, two states."
There are no diplomatic relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The two neighboring states had formal governmental relations between 1918 and 1921, during their brief independence from the collapsed Russian Empire, as the First Republic of Armenia and the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan; these relations existed from the period after the Russian Revolution until they were occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union, becoming the constituent republics of Soviet Armenia and Soviet Azerbaijan. Due to the five wars waged by the countries in the past century—one from 1918 to 1921, another from 1988 to 1994, and the most recent in 2016, 2020 and 2023—the two have had strained relations. In the wake of hostilities, social memory of Soviet-era cohabitation is widely repressed through censorship and stigmatization.
This article focuses on ethnic minorities in the Republic of Azerbaijan.
According to the 2012 U.S. Global Leadership Report, 53% of Azerbaijanis approve of U.S. leadership, with 27% disapproving and 21% uncertain.
The 2008 Mardakert clashes began on March 4 after the 2008 Armenian election protests. It involved the heaviest fighting between ethnic Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh since the 1994 ceasefire after the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.
The Republic of Armenia and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan have never had formal diplomatic relations. Pakistan is the only country in the world that does not recognize Armenia as a sovereign state, although most Pakistani people are not aware of this fact. It has maintained this position due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, despite the fact that Armenia and Azerbaijan have always recognized each other as sovereign states ever since they both gained independence during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Pakistan, which recognized Azerbaijani sovereignty in 1991, has declared that recognition of Armenia will be contingent on the Armenians relinquishing their claim to Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as an end to the Armenian presence in that disputed territory. Likewise, Pakistan openly supported Azerbaijan during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War; it has strongly advocated full Azerbaijani control over Nagorno-Karabakh, which has historically had an Armenian-majority population, though it is internationally recognized as a part of Azerbaijan.
The Azerbaijani Community of Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as the Azerbaijani Community of Nagorno-Karabakh Social Union or the Azerbaijani Community of Nagorno-Karabakh in exile, was an association representing the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh in exile from May 1994 until April 2021.
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 62/243, titled "The Situation in the Occupied Territories of Azerbaijan", is a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly about the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, which was adopted on March 14, 2008 at the 62nd session of the General Assembly. It became the seventh United Nations document concerning Nagorno-Karabakh and the third and last United Nations General Assembly document on it.
Organisation of the Islamic Conference Resolution 10/11, titled "The aggression of the Republic of Armenia against the Republic of Azerbaijan", is an Organisation of the Islamic Conference Resolution on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict adopted by its member states on March 13–14, 2008 during the OIC summit in Dakar, Senegal. The resolution, titled "Aggression by the Republic of Armenia against the Republic of Azerbaijan," aims to express concern over Armenia's aggression against Azerbaijan and to provide comprehensive support for the territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Dakar conference is considered a "successful step" towards supporting Azerbaijan's just cause. It was during this session that the new Charter of the Islamic Cooperation Organization was adopted, and in the section on the purposes and objectives of this international organization, it was stipulated that the member states support the right of states under occupation to restore their territorial integrity.
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 following is list of the official reactions to the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War.
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