This is a list of wars involving the Republic of Azerbaijan and its predecessor states, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.
| History of Azerbaijan |
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 Azerbaijanportal |
This is a list of wars involving the Republic of Azerbaijan and its predecessor states, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.
| Mission | Start-date | End-date | Location | Troops (peak) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 KFOR | 1999 | 2008 |  Kosovo | 34 |
 MNF-I | 2003 | 2008 |  Iraq | 250 |
 ISAF | 2008 | 2021 |  Afghanistan | 94 |
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 5 km (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 Artsakh Defence Army was the defence force of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh. Established in 1992, it united previously disorganized self-defence units which were formed in the early 1990s with the goal of protecting the ethnic Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh from attacks by Soviet and Azerbaijani armed forces.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was 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 has been 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.
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 the adjacent mountainous territory.
The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) was an autonomous oblast within the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic that was created on July 7, 1923. Its capital was the city of Stepanakert. The leader of the oblast was the First Secretary of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan. The majority of the population were ethnic Armenians.
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.
Bilateral relations between modern-day Armenia and the Russian Federation were established on 3 April 1992, though Russia has been an important actor in Armenia since the early 19th century. The two countries' historic relationship has its roots in the Russo-Persian War of 1826 to 1828 between the Russian Empire and Qajar Persia after which Eastern Armenia was ceded to Russia. Moreover, Russia was viewed as a protector of the Christian subjects in the Ottoman Empire, including the Armenians.
The political status of Nagorno-Karabakh remained unresolved from its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union 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 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, also known as the Four-Day War, April War, or April clashes, began along the former Nagorno-Karabakh line of contact on 1 April 2016 with the Artsakh Defence Army, backed by the Armenian Armed Forces, on one side and the Azerbaijani Armed Forces on the other.
The Line of Contact was the front line which separated Armenian forces and the Azerbaijan Armed Forces from the end of the First Nagorno-Karabakh war until the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement.
The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict in 2020 that took place in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding occupied territories. It was a major escalation of an unresolved conflict over the region, involving Azerbaijan, Armenia and the self-declared Armenian breakaway state of Artsakh. The war lasted for 44 days and resulted in Azerbaijani victory, with the defeat igniting anti-government protests in Armenia. Post-war skirmishes continued in the region, including substantial clashes in 2022.
The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement was an armistice agreement that ended the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. It was signed on 9 November by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, and ended all hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh region from 00:00, on 10 November 2020 Moscow time. The president of the self-declared Republic of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, also agreed to an end of hostilities.
2020 Baku Victory Parade was held on 10 December, in Azadliq Square, Baku, capital of Azerbaijan. It was held in honor of the Azerbaijani victory during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh war, officially described as the Patriotic War in Azerbaijan. The parade was held with 3,000 military servicemen who distinguished themselves during the war marched alongside military equipment, unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft, as well as Armenian war trophies, and Turkish soldiers and officers, while navy vessels performed maneuvers in the nearby Bay of Baku, and jets and helicopters flew above the city. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a key ally of Azerbaijan in the war, also attended the military parade as part of a state visit to Baku.
The military forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been engaged in a border conflict since 12 May 2021, when Azerbaijani soldiers crossed several kilometers (miles) into Armenia in the provinces of Syunik and Gegharkunik. Azerbaijan is currently occupying at least 215 square kilometres (83 sq mi) of Armenian territory. Azerbaijan has not withdrawn its troops from internationally recognised Armenian territory despite calls to do so by the European Parliament, United States and France – two of three co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. Since the end of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, Azerbaijan has made numerous incursions into Armenian territory.
Armenia–Artsakh relations are the foreign relations between the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh and Armenia. The Republic of Artsakh controls most of the territory of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. Artsakh has very close relations with Armenia. It functions as a de facto part of Armenia. A representative office of Nagorno-Karabakh exists in Yerevan.
Events of the year 2023 in Armenia.
The war ended at Ceasefire Agreement in 1994, with the Armenians of Karabakh (supported by Armenia) taking control not only of Nagorny Karabakh itself but also occupying in whole or in part seven regions of Azerbaijan surrounding the former NKAO.
Azerbaijan presents its operations of 2–5 April 2016 as a tactical victory and psychological breakthrough.
President Ilham Aliyev, for his part, posted an image on Instagram of himself wearing military fatigues with the caption, "The April War was our glorious historical victory."
....It was noted that during the military actions unleashed by Azerbaijan, the RA Armed Forces fulfilled their task. The NKR Defence Army was victorious in thwarting Azerbaijani aggression and frustrating its plans.
Azerbaijan's historic win was an important geopolitical coup for Erdogan who has cemented Turkey's leading role as a powerbroker in the ex-Soviet Caucasus region.
The BBC's Orla Guerin in Baku says that, overall, the deal should be read as a victory for Azerbaijan and a defeat for Armenia.
In 2020, Azerbaijan not only recaptured Armenian controlled territories outside the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, but also conquered and ethnically cleansed several districts of the former autonomy itself.
The offensive was seen as a major victory for Azerbaijan, which won a 2020 war with Armenia and has since sought to repopulate Karabakh.
| Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (1918–1920) |
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| Soviet Azerbaijan (1920–1991) |
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| Republic of Azerbaijan (1991–present) |
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