Nagorno-Karabakh

Nagorno-Karabakh

Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur. It is a disputed territory, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but mostly governed by the unrecognised Republic of Artsakh. The United Nations strongly condemned the conflict and called on both sides to deescalate tensions and resume meaningful negotiations without delay.

About Nagorno-Karabakh in brief

Summary Nagorno-KarabakhNagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur. The region is mostly mountainous and forested. It is a disputed territory, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but mostly governed by the unrecognised Republic of Artsakh. Since the end of the war in 1994, representatives of the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group on the region’s disputed status. On the morning of 27 September 2020, clashes in the unresolved Nagorno-Karaabakh conflict resumed. Both the armed forces of Azerbaijan and Armenia reported military and civilian casualties. The United Nations strongly condemned the conflict and called on both sides to deescalate tensions and resume meaningful negotiations without delay. Armenians living in the area often call the region Artsakh, the name of the 10th province of the ancient Kingdom of Armenia. The ancient population of the region consisted of various autochthonous local and migrant tribes who were mostly non-Indo-Europeans. According to the prevailing western theory, these natives intermarried with Armenians who came to the region after its inclusion into Armenia in the 2nd or, possibly earlier, in 4th century BC. Other scholars suggest that the Armenians settled in the region as early as in the 7th centuryBC. In the 5th century, the first Armenian school was opened on the territory of modern-day Nagorno Karabak.

In 387 AD, two Armenian provinces, Artsakh and Utik, became part of the satrapy of Armenia between Sassanid Persia and Caucasian Albania, which in turn, came under strong cultural and religious influence. At the time, the population of Utik consisted of several Armenians and several tribes, which flourished in early medieval culture and flourished in the early medieval period. Overall, Mesropots, the inventor of the Armenian alphabet, was very active in preaching the Gospel in the Artsakh region. The ruins of ancient Tigranakert, located 50 km north-east of Stepanakert. after himself, are being studied by a group of international scholars. Ancient Greek sources called the area Orkhistene. In around 180 BC,. Artsakh became one of the 15 provinces of the Armenia Kingdom. While formally having the status of a province, Artsakh possibly formed a principality on its own — like Armenia’s province of Syunik. The area was occupied by peoples known to modern archaeologists as the Kura-Araxes culture, who lived between the two rivers Kura and Araxes. The historical area of the area encompasses approximately 8,223 square kilometres. The names for the region in various local languages all translate to \”mountainous Karabakov\”, or ‘mountainously black garden’. The official name used by the Nagornokarabakh Republic in French is Haut-Kar Kabakh, meaning ‘Upper Karabov.’