Haut-Karabagh
The Haut-Karabagh is an area wedged in Azerbaïdjan.
Haut-Karabagh is mainly populated Armenians and declared its independence of Azerbaïdjan. The international community does not recognize the independence of Haut-Karabagh and considers only it belongs to Azerbaïdjan. Its surface is approximately 5.000 km ² and its capital is Stepanakert.
Haut-Karabagh autonomous for the Soviet period but was attached to the Soviet socialist Republic of Azerbaïdjan. Since the end of the USSR, he fights for his independence or his fastening with the Arménie. He has a government and asserts the title of “Republic of Karabagh”. The hostilities between the Armenians and the Azeri army ceased since a truce negotiated by the Russia the May 12th 1994.
Denomination
The area is known under several names: that Russian of Nagorny-Karabakh which dates from the Soviet period ( nagorny means high or mountainous in Russian), that Armenian of Azeri Artsakh and that of Karabagh (who means black Jardin , of the Turkish will kara = black and of the Persan bagh = garden).
History
Known since the Antiquity, this territory initially formed part of the kingdom of Arménie. Thereafter, it was under the dominations Persian, Turkish, British and Soviet. In spite of that, the Armenians were always majority in the area.Following the war Russo-Iranian woman, the territory passes from the Perse to the Russia in 1813, under the terms of the Traité of Golestan.
The Bolchevik S seize the power in Arménie in 1921 and create the RSS of Arménie, member of the the USSR. The Caucasian office of the Central committee of the party Bolshevik then chaired by Stalin, decided the fastening of Haut-Karabagh in the socialist Soviet republic of Azerbaïdjan on June 5th 1921. In 1923, it is made up in autonomous region. At that time, the territory is populated with 94 % of Armenians.
During seventy years, directives of the Company of the Nations, then those of UNO are cold and the situation does not develop any more until in 1988 where, benefitting from the Perestroïka, the autonomous region declares in secession the June 12th 1988. According to the census of 1989, a hundred and fifty thousand people of Armenian culture lived thus in the middle of the Azerbaïdjan. The June 15th 1988, Azerbaïdjan asserts the fastening of Haut-Karabagh to its territory. Violences burst the same year in Azerbaïdjan as in Arménie. pogroms anti-Armenians make several hundreds of victims with Sumqayıt then in 1990 with Bakou.
The bursting of the USSR in 1990 causes the independence in fact of Azerbaïdjan and Arménie. On this occasion, Haut-Karabagh proclaims also its independence the September 2nd 1991 following a referendum, which leads Azerbaïdjan to cancel its statute of autonomy. To restore its control on Haut-Karabagh, the authorities of Bakou send troops to Haut-Karabagh. During 1990-1992 a humane catastrophe takes place in Karabagh following the blockade imposed by Azerbaidjan. The Armenians are organized to be defended and with the assistance of Arménie, the inhabitants of Haut-Karabagh push back the Azeris. Russia supports Arménie in its military operation. The confrontations between Armenians and Azeris make many victims and many massacres take place as the Massacre of Khodjaly where many Azeri civilians are exterminated.
This situation, and the occupation of eleven raions Azeri territory, gave place to the adoption of four resolutions by the Safety advice of the United Nations in 1993.
In May 1994, a cease-fire is obtained and from now on the negotiations for the final resolution of the conflict are organized within the framework of the Group of Minsk, Co-chaired by the France, the Russia and the the United States.
In January 2005, the the Council of Europe condemns the occupation of Haut-Karabakh and reaffirms the right of the displaced persons of the zone of the conflict to turn over to their hearths in safety and dignity.
Gallery photographs