RUSSIA WAR
Out of context: Reply #17
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This area was home to the leading Armenian families. In late Middle Ages, it retained it’s sovereignty while Armenia was divided between the Turkish and Persian empires. In early 19th Century, it was conquered by czarist armies; in 1813 it became first Armenian-speaking region officially recognized as part of Russian Empire. It was separated administratively from other parts of present-day Armenia. After Russian Revolution, Ottoman Turkish army moved in. The independent republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia were created during strife in the Caucasus. Nagorno-Karabakh found no support in its desire to be attached to Armenia; Azerbaijan, backed by its ethnic allies, the Ottoman Turks, who claimed and occupied the region. In 1923, Nagorno-Karabakh was declared an autonomous region within Azerbaijan. Hostilities broke out in early 1988 after regional governing council requested the territory's unification with Armenia.
The republic of Armenia passed a declaration of independence on September 21, 1991 and Estonia began formal negotiations with Kremlin officials on its separation, bringing the Soviet Union closer to fragmentation. The declaration called for creation of Armenia's own armed forces to safeguard the border, which again was the scene of a violent conflict with Azerbaijanis. The declaration also called for Nagorno-Karabakh, a largely Armenian area of Azerbaijan, to become part of Armenia. Kremlin officials held formal negotiations with the Baltic republic of Estonia, the 51st anniversary of the Nazi-Soviet pact that led to Soviet annexation of the Baltic states. The two other Baltics, Latvia and Lithuania, who later gained their indepence.
Two immediate tasks facing the newly independent Armenia was rebuilding its devastated economy and strengthening its fledgling democratic institutions. While economic and political conditions deteriorated within Armenia, the military position of the Armenians in the Karabakh struggle improved dramatically. Various peace negotiations sponsored by Iran, Russia, Turkey, and a nine-nation group from the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe ( CSCE) had begun in 1991 and sporadically had yielded cease-fires that were violated almost immediately. In the spring of 1992, while the Azerbaijani communists and the nationalist Azerbaijani Popular Front fought for control in Baku, Karabakh Armenian forces occupied most of Nagorno-Karabakh, took the old capital, Shusha, and drove a corridor through the Kurdish area around Lachin to link Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia. But the immediate result of this victory was the collapse of Russian-sponsored peace negotiations with Azerbaijan and the continuation of the war.
The escalating war in NagornoKarabakh and the effective blockade of the republic by the Azerbaijanis led to a total collapse of the economy. By early 1993, the government seemed helpless before mounting economic and political problems. The last remaining oil and gas pipelines through neighboring Georgia, which itself was being torn by civil and interethnic war, were blown up by saboteurs. To survive the cold, Armenians in Erevan cut down the city's trees, and plans were made to start up the nuclear power plant at Metsamor. In February 1993, demonstrations called for the resignation of the government, but Ter-Petrosian responded by naming a new cabinet headed by Hrant Bagratian.
The coup reinvigorated Russian efforts to negotiate a peace under the complex terms of the three parties to the conflict: the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the increasingly independent and assertive Karabakh Armenians. CSCE peace proposals were uniformly rejected during this period. Although Russia seemed poised for a triumph of diplomacy on its borders, constant negotiations in the second half of 1993 produced only intermittent cease-fires. At the end of 1993, the Karabakh Armenians were able to negotiate with the presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia from a position of power: they retained full control of Nagorno-Karabakh and substantial parts of Azerbaijan proper.