This view was reiterated by Armen Grigoryan, Secretary of In international law and political cartography, both enclaves Identity Politics in Central Asia and the Muslim World: Nationalism, Ethnicity and Labour in the Twentieth Century. In the absence of fodder for livestock and the close proximity of Azerbaijani positions, the future of this settlement becomes rather doubtful. Armenia is that control over the seven villages of Gazakh region Galstyan also discusses his own familys past and his career journey at the Central Bank. Azerbaijan. [43] In 1965 large protests took place in Yerevan calling for greater recognition of the Armenian genocide, with many also calling for the transfer of NKAO to Armenia. Papazian said last week he was [], By Mark Dovich An Armenian defense delegation visited India last month and inquired about the possibility of purchasing Indian-made drones, according to reports in the Indian press citing an unnamed government official. For a portion of a territory to be an exclave from its own on the basis of bargaining chips. The entire border lies mainly in mountainous terrain, with elevations averaging between 600m (2,000ft) and 3,400m (11,200ft). Why? If Baku gains control of the enclaves, some settlements in Armenia will be within a few meters of Azerbaijani positions. [42], Over the following decades Armenia pressed for the inclusion of NKAO within the Armenian SSR, notably in the post-Second World War period when the USSR was pushing its territorial claims against Turkey (later dropped) and again in 1960 following the transfer of Crimea from Russia to Ukraine. There may be a situation similar to the Goris-Kapan highway, in some sections of which Azerbaijan has already set up checkpoints. the retain-transfer dichotomy. always mutually inclusive. And this process was not regulated in any way, everything was decided at the level of local leaders and not even the leaders of the republics, but local party leaders, notes journalist Tatul Hakobyan, who has been studying the problem of enclaves for many years. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}4018N 4550E / 40.300N 45.833E / 40.300; 45.833. completely surrounded by that of another state. For nearly 30 years until the conclusion of the 2020 Karabakh war the de facto situation was more complex the western Nakhchivan segment of the boundary was not disputed (minus the Karki/Tigranashen enclave). Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, "Britannica Online Encyclopedia. 
Azatamutians have heard talk about the possible return of these territories to Azerbaijan, but they are trying not to worry yet, since there is no official confirmation yet. According to him, there is a common logic based on international best practice and law: According to it, the situation that exists now remains unchanged. [55] While the road has for the most part been left open for Armenian traffic, Azerbaijan closed its sections of the road for 48 hours in August 2021. definitional criterion. These fears are not completely unsubstantiated, but they They remained so only on paper. The goal of the Civilitas Foundation is to contribute to the strengthening of Armenias democratic development. Over the succeeding 30 years of If these lands are given away, it will harm us. Although it is not officially mentioned, the topic of enclaves was included in the negotiation process between Yerevan and Baku at the initiative of Azerbaijan. CivilNet prohibits the use of its articles, photos, videos, and other content without proper links / credits / permissions. The truth of the matter is that Armenia is He noted that both Armenia and Azerbaijan control territories that internationally belong to the other side. CIVILNET 2011-2021 | All Rights Reserved | Website by CHAMELEON LLC, on Soviet-era enclaves at the heart of Armenian-Azerbaijani border crisis, Borders, Negotiations and Responsibilities, Leaders of Iran, Russia, Turkey talk Karabakh, EU-Azerbaijan gas deal sparks accusations of double standards, Conscripts from Armenia to return from Karabakh, says Security Council chief, Armenia confirms ban on prominent diaspora leader, Armenia asked India about buying drones, Indian media report, 1000 new apartments to be made available in Karabakh (Artsakh), Developing economic policies that lead to prosperity for Armenia, Erdoan and Aliyevs gas deals with the West, Turkey coordinating Armenia normalization talks with Azerbaijan, foreign minister says, Environment Ministry pledges to address Lake Sevan algal bloom. This avoids many of the problems that will arise in the event of the return of the enclaves. War broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan over disputed territories along the frontier, lasting from 1918 to 1920, focussing on the disputed areas of Nakhchivan (under the control of the short-lived 'Republic of Aras'), Zangezur and Nagorno-Karabakh. The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan outside of these countries is perceived through the prism of the Karabakh issue. Downloading and uploading CivilNet videos to other sites is strongly prohibited, even videos that carry a CivilNet logo. The Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, despite the legal problems, believes that it is necessary to find a solution acceptable to the two countries regarding the enclaves. The border is closed and the area heavily militarised. [25] In March 1921 Nakhchivan, despite having earlier being promised to Armenia, was allotted to Azerbaijan, partly at the insistence of the new Republic of Turkey via the Treaty of Moscow. Russian peacekeepers are stationed along the border in these areas. The option of returning the territories is beneficial for Azerbaijan and fraught with certain problems for Armenia. azerbaijan map wikipedia republic cities exclave azeri nakhchivan its capital country location major wiki exclaves enclaves main [51], The boundary became an international frontier in 1991 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the declaration of independence by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh in 1991. Who decided to make territorial changes and why? import of which is viewed as of paramount importance by Yerevan, [53][54] While the border has not been formally demarcated, both sides agree it should be based on Soviet maps.[55]. the one within its borders. Nearby are rusty railway tracks that lead to the neighboring country. surfaced last year at the peak of the interstate border crisis, [48] Protests escalated throughout 1988 with increasingly violence, culminating in the Sumgait pogrom in which 32 Armenians were killed. This would solve Armenias transportation issue to Georgia and Iran. and Karki settlement will enable Baku to gain supervision over the Yerevan and Baku are now negotiating the unblocking of transport communications, a peace treaty, as well as demarcation and delimitation of the state borders. Earlier this month, Pashinyan resigned from his post as prime minister to trigger snap parliamentary elections as envisaged by the constitution. of how these issues could potentially be dealt with - a compromise The key focus was the former It then runs parallel with the eastern shore of Lake Sevan along the Sevan Range, runs south along the Eastern Sevan Range, and then west along the Vardenis Range before turning sharply east, thus creating an Azeri protrusion encompassing Byk Alagl lake. Bashkend village was considerably more substantial than Baku's In other words, it is believed in Armenia that the decisions on the transfer of territories were made groundlessly. map karabakh maps If they get so close, people will start to worry, said Hrant Baghdasaryan, a resident of the village. The Armenian delegations visit has not previously been reported. Also Read: Has Azerbaijan Crossed Armenias Red Line? Azamut itself is located on a hill, behind the mountain is already Azerbaijan. However the eastern segment was. [22][23] The Soviet Kavbiuro was tasked with drawing borders between the three former republics in the Caucasus. is that they will be settled in conjunction with major issues, and [39] The issue dragged on into the following year, with a final announcement of the NKAO's borders not being published until 26 November 1924. The former, an enclave, is a territory like any relationship, the same psychology is obligatory for both In this vein, Ambassador-at-Large Edmon Manukyan stated that Despite their importance, enclaves, in principle, remain Even the security of the North-South road, the geopolitical [40] The boundary that thus emerged used at times geographic and pre-existing administrative lines, but was predominantly based on ethnographic factors. In addition to security issues, the return of the enclaves is fraught with other problems. The use of all, including partial, use of CivilNet content is only allowed with CivilNet's written permission. If surrounded by one state, it will only be an In a statement to Armenpress, the state-run news agency, Pashinyans office said Mourad Franck Papazian has been barred from entering Armenia for helping organize an anti-Pashinyan demonstration in Paris last year. On the withdrawal of the Armenian Armed Forces from Nagorno-Karabakh, Political prisoner or criminal? Thank you, Armenia is a free country, unlike Russia: rallies in Yerevan amid Russia-Ukraine war, Opinion: Armenia is stuck between the West and Russia. Under the influence of some circumstances, an exchange took place. The Armenian government approved a job-finding program for unemployed veterans of the 2020 Karabakh war 1,000 new apartments are being constructed or made available in Nagorno-Karabakh. It is not yet known whether Baku agrees to this option, because there are more Azerbaijani enclaves in the territory of Armenia than Armenian in the territory of Azerbaijan. Armenia and the fate of the enclaves assumed heightened importance enclaves or exclaves, according to the prism from which they are But the main problem for Armenia in the case of the transfer of territories to Baku is related to roads. During the First Karabakh War, Armenia occupied the enclaves enclave, whereas, from the perspective of a larger territory, from should suffice to address the subject at hand. geographically disadvantaged - it is landlocked and squeezed from relations. uzbekistan tajikistan [2] European routes E002 and E117 cross the border. [26][27] On 3 June 1921 the Kavbiuro decided that Nagorno-Karabakh would be included within Armenia, however disputes between the Armenian and Azerbaijani delegates over the issues continued. Additionally, in the northern stretch of the boundary area there are four enclaves one Armenian (Artsvashen/Baknd) and three Azerbaijani (Sofulu, Yukhari Askipara/Verin Voskepar and Barxudarl); since the war all four enclaves are now controlled by their 'host' nation and have for all practices purposes ceased to exist, though they are often depicted on official Armenian and Azerbaijani government maps. [51] Azerbaijan abolished the NKAO, sparking a full-scale war with Armenia. Armenia normalization talks are being conducted in tandem with Azerbaijan, said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlt avuolu. [30][31] The precise reasons for the sudden volte-face remain unclear: some scholars think that Joseph Stalin influenced the decision, whereas others (such as Arsne Saparov) point to the fact that the final meeting coincided with Soviet victory in Zangezur and the defeat of the Republic of Mountainous Armenia, after which the Azerbaijanis were able to press their claims more forcefully and the Soviets had little incentive to appease the Armenian side. state. in question. There are decisions that were made in Moscow, there were also verbal justifications. words, Baku was to retain control over the exclave of Armenia, and For example, he said, we can fix the existing situation by a state border, implying that Azerbaijani enclaves inside Armenia remain in Armenia and Armenian enclaves inside Azerbaijan remain there. [31] In 1922 all three states were incorporated into the Transcaucasian SFSR within the USSR, before being separated in 1936. The fear in Azerbaijani enclaves in Armenia are located in the Tavush and Ararat regions. The material was prepared with the support of the Russian language news exchange. From 1923 to 1929 the strip of land in Azerbaijan between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia was designated as the Kurdistansky Uyezd, known colloquially as Red Kurdistan, later renamed the Kurdistan okrug, and then dissolved in 1930. Nonetheless, Azerbaijan might demand the return of these enclaves to place additional diplomatic and economic pressure on Armenia, says Karen Harutyunyan, CivilNets editor-in-chief. effective control over its exclaves, that Yerevan shifted up its As anticipated, the conflicting sides differ regarding their Additionally, the Azerbaijani enclave of Karki/Tigranashen lies just north of the border, however since May 1992, following the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, Karki has been controlled by Armenia, which administers the 19km2 (7.3sqmi) territory as part of its Ararat Province.[3]. sovereign state. was never dwelt upon systematically. In late 2020 Azerbaijan took back the occupied territory and parts of Nagorno-Karabakh, with Russian forces stationed in the Lachin corridor connecting Karabakh to Armenia proper. Azerbaijani territory inside Armenia, seven villages of the Gazakh Republic, and one Armenian exclave inside Azerbaijan, namely the In the summer of 2021, information appeared about a document that the Armenian authorities were supposedly going to sign. Aliyev said he wanted all the lands. which it is detached, it is always an exclave. Technically, an regarded date back to the Soviet era, its emergence as a matter The main thesis is this: the territories were transferred due to the fact that the majority of their inhabitants were representatives of the neighboring republic. If these enclaves are surrendered to Azerbaijan, the front line in Tavush will be destroyed the Azerbaijanis will be in the rear of our troops. According to the leaked information, Yerevan agreed to transfer the enclaves to Azerbaijan in exchange for the withdrawal of Azerbaijani armed forces from the sovereign territories of Armenia, which they had penetrated in May. We strongly doubt that these actions have a legal basis, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said earlier. While Artsvashen has no strategic significance for Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani enclaves of Voskepar and Karki currently inside Armenia are of strategic economic importance Armenias roads to Georgia and Iran pass through them. Azerbaijan. During the 19th century the Caucasus region was contested between the declining Ottoman Empire, Persia and Russia. Noubar Afeyan, co-founder of the ARMENIA 2041 Foundation, sat down with Martin Galstyan, the head of Armenias Central Bank, to talk about Armenias path toward prosperity and why it is important to have a long-term vision for the country. The area west of this line was organised into the Republic of Artsakh, a self-declared state recognised only by a handful of other non-sovereign entities, functioning effectively as a semi-autonomous part of Armenia. Today, It's Still Not A 'Genocide', Atlas of Conflicts: Armenia: Nation Building and Territorial Disputes: 1918-1920, Armenia and the Caucasus in the Genesis of the Soviet-Turkish Entente, International Journal of Middle East Studies, " (1926 .) Armenia and Azerbaijan (as well as Armenia and Georgia) did not demarcate their borders after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Grigoryan did not rule out a return to Soviet era borders, but stressed that everything will be resolved through negotiations. the subject should never be viewed exclusively in the context of A team of U.S.-based lawyers submitted a report to the United Nations documenting alleged violations of an international racial discrimination treaty by Azerbaijan. november It was after the Azerbaijani victory in the Second Karabakh War Just like in the only Armenian enclave on the territory of Azerbaijan Artsvashen (in Azerbaijan the village is called Bashkend). During the Soviet period and following the first Nagorno-Karabakh War, the highway was not affected by this. The ArmeniaAzerbaijan border (Armenian: , romanized:HayastanAdrbejan sahman, Azerbaijani: AzrbaycanErmnistan srhdi) is the international border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. view of legal ownership of the enclaves. The inhabitants of Azatamut still remember the times when Azerbaijani villages were very close. [44][45][46] Allegations of discrimination against Armenians in the NKAO by Azerbaijan's government continued, with many claiming that Azerbaijanis were being encouraged to move so as to alter the demographic balance in their favour. The border starts in the north at the tripoint with Georgia and proceeds overland in a broadly south-easterly direction, zigzagging next to and around the Voskepar river, crossing through part of the Joghaz Water Reservoir at the mouth of the Voskepar, and touching the western tip of the Abbasbayli Water Reservoir. normalize ties. The settlements of the neighboring state are visible to the naked eye. How true this is, I dont know. The border starts in the north at the tripoint with Turkey on the Aras river, and proceeds overland in a south-easterly direction along various mountain ridges, such as the Zangezur Mountains, down to the western tripoint with Iran on the Aras. state, yet they are simultaneously exclaves from outside - through What we control, we keep. Because we also have an enclave Artsvashen, under the control of Azerbaijan. [19][20], In April 1920 Russia's Red Army invaded Azerbaijan and Armenia, ending the independence of both, followed in FebruaryMarch 1921 by Georgia. [38] An initial border was decided upon in July 1923, with amendments made later in the same month so as to include Shusha and the Khonashen (Martuni) and Skobolevskoe lowland regions within the NKAO. Ilham Aliyev insists that this issue should be discussed and resolved, he stated this in numerous interviews. Turkish-made drones deployed by Azerbaijan are credited with playing a key role in Azerbaijans victory over Armenia in the 2020 war in and around Karabakh. All Rights Reserved, With so much misinformation cavalierly and cynically tossed around, it is vitally important that the societies in the Caucasus benefit from journalism that is fact-checked and unbiased, balanced and sensitive. Also Watch: Borders, Negotiations and Responsibilities.
