First Nagorno-Karabakh War

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The **First Nagorno-Karabakh** War was a war that had happened since February 1988 until May 1994, over the small ethnic enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the mostly ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by Armenia and Azerbaijan. The war originates from 1918, when the World War I came to an end and the Ottoman Empire collapsed into independent states including Armenia and Azerbaijan, while the region was recognized as part of Azerbaijan.

In February 1988, the war finally started, during the course of which both Armenia and Azerbaijan had utilized the legislatures to legitimize themselves while both caused pogroms as well as massacres against each other, with territorial loss of both sides alternated.

Not only Moscow but also European countries, the neighboring countries of both Armenia and Azerbaijan, the United Nations, as well as the United States, had made a variety of efforts to make a ceasefire come true. Furthermore, Turkey decided not to open the bilateral diplomatic relations in 1992 and later, closed its border with Armenia.

Consequently, Ter-Petrosian and Karabakh Armenians agreed to a ceasefire plan, stating that the Armenian forces would retreat from Kelbajar on the condition of security guarantees in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Seeing political and military chaos happening in Azerbaijan, however, Armenia took back control of Martakert as well as most of the northern area of Nagorno-Karabakh on 27 June. Almost a month later on 23 July, they put Aghdam under their control. As a result, Azerbaijan lost five regions and the northern part of Nagorno-Karabakh that equal to nearly five thousand square kilometers in total.

## Toward a Ceasefire 
### The CSCE 
Back in January 1992, the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe allowed many former Soviet republics including Armenia and Azerbaijan to join the organization at a meeting that was held in Prague, where the British delegation stated that now the CSCE should take action on Nagorno-Karabakh. The CSCE held another meeting in Helsinki on 24 March and there the foreign ministers decided to have a peace conference on the territorial matter. The Minsk Conference, named after the host country, Belarus, was supposed to take place with Armenia, Azerbaijan, nine other CSCE members as well as both Armenian and Azerbaijani representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh, but it never came true due to the on-going and escalated war. Instead, the Minsk Group of the CSCE was launched the same year; Mario Rafaelli, who was a former Deputy Foreign Minister of Italy, served as its first chairperson and the first negotiations took place in Rome.

For both Armenia and Azerbaijan, the OSCE and the Minsk Group did not work enough. Vafa Guluzade described ambassadors from France as well as other countries as "completely incompetent" while Ter-Petrosian once stated that for them, Nagorno-Karabakh was not the first priority.

### Competition between Washington and Moscow 
The international involvement was also a risk, since the two giants would compete each other for increasing their influence over the Caucasus, rather than a ceasefire. Yeltsin issued the statement where he suggested that Russia should be able to act, with acknowledgement from reliable international organizations such as the UN, in order to maintain peace and stability in the region, a part of a former Soviet republic. For Russia, if their troops are deployed in the region for a ceasefire, they could keep their influence there.

On the other hand, John Maresca, who was the U.S. representative to the Minsk Group, revealed that the Western countries had not seen the Nagorno-Karabakh War as very important. The United States hoped that Azerbaijan as well as Georgia were more independent from Russia, which was a condition where U.S. oil companies could start to invest in Azerbaijan.

Ultimately, on 30 November 1993, the Minsk Group decided that direct dialogues with Armenian and Azerbaijani representatives in the region should be necessary; more visits to the region were organized.

### Last Phase of the War 
In August 1993, Serzh Sarkisian, who was from Nagorno-Karabakh, became the Defense Minister of Armenia, which mobilized Armenian soldiers from not only the region alone but also Armenia. On the other hand, Azerbaijan gathered almost twenty five hundred Afghan *mujahadin* fighters.

Then in December, the war was re-intensified. The consequence of the winter between late 1993 and early 1994, however, was an estimated number of those who were killed, four thousand on the Azerbaijani side and two thousand on the Armenian side, with only small pieces of Azerbaijani territory in the north and south of Nagorno-Karabakh regained.

### Ceasefire Agreed 
On 4 and 5 May 1994, parliamentary delegations from the CIS countries including Armenia and Azerbaijan, held a meeting in Bishkek where Karen Baburian, who was the representative of the parliament in Nagorno-Karabakh, was also invited. There what is called the Bishkek Protocol, which urged all the parties in the region to implement a ceasefire from midnight on 8 and 9 May, was signed by Vladimir Kazimirov, the Russian envoy, and the Armenians. However, the Azerbaijani delegation did not since they had not yet obtained the approval of Aliev, who was the then President of Azerbaijan.

In the end, on 9 May, Mamedrafi Mamedov, who was the Azerbaijani Defense Minister, signed; the next day, his Armenian counterpart Sarkisian did in Yerevan, as well. On 11, Samvel Babayan, who was the Karabakh Armenian commander, gave consent in Stepanakert and finally at midnight on 11 and 12, the ceasefire was put into effect.

## References 
## Other websites 
* Military Analysis of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
* A 2005 report on the status of undetonated land mines in Nagorno-Karabakh