NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT

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Context

• Armenian separatist forces in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region of the South Caucasus surrendered and agreed to a ceasefire.

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Where is Nagorno-Karabakh?

• The territory lies in the mountainous South Caucasus region of Eastern Europe and Asia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
• Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a bloody war over Nagorno-Karabakh in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and it has been the trigger for further violence in the years since.
• The last major escalation in the conflict took place in 2020 when thousands of people were reported killed in six weeks of fierce fighting.
• The deployment of Russian peacekeepers brought the fighting to a halt at the time, but tensions had been ratcheting up for months ahead of the latest military operation.

The story in a nutshell

• Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan, but its population is majority Armenian. As the Soviet Union saw increasing tensions in its constituent republics in the 1980s, Nagorno-Karabakh voted to become part of Armenia - sparking a war that stopped with a ceasefire in 1994.
• Since then, Nagorno-Karabakh has remained part of Azerbaijan but is controlled by separatist ethnic Armenians backed by the Armenian government.
• Until recently, negotiations mediated by international powers had failed to deliver a peace agreement.

https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/nagorno-karabakh-conflict