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Nagorno Karabakh NAGORNO KARABAKH DECEMBER 2018 – FEBRUARY 2019 BRIEFING Key Developments Humanitarian Figures OSCE Minsk Group co-chair Azerbaijan controls information released from Nagorno-Karabakh countries (Russia, US, and France) while preventing civil society organisations, journalists and political “welcome significant decrease of figures from entering the disputed enclave. Important events and ceasefire violations”. They believe situations are kept out of the public eye, resulting in a lack of fact- that continued dialogues can finding reports and humanitarian updates from the region. promote a lasting settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Latest Developments Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol >First elections since ‘Velvet revolution’ took place in Armenia Pashinyan, and Azerbaijani December 9th. The elections were ruled to be fair and democratic, as President, Ilham Aliyev met in MP Nikol Pashinyan and his party won by a remarkable 70% of the Davos on January 24. This was the votes. This victory has left many in Armenian and Nagorno-Karabakh third meeting between the two hopeful. leaders of state, the previous ones taking place in Dushanbe and Saint >In light of election in Armenia President of Azerbaijan claims Petersburg . “favourable conditions” for settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Tensions continue to rise between He explains that “targeted politics, adopted by Azerbaijan, Belarus and Armenia: Belarus contributed to the collapse of the regime, which had governed president, Aleksandr Lukashenko, Armenia for more than 20 years.” and that Baku will continue to N said in a statement on December isolate Armenia until “occupied Azerbaijani territories” are returned. 14 that Armenia turned down a push for Russian peacekeeping in >On January 16 a meeting between Armenian foreign minister Nagorno-Karabakh. Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Azeri counterpart, Elma Mammadyarov, took place in Paris. OSCE Minsk group press release was surprisingly German Chancellor Angela Merkel positive as the two ministers agreed on the necessity of taking on Nagorno -Karabakh conflict: concrete steps to ‘prepare populations for peace’. This was the during a joint news conference fourth meeting between the two ministers, and they plan to meet between Merkel and Pashinyan on again in the future. February 2nd 2019, Merkel stated that “action should follow word” > Pashinyan, in a media briefing following his meeting with from both Armenia and Azerbaijan Azerbaijan president Ilham Alyiev in Davos, explicitly said that to reach a settlement. negotiating exchanging “territories for peace” is not an option. Pashinyan explained that these are unofficial meeting where the two discuss opinions, not negotiations. Key Individuals, Context Places and Groups Nagorno - Karabakh is an ethnically Armenian region landlocked in Azerbaijan. Decades of frozen conflict, warring territorial claims, and years of peace talks › Artsakh: The official have failed to lead to a resolution over the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute. name for Nagorno- In 1988, a high-intensity conflict broke out over an Azerbaijan-Armenian Karabakh territorial dispute. By 1992, Armenian forces occupied 20 per cent of Azeri › Stepanakert: territory, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Nagorno-Karabakh’s Nagorno-Karabakh declared autonomy from Azerbaijan and gained de facto capital city in dependence. As a result of the conflict, an estimate of 30,000 lives were lost, and hundreds of thousands of people were displaced. › Bako Sahakyan: President of Nagorno- Since the end of the war in 1994, the Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh Karabakh Republic has been held under the control of Armenian forces. Russia brokered a ceasefire agreement in 1994, which has been repeatedly violated and is failing to › Ilham Aliyev: settle conflict between Azeri and Armenian Lines of Contact. President of Azerbaijan The OSCE Minsk Group plays a significant role in negotiations over the disputed › Nikol Pashinyan: region. The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is not considered to be independent Prime Minister of from Azerbaijan, and as a result, its sovereign status has failed to be recognised by any other UN state. Armenia Mediation efforts are suppressing an all-out war over Nagorno-Karabakh, but › OSCE: Organisation inter-ethnic tensions remain as high as they were when hostilities broke out in for Security and 1988. A diplomatic solution is yet to be forged between Azerbaijan and Armenia Cooperation in Europe over the decades-old conflict. A Map of Azeri and Armenian Occupied Territories in Nagorno-Karabakh Humanitarian Situation Azerbaijan prevents civil society organisations and political figures from entering Nagorno-Karabakh. The release of information has been forbidden, resulting in a lack of reports on the humanitarian situation in the region. In the most recent census, Nagorno-Karabakh was reported to have a total population of 145,053. Of this total, 144,683 are ethnic Armenians. Approximately 400,000 Azeri people left the region during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. .
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