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According to Reuters local time on September 19, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense announced that it launched an "anti-terrorist operation" in the Nagorno-Karabakh region to restore "constitutional order" and expel Armenian troops, and officials in the region's "capital" Stepanakert reported heavy shelling near it. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said that in the hours before the offensive of the country's army, at least six people (four soldiers and two civilians) were killed in two separate incidents due to mine explosions set up by Armenian security forces, and there is no doubt that a new war has begun.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have always had a long history of discord and a long history of conflict, mainly involving territorial disputes in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The Nagorno-Karabakh region is a region located in the Caucasus, once part of Greater Armenia, then one of the provinces of the Kingdom of Armenia, called Arzakh. In a sense, the region was once the birthplace of Armenian culture and civilization and is quite important for Armenia, with many Armenian schools, monasteries and cities.
In the 5th century AD, the first ever Armenian school was opened in the Amaras Monastery, founded by the inventor of the Armenian alphabet, St. Mez Rob. Between the 5th and 7th centuries AD, the Kingdom of Azerbaijan gradually expanded into the southern region of the Lesser Caucasus Mountains and established an autonomous region called the Duchy of Khachen or the Kingdom of Artsak. The state is ruled by a chief named Haqin and enjoys a degree of autonomy. Haqin is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society that includes Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, etc.
After the region was divided by Byzantium and Sassanid Persia in the 7th century AD, it was taken over by the Albanian Kingdom of the Caucasus and became known as Artsakh along with the two Armenian provinces of Utik. In the 9th century AD, Azerbaijan ruled the region and called it the Duchy of Hachin. However, the population of the region is predominantly Armenian, but there are also a small number of inhabitants of the Kura, Tajik and other ethnic groups. At this time, we can see that the two countries are not only territorial disputes, but also religious conflicts. Armenia is a Christian country with a majority of its citizens professing Christianity and Catholicism. Asebai, on the other hand, is predominantly Islamic. The conflict between Christianity and Islam has been going on for many years, and the contradiction is difficult to reconcile.
The area was later transferred to the Soviet Union in 1918 and to Azerbaijan in 1923. The area that once belonged to Armenia was transferred to Azerbaijan under the chaotic policy of national autonomy during the Soviet era.
During the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia's attempts to incorporate Armenian-dominated Nagorno-Karabakh into its territory were rejected by Azerbaijan. Finally, in 1992, with the breakdown of negotiations between the two countries, the Nagorno-Karabakh region directly declared independence, leading to a full-scale war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Both sides tried to realize their national claims and territorial integrity, and around the 1990s, Azerbaijan's national power was far inferior to Armenia's, when Azerbaijan's oil and gas resources had not yet been exploited and exported in large quantities, and the situation on the battlefield had always been Armenia's upper hand.
The Azerbaijani army not only failed to capture the Nagorno-Karabakh land, but was even attacked by both Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian sides, considering that the Nagorno-Karabakh region is located inside Azerbaijan and does not border Armenia, after the armistice, it is difficult to hold on for a long time without assistance. Therefore, Armenia, which had the upper hand, expanded its gains and seized a large area of Azerbaijani territory between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, uniting Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian territory. In 1994, Russia intervened in peace talks with international mediation and signed a ceasefire in May 1994, ending an eight-year war. As a result of the war, Armenia not only actually controlled the Nagorno-Karabakh region, but also deeply occupied the seven territories that originally belonged to the Asebai border around the Nagorno-Karabakh region, including the Lachin district, the Agdam district, and the Kelbajar district.
So, unsurprisingly, the 1994 ceasefire that provided only about two decades of relative stability, did not resolve the fundamental problems in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, Azerbaijan could not be satisfied with the status quo, the two sides still have territorial claims and political differences, and there have been many clashes in the border area. Finally, in 2020, Azerbaijan, with Turkish support, quickly broke through Armenia's defenses and recaptured parts of Karabakh. The war lasted 44 days and caused thousands of deaths and displacement. With Russian mediation, a ceasefire agreement was reached, and Azerbaijan promised to recover the Nagorno-Karabakh region and surrounding territories. Armenia handed over the Kelbajar, Agdam and Lachin districts to Azerbaijan. The agreement stipulates that Azerbaijani forces will make considerable progress in the Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh region and will be deployed to the disputed ceasefire demarcation line. At this point, Azerbaijan can be said to have basically recovered the original Nagorno-Karabakh region.
In October 2022 and May 2023, Armenian officials recognized the Nagorno-Karabakh region as part of Azerbaijan's territory, in fact, it has ceded sovereignty over this region.
Since then, the two sides have continued to engage in numerous armed clashes around the region, with ongoing clashes between the two countries beginning in May 2021, resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries and a massive humanitarian crisis. In September 2022, large-scale armed clashes broke out again between the two sides in the border area, resulting in at least 105 casualties and 2 civilian casualties.
Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said it would "only destroy legitimate military targets" and would inform Russia and peacekeeping forces, as well as the Russian-Turkish Joint Monitoring Center. But Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova said Azerbaijan's briefing came minutes before the military operation, Russia Today (RT) reported. The Russian Foreign Ministry urged both parties to the conflict to immediately cease hostilities and avoid civilian casualties.