After Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika and glasnost policies, Armenia’s long-standing desire to annex the NKAO found new momentum. It allowed the country to openly express its territorial claims toward Azerbaijan. Between 1985 and 1987, Armenian protests related to the NKAO increased. In late 1987 and early 1988, several meetings were held between the NKAO delegates and senior officials in Moscow on the status of the autonomous region.[1] In August 1987, the Armenian Academy of Science prepared a petition, signed by thousands of people, asking for the annexation of the NKAO and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic to the Armenian SSR.[2]

The first mass protests by Armenians took place in October 1987, when the Armenian population in the village of Chardagli refused to accept the nomination of the Azerbaijani Sovkhoz director.[3] Soon, the wave of protests from Chardagli reached Yerevan, where an environmental demonstration was being held to protest against the closure of the chemical plant and the Metsamor nuclear power station. The following day, however, the peaceful environmental demonstration became a political movement that demanded the annexation of the NKAO and Nakhchivan to Armenia.[4] Later, in November 1987, Abel Aganbegyan, an Armenian academician and economic advisor to Gorbachev, announced in Paris that he had presented a proposal regarding the status of the NKAO and hoped it would be received positively.[5] After the event in Chardagli, Azerbaijanis in Armenia began to fear attacks by Armenians, which led to their being forced to leave the country. In winter of 1987–1988, the first wave of Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia arrived in Baku, most of whom settled in Baku and Sumgait.[6] Azerbaijanis’ departure from Armenia continued in February, and during these months, two additional waves of Azerbaijani refugees reached Baku.[7]

Subsequently, Armenian demands for the unification of the NKAO with Armenia intensified. On February 10, 1988, the Azerbaijan Information Agency formally declared that Azerbaijan would categorically reject any attempt to secede its territory or unify it with Armenia.[8] On February 13, the first demonstration was organized in Stepanakert (Khankendi) to protest the Azerbaijan government’s cultural, economic, and social policy toward the NKAO. A week later, on February 20, the regional Soviet of the NKAO passed a resolution for transferring Nagorno-Karabakh to the control of the Armenian SSR and sent the appeal to the Azerbaijan SSR and the USSR.[9]

The escalating tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh had a detrimental impact on the Azerbaijani population, prompting criticism of the Azerbaijani government for its perceived inaction in response to Armenian separatist demands. On February 22, violent clashes in Asgaran with Armenians and police resulted in the deaths of 2 Azerbaijanis and injuries to 19 others.[10] This incident was the crucial event that turned the issue into a major conflict. Consequently, the Chardagli incident, the transformation of the environmental protest in Yerevan into a political movement advocating for the unification of the NKAO with Armenia, the forced displacement of Azerbaijanis from Armenia, and the killing of two Azerbaijanis in Asgaran emerged as critical factors contributing to the outbreak of the conflict.

[1] Fraser, Hipel, Jaworsky, and Zuljan, “A Conflict Analysis of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Dispute,” pp. 657–658.

[2] Cornell, Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict, p. 13.

[3] Mouradian, Claire, “The Mountainous Karabakh Question: Inter-Ethnic Conflict or Decolonization Crisis,” Armenian Review, Vol. 43, No. 2–3, 1990, p. 15.

[4] “Reports of demonstrations in Yerevan and Clashes in Mountainous Karabagh,” Asbarez, October 24, 1987; http://web.archive.org/web/20070914104126/http://www.armeniaforeignministry.com/fr/nk/nk_file/article/49.html. Accessed on December 2, 2024.

[5] Babanly, Yusif, “The Debacle: From Kafan To Khojaly,” Azerbaijani Vision, February 17, 2016; https://en.azvision.az/news/30539/the-debacle-from-kafan-to-khojaly.html. Accessed on December 2, 2024.

[6] Dragadze, “The Armenian: Azerbaijani Conflict: Structure and Sentiment,” p. 59.

[7] Cornell, Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict, p. 14.

[8] Fraser, Hipel, Jaworsky, and Zuljan, “A Conflict Analysis of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Dispute,” p. 658.

[9] Quinn-Judge, Paul, “Gorbachev treads fine line on Armenian issue. Soviet leader’s conciliatory line may fuel more nationalism, but crackdown would stymie reform,” The Christian Science Monitor, February 29, 1988, p. 10.

[10] Babanly, “The Debacle: From Kafan To Khojaly.”