Accessibility links

Breaking News

Armenia Backs Out Of CIS Meeting In Azerbaijan


Exercises by the army of the self-declared republic of Nagorno-Karabakh (file photo) (Photolur) May 30, 2006 -- Armenian officials are refusing to attend an upcoming meeting of defense ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in neighboring Azerbaijan.


A spokesman for Armenia's Defense Ministry says Azerbaijani officials cannot guarantee their safety.


Fourteen years after a cease-fire was agreed, Azerbaijan and Armenia remain at loggerheads about the final status of the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which has been ruled by ethnic Armenians since a separatist war in the early 1990s.


The meeting of CIS ministers begins on May 31.


(AP)

The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

Click on the image to view an enlarged map of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone

In February 1988, the local assembly in Stepanakert, the local capital of the Azerbaijani region of NAGORNO-KARABAKH, passed a resolution calling for unification of the predominantly ethnic-Armenian region with Armenia. There were reports of violence against local Azeris, followed by attacks against Armenians in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait. In 1991-92, Azerbaijani forces launched an offensive against separatist forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, but the Armenians counterattacked and by 1993-94 had seized almost all of the region, as well as vast areas around it. About 600,000 Azeris were displaced and as many as 25,000 people were killed before a Russian-brokered cease-fire was imposed in May 1994.

CHRONOLOGY: For an annotated timeline of the fighting around Nagorno-Karabakh in 1988-94 and the long search for a permanent settlement to the conflict, click here.

Click on the icon to view images of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict (Flash required)

To view an archive of all of RFE/RL's coverage of Nagorno-Karabakh, click here.

RFE/RL has been declared an "undesirable organization" by the Russian government.

If you are in Russia or the Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine and hold a Russian passport or are a stateless person residing permanently in Russia or the Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine, please note that you could face fines or imprisonment for sharing, liking, commenting on, or saving our content, or for contacting us.

To find out more, click here.

XS
SM
MD
LG