Armenia–Azerbaijan relations

Armenia-Azerbaijan relations

Armenia	Azerbaijan

Armenia–Azerbaijan relations refers to the bilateral relationship of Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as relations between the Armenian and the Azerbaijani societies. The neighboring nations had formal governmental relations between 1918 and 1921, during their brief independence from the collapsed Russian Empire, as the First Republic of Armenia and the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan; these relations existed from the period after the Russian Revolution until they were occupied and annexed again by the successor state, the Soviet Union. Due to the two wars between the countries in the past century – one from 1918 to 1921 and another from 1988 to 1994 – their relations, or the lack thereof, have been shaped due to the conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. There are no diplomatic relations between the two countries and they are still at war because of the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and dispute.

Upon the disintegration of the Transcaucasian Federation with the proclamation of the independent Democratic Republic of Georgia on May 26, 1918, both Azerbaijan and Armenia proclaimed their independence on the same day, May 28, 1918. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan laid claim to territory which they saw as historically and ethnically to be theirs, these territorial disputes led to the so-called Armenian–Azerbaijani War between 1918 and 1920, a series of conflicts that ended only when both Armenia and Azerbaijan were swallowed by the Soviet Union.

Upon the establishment of USSR in 1922, Azerbaijan SSR and Armenian SSR became constituent states, initially as a part of Transcaucasian SFSR, and from 1936 as separate entities. The relations between the two nations, including in Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO), were generally peaceful and friendly under the Soviet rule. Though occasional confrontations did occur, particularly the 1948 and the 1964 public protests in Armenia which resulted in exodus of a large number of Azeris, they remained unknown to a broader public due to strict Soviet censorship.

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