Nagorno Karabakh
Photographs © Onnik James Krikorian 1994
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Azerbaijani Authorities Detain Former Karabakh De Facto Leaders Amid Ongoing Tensions
On 3 October, media reported that Arkhady Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, and Arayik Harutyunyan had been apprehended and transferred from Karabakh to Baku, where they face multiple charges stemming from crimes allegedly committed under their de facto leadership of the small separatist region situated within Azerbaijan.
Is this how Karabakh was meant to end?
By a decree of its de-facto leader, Samvel Sharamanyan, the self-declared and internationally unrecognised Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) was dissolved and will cease to exist by the end of 2023. NKR was declared by the Karabakh Armenians in 1991 to replace the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, which was established by the Soviets in 1923. Thus, the dissolution of NKR ends a hundred years during which Nagorno-Karabakh had its own political status and identity.
Nagorno Karabakh’s Demise: A Long-Predicted End to a Bitter Dispute
Some might argue that the writing was on the wall even in 1998 when Armenia’s first president, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, was forced to resign by then Prime Minister Robert Kocharyan, former Defence Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, and Interior Minister Serzh Sargsyan, with the full support of then de facto Karabakh leader Arkhady Ghukasyan. Ter-Petrosyan warned what would happen next if proposals from the now defunct OSCE Minsk Group were not accepted, but few listened.