Dozens of masses have been killed and hundreds wounded since fighting between the Azerbaijan and Armenia two former parts of Soviet republics over unresolved region of Nagorno-Karabakh. This ongoing conflict has not only caught the attention of regional states but also has become talk of the world.
Before discussing this conflict, it is pertinent to understand the historical background of this dispute. Countries of Armenia and Azerbaijan are located in eastern-south side of Europe, the boundaries of both countries are linked with Turkey, Iran and Georgia. However, Azerbaijan’s boundary is linked with Russia. Both countries remained the part of Soviet Union from 1922 to 1991.
Azerbaijan has Muslim majority but religion of state is not Islam, that is secular as per their constitution. Azerbaijan possesses many natural resources and considered as one of oil rich country in the region. Moreover, Azerbaijan was firstly accepted by Pakistan, Turkey, Iran and America at time of its creation. Azeri and Russian languages are common languages.
Unlike Azerbaijan, Armenia is a landlocked country. Armenia has Christian majority population but is secular country according to their constitution. Armenian and Russian languages are local languages. This region is dominated by Armenian ethnic group. The history of Armenia is older than European countries and its region is evidence of ancient Christian civilization. Churches were built in 400BC in Armenia.
The bone of contention between two states is Nagorno-Karabakh region which is located in Azerbaijan. Under the rule of Soviet Union Nagorno-Karabakh was Armenian ethnicity majority area but was under the administration of Azerbaijan. In 1980s when Soviet Union was about to collapse, the local parliamentarian of Nagorno-Karabakh gave their vote to become the part of Armenia. Right after their vote for joining Armenia, the ethnic conflicts took place. Both countries fought many wars in the 1980s and 1990s which brought drastic setback for both countries and eventually both counties left with only option of cease-fire.
Thousands of people died and millions of people migrated. Before mediation role of Russia in ceasefire, Nagorno-Karabakh was completely under the control of Armenian forces. According to the resolution of 1994 it was decided that Nagorno-Karabakh will remain the part of Azerbaijan but there will be self-governance of local Armenian ethnic group with the help of Armenian government. Furthermore, many attempts of peace process had been made by multiple international communities like, France, Russia and America to play their mediation role in order to resolve this issue but no workable solution proved.
Very recently, this conflict has become bad to worse due to regional politics. From their neighbor’s countries, Turkey categorically supports Azerbaijan while Russia seems neutral player. Hence, still it’s not fixed that which country initiated recent confrontation but since few months the aggression of both countries observed from both sides.
As for as Pakistani stance on this conflict is concerned, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan reiterated its support Azerbaijan’s position under the United Nation Security Council (UNSC) resolutions on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. However, the citizens of Pakistan are concerned, before this recent fight, the masses of Pakistan were merely familiar with Baku in terms of tourism. But suddenly, since last week #AzerbaijanIsNotAlone #PaksitanstandswithAzerbaijan #tags trend has started on social media in which Pakistani public manifeststheir support with Azerbaijan.