Karabakh movement
Part of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, First Nagorno-Karabakh War, and Dissolution of the Soviet Union
The first major demonstration in Stepanakert, February 13, 1988
Date13 February 1988 — 30 April 1991
Location
Armenia (mainly Yerevan)
Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast
GoalsUnification of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia
MethodsDemonstrations, sit-ins, strikes, hunger strike, student protest, civil disobedience
Resulted inEstablishment of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
Escalation of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War
Parties
Lead figures
Number

Yerevan:
200,000 (24-25 February 1988)[2][3]
1 million (26 February 1988)[4][3]
300,000 (May 1988)[5]
400,000 (January 1990)[6]
Stepanakert:

100,000 (25 February 1988)[3]
120,000 (26 February 1988)[3]
A 2013 post stamp dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the movement showing people with raised fists in Yerevan's Theatre Square and the Opera Theatre in the background in 1988

The Karabakh movement (Armenian: Ղարաբաղյան շարժում), also known as the Artsakh movement[7][8] (Armenian: Արցախյան շարժում), was a national mass movement[9] in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh from 1988 to 1991 that advocated for the transfer of the mainly Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of neighboring Azerbaijan to the jurisdiction of Armenia.

Initially, the movement was entirely devoid of any anti-Soviet sentiment and did not call for independence of Armenia. The Karabakh Committee, a group of intellectuals, led the movement from 1988 to 1989. It transformed into the Pan-Armenian National Movement (HHSh) by 1989 and won majority in the 1990 parliamentary election. In 1991, both Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh declared independence from the Soviet Union. The intense fighting known as the first Nagorno-Karabakh War turned into a full-scale war by 1992.

Background

1987

1988

  • February 13: First demonstration in Stepanakert.[11] Traditionally considered the start of the movement.[12]
  • February 18–26: Major demonstrations held in Yerevan for the unification of Karabakh with Armenia.[13]
  • February 20: the NKAO Supreme Council issued a request to transfer the region to Soviet Armenia
  • February 22–23: Local Armenians and Azerbaijanis clash in Askeran, resulting in several deaths
  • February 26: Demonstrations paused after Mikhail Gorbachev's asked for time to develop a position.[14]
  • February 27–29: Sumgait pogrom starts, Armenians of Azerbaijan start to leave in large numbers[14]
  • March 9: Gorbachev meets with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan Karen Demirchyan and Kamran Baghirov in Moscow to discuss the public demands of unification of Armenia and Karabakh.[15]
  • March 22: Over 100,000 people discontented with the tendencies demonstrate in Yerevan.[16]
  • March 23: The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union rejects the demand of NKAO Regional Party.[16]
  • March 25: Gorbachev rejects Armenian claims, forbade demonstrations in Yerevan.[16]
  • March 26: Despite not being authorized by the Moscow government, tens of thousands demonstrate in Yerevan.[17]
  • March 30: NKAO Communist Party adopts a resolution demanding unification.[17]
  • April 24: Hundreds of thousands of Armenians march to the genocide memorial in Yerevan.[17]
  • May 21: Karen Demirchyan resigns.
  • May 28: Flag of Armenia first raised in front of Matenadaran.[18]
  • June 15: Soviet Armenian Supreme Council votes in favor of the unification of NKAO.[18]
  • June 17: Soviet Azerbaijani Supreme Council opposes the transfer of NKAO to Armenia.[18]
  • June 28–29: Conference of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union disapproves Armenian claims to NKAO.[18]
  • July 5: Zvartnots Airport clash, the Soviet troops confronted by protesters in Zvartnots Airport, one man left dead, tens injured.[19]
  • July 12: NKAO Soviet Council votes in favor of unification with Armenia.[19]
  • July 18: Soviet Supreme Council refuses Armenian claims.[19]
  • July 21: Paruyr Hayrikyan deported to Ethiopia.[19]
  • Autumn: Around 150,000 Azerbaijanis of Armenia start to leave in large numbers.
  • September: State of emergency declared in Stepanakert after Armenian and Azerbaijanis clash.
  • November: Kirovabad pogrom
  • November 7: Hundreds of thousands demonstrate in Yerevan to support the Karabakh Committee.[20]
  • November 22: Soviet Armenian Supreme Council recognizes the Armenian Genocide.[20]
  • November 24: State of emergency declared in Yerevan.[20]
  • December 7: Armenian earthquake.
  • December 10: Karabakh Committee members arrested, sent to Moscow.[21]

1989

1990

1991

Miatsum

Graffiti in Yerevan with the outline of a united Armenia and Republic of Artsakh, with text in Armenian saying "Liberated, not occupied"

Miatsum (Armenian: Միացում, romanized: Unification)[23] was a concept and a slogan[24][25] used during the Karabakh movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which led to the First Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1992–1994.[26]

The idea originated in an era of realignment among the Armenians who were unhappy that the area inhabited predominantly by an Armenian population has remained under the jurisdiction of Azerbaijan. From the 1970s, with the support of the first secretary of the Central Committee of Communist Party of Azerbaijan SSR, Heydar Aliyev, a policy of settling NKAO by Azerbaijanis was being implemented. The Armenian pogroms in Sumgait and Baku only exacerbated these trends, which led to military clashes between troops of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the forces of the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army (Artsakh).[27]

References

  1. ↑ Flag of Armenia was adopted on August 24, 1990.
  2. ↑ "Soviet Armenia erupts in protests". The Daily News. 24 February 1988. Archived from the original on 11 August 2022. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Armenians protest USSR’s refusal to honor Nagomo-Karabakh annexation referendum, 1988 Archived 2022-09-17 at the Wayback Machine Matthew Heck, Global Nonviolent Action Database, December 5, 2010
  4. ↑ "Pravda Talks of Ethnic Woes". New York Times. 19 April 1988. Archived from the original on 11 August 2022. Retrieved 16 July 2013. As many as one million people demonstrated in the Armenian capital of Yerevan in February to demand that Nagorno-Karabakh be made part of Armenia
  5. ↑ "Mass Protests Said to Flare In Soviet Armenian Capital". New York Times. 31 May 1988. Archived from the original on 30 May 2023. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  6. ↑ "The Press-Courier - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Archived from the original on 2022-12-19. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  7. ↑ "An event dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Artsakh Movement taken place at the US Congress". Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. 13 February 2012. Archived from the original on 20 March 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
  8. ↑ "The Artsakh Movement started on this day 25 years ago". Public Radio of Armenia. 20 February 2013. Archived from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
  9. ↑ Panossian, Razmik (2006). The Armenians: From Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 385. ISBN 9780231139267. The Gharabagh movement in Armenia—as mobilised for and through the issue of the enclave's unification to the republic—is a prime example of a mass national movement.
  10. 1 2 "Reports of demonstrations in Yerevan and Clashes in Mountainous Karabagh". Asbarez. 24 October 1987. Archived from the original on September 14, 2007. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
  11. ↑ de Waal 2003, p. 11.
  12. ↑ "Karabakh Armenians mark 25th anniversary of liberation movement". ArmeniaNow. 14 February 2013. Archived from the original on 18 February 2013. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
  13. ↑ Verluise 1995, p. 86.
  14. 1 2 Verluise 1995, p. 87.
  15. ↑ Verluise 1995, p. 89.
  16. 1 2 3 Verluise 1995, p. 90.
  17. 1 2 3 Verluise 1995, p. 91.
  18. 1 2 3 4 Verluise 1995, p. 92.
  19. 1 2 3 4 Verluise 1995, p. 93.
  20. 1 2 3 Verluise 1995, p. 97.
  21. ↑ Verluise 1995, p. 99.
  22. ↑ Zürcher, Christoph [in German] (2007). The Post-Soviet Wars: Rebellion, Ethnic Conflict, and Nationhood in the Caucasus ([Online-Ausg.]. ed.). New York: New York University Press. p. 168. ISBN 9780814797099.
  23. ↑ Nodia, Ghia (Winter 1997–1998). "Causes and Visions of Conflict in Abkhazia". University of California, Berkeley. p. 15. Mountainous Karabakh should not be part of Azerbaijan not because Artsakh (the Armenian name for Karabakh) is an ancient Armenian land and Miatsum (unification) is a legitimate Armenian project, but because Azerbaijan allegedly mistreats its minorities.
  24. ↑ "Nagorno-Karabakh: Viewing the Conflict from the Ground". International Crisis Group. 14 September 2005. p. 4. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. The 1988 Karabakh movement started with the slogan "Miatsum" ("Unification" in Armenian).
  25. ↑ Toal, Gerard; O'Loughlin, John (1 April 2013). "Land for Peace in Nagorny Karabakh? Political Geographies and Public Attitudes Inside a Contested De Facto State". Territory, Politics, Governance. 1 (2): 158–182. doi:10.1080/21622671.2013.842184. S2CID 54576963. Unity with Armenia, after all, had been the proclaimed goal previous to this (the slogan of the early phases of the Karabakh movement was miatsum, 'unification'), and an annexationist policy endorsed by the Soviet Armenian parliament.
  26. ↑ "Miatsum (From 1987 to 1989) - History of Armenia". www.hayastan.com. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
  27. ↑ "Aliyev admits Azerbaijan worked to boost number of Azeris in Artsakh". horizonweekly.ca. 22 November 2019. Retrieved 23 April 2023.

Bibliography

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