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Azerbaijan Efforts to Resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh Crisis, 1993
By the end of 1993, the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh had
caused thousands of casualties and created hundreds of thousands
of refugees on both sides. In a national address in November
1993, Aliyev stated that 16,000 Azerbaijani troops had died and
22,000 had been injured in nearly six years of fighting. The UN
estimated that nearly 1 million refugees and displaced persons
were in Azerbaijan at the end of 1993. Mediation was attempted by
officials from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Iran, among other
countries, as well as by organizations including the UN and the
Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (
CSCE--see
Glossary), which began sponsoring peace talks in mid-1992. All
negotiations met with little success, and several cease-fires
broke down. In mid-1993 Aliyev launched efforts to negotiate a
solution directly with the Karabakh Armenians, a step Elchibey
had refused to take. Aliyev's efforts achieved several relatively
long cease-fires within Nagorno-Karabakh, but outside the region
Armenians occupied large sections of southwestern Azerbaijan near
the Iranian border during offensives in August and October 1993.
Iran and Turkey warned the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians to cease
the offensive operations that threatened to spill over into
foreign territory. The Armenians responded by claiming that they
were driving back Azerbaijani forces to protect Nagorno-Karabakh
from shelling.
In 1993 the UN Security Council called for Armenian forces to
cease their attacks on and occupation of a number of Azerbaijani
regions. In September 1993, Turkey strengthened its forces along
its border with Armenia and issued a warning to Armenia to
withdraw its troops from Azerbaijan immediately and
unconditionally. At the same time, Iran was conducting military
maneuvers near the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic in a move
widely regarded as a warning to Armenia. Iran proposed creation
of a twenty-kilometer security zone along the Iranian-Azerbaijani
border, where Azerbaijanis would be protected by Iranian
firepower. Iran also contributed to the upkeep of camps in
southwestern Azerbaijan to house and feed up to 200,000
Azerbaijanis fleeing the fighting.
Fighting continued into early 1994, with Azerbaijani forces
reportedly winning some engagements and regaining some territory
lost in previous months. In January 1994, Aliyev pledged that in
the coming year occupied territory would be liberated and
Azerbaijani refugees would return to their homes. At that point,
Armenian forces held an estimated 20 percent of Azerbaijan
outside Nagorno-Karabakh, including 160 kilometers along the
Iranian border.
Data as of March 1994
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