Armenian-Azerbaijani Disputes Beyond Karabakh

For most observers the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan appears to concern solely Nagorno Karabakh, but in reality several other border areas are contested as well.

From 1990 to 1992 Armenian and then Azerbaijani forces occupied small Azerbaijani and Armenian enclaves, starting with Kyarki (now Tigranashen) in south, then Askipara and Sofulu/Barkhudarly in the north and finally, Artsvashen (or Bashkend) in the northeast of the map above. Armenia’s leading conflict expert Tatul Hakobyan (himself a native of Dovegh, just north of Askipara) highlighted the fate of these enclaves in a recent CivilNet documentary and continued border tensions in the article for Jam-News.

Prior to 1993, when Armenian forces captured areas south of Karabakh, southern Armenian towns of Kapan and Goris would also frequently come under artillery fire, and Azerbaijani air raids continued there for another year.

Whereas the border with Nakhichevan has remained relatively quiet since 1992, this has not been the case in Tavush in Armenia’s northeast. Throughout the post-1994 cease-fire period, fighting, shelling and casualties in Tavush would frequently be worse than in Karabakh.