Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in the context of "Republic of Artsakh"

On 19–20 September 2023, Azerbaijan initiated a military offensive in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region which ended with the surrender of the self-declared Republic of Artsakh and the disbandment of its armed forces. Up until the military assault, the region was internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but governed and populated by ethnic Armenians.

Before the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, the region had an estimated population of 150,000 which decreased in the aftermath of the war. Faced with threats of ethnic cleansing by Azerbaijan and struggling amid a nine-month long blockade, 100,400 ethnic Armenians, representing 99% of the remaining population of Nagorno-Karabakh, fled by the end of September 2023, leaving only a couple of dozen people within the region.

On 19 and 20 September 2023, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military offensive against the self-declared breakaway state of Artsakh, violating the ceasefire agreement signed in the aftermath of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020. The offensive took place in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is de jure a part of Azerbaijan, and was a de facto independent republic. The stated goal of the offensive was the complete disarmament and unconditional surrender of Artsakh, as well as the withdrawal of all ethnic Armenian soldiers present in the region. The offensive occurred in the midst of an escalating crisis caused by Azerbaijan's 10-month-long blockade of Artsakh, which resulted in significant scarcities of essential supplies such as food, medicine, and other goods.

One day after the offensive started on 20 September, a ceasefire agreement described as a written agreement for the surrender of Artsakh was reached at the mediation of the Russian peacekeeping contingent where it was agreed that the Artsakh Defence Army would be disarmed. Ceasefire violations by Azerbaijan were nonetheless reported by both Artsakhi residents and officials until early October. On 28 September, the president of Artsakh, Samvel Shahramanyan signed a decree to dissolve all state institutions by 1 January 2024, bringing the existence of the breakaway state to an end.

The Armenian political crisis started in 2020 with the Azerbaijani offensive against the self-declared Republic of Artsakh which triggered mass protests in Armenia. The crisis escalated after the Russian peacekeeping force were not involved in the third war leaving Armenia isolated. The war ended with the flight of more than 100,000 Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh. There had been multiple coup plots during the crisis. As of December 2023, parts of Armenia remains under Azerbaijani occupation.

Since the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War and the 2023 Flight of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, Nikol Pashinyan's approval rating has plummeted from 82 percent in August 2018 to 11.5 percent as of 6 May 2025, one of the lowest approval ratings of any world leader.

The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement was an armistice agreement that ended the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. It was signed on 9 November by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, and ended all hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh region from 00:00, on 10 November 2020 Moscow time. The president of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, also agreed to an end of hostilities.

On 20 September 2023 a ceasefire agreement ending the Azerbaijani military offensive against the self-proclaimed ethnic Armenian Republic of Artsakh in Nagorno-Karabakh was reached. The agreement was brokered by the Russian peacekeeping contingent stationed in the region since the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020. Under the terms of the agreement, the Artsakh Defence Army was disbanded. The Russian peacekeepers sheltered at their base camp 2,261 people, of whom 1,049 were children.

In the aftermath of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, peacekeeping operations were initiated by Russia in the Nagorno-Karabakh region to monitor the ceasefire between the Armenian and Azerbaijani forces. Separate from the Russian operation, Turkey also has personnel working in a joint Russian–Turkish monitoring centre.

After the war, in accordance to the ceasefire agreement signed on 10 November 2020, Russia sent a peacekeeping contingent of 1,960 servicemen, provided by the 15th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade of the Russian Ground Forces, and led by Lieutenant General Rustam Muradov, to the region. The peacekeeping forces, headquartered near Stepanakert, established observation posts along the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh and along the Lachin corridor. The Russian peacekeeping forces started to assist the International Committee of the Red Cross on finding and exchanging the bodies of the fallen soldiers from both sides in November, and the Russian peacekeepers later started demining operations in the region.