July 2020 Azerbaijani protests

The territorial ownership of Nagorno-Karabakh is fiercely contested between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. The conflict over the region has its roots in events following World War I. Until the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, the region was de jure part of Azerbaijan, although large parts were de facto held by the internationally unrecognised Republic of Artsakh supported by Armenia.[19]

The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh after the 1994 ceasefire.

During the Soviet era, an autonomous oblast within the Azerbaijan SSR governed the predominantly Armenian-populated region.[20] As the Soviet Union began to disintegrate during the late 1980s the question of Nagorno-Karabakh's status re-emerged, and on 20 February 1988 the parliament of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast passed a resolution requesting transfer of the oblast from the Azerbaijan SSR to the Armenian SSR. Azerbaijan rejected the request several times,[21] and ethnic violence began shortly after with a series of pogroms between 1988 and 1990 against Armenians in Sumgait, Ganja and Baku,[22][23][24][25] and against Azerbaijanis in Gugark[26][27][28] and Stepanakert.[29] Following the revocation of Nagorno-Karabakh's autonomous status, an independence referendum was held in the region on 10 December 1991. The Azerbaijani population, which then constituted around 22.8% of the region's population boycotted the referendum. 99.8% of participants voted in favour. In early 1992, following the Soviet Union's collapse, the region descended into outright war.[21]

The First Nagorno-Karabakh War resulted in the displacement of approximately 725,000 Azerbaijanis and 300,000–500,000 Armenians from both Azerbaijan and Armenia.[30] The 1994 Bishkek Protocol brought the fighting to an end and resulted in significant Armenian territorial gains: in addition to controlling most of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Republic of Artsakh also occupied the surrounding Azerbaijani populated districts of Agdam, Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Kalbajar, Qubadli, Lachin and Zangilan.[31] The terms of the Bishkek agreement produced a frozen conflict,[32] and long-standing international mediation attempts to create a peace process were initiated by the OSCE Minsk Group in 1994, with the interrupted Madrid Principles being the most recent iteration prior to 2020.[33][34] The United Nations Security Council adopted four resolutions in 1993 calling for the withdrawal of "occupying forces" from the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh,[lower-alpha 1] and in 2008 the General Assembly adopted a resolution demanding the immediate withdrawal of Armenian occupying forces,[35] although the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the United States, voted against it.[36]

Major General Polad Hashimov and Colonel Ilgar Mirzayev were both killed during the border skirmishes with Armenia in July 2020.

For three decades multiple violations of the ceasefire occurred, the most serious being the four-day 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.[37] In August 2019, in a declaration in favour of unification, the Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan stated "Artsakh is Armenia, full stop".[38] From 12 to 16 July 2020,[39] skirmishes occurred on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan,[37] mainly in the Tavush province of Armenia and the Tovuz district of Azerbaijan.[40] The skirmishes were conducted mainly through artillery and drones, without infantry,[41] and were of varying intensity, injuring many, and killing at least 17 military and one civilian. Among Azerbaijani military casualties were high-ranking officers, including Major General Polad Hashimov and Colonel Ilgar Mirzayev.[42] Hashimov was buried alongside Mirzayev on 15 July in the Second Alley of Honor in Baku.[43] Azerbaijan's minister of defence, Zakir Hasanov, chief of general staff, Najmaddin Sadigov, and, the mayor of Baku, Eldar Azizov, attended the funeral.[44] On the same day, President Ilham Aliyev had a telephone conversation with Hashimov's mother, expressing his deep condolences to her. [45] A street was named after Hashimov in his native Vandam, in Gabala District.[46] A park named after Polad Hashimov was opened in the Osmangazi district of Bursa, Turkey on 28 October.[47] Both Hashimov and Mirzayev were declared National Heroes of Azerbaijan in December 2020.[48]

Azerbaijani demonstrators moving towards the National Assembly.

After the initial demonstrations, a smaller group reached the front of the National Assembly on the night of 14 and 15 July. Apart from support for the army and calls for war,[11] the demonstrators demanded the resignation of the chief of general staff of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces and the deputy minister of defence, Najmeddin Sadikov,[6] who was suspected of giving the coordinates of Polad Hashimov's location to the Armenian authorities, leading to his death.[55][56] At around 01:00, street lights were turned off in front of the Parliament building. However, the demonstrators protested this by turning their phone lights and whistling. Although a representative from the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence arrived to address the crowd, the demonstrators did not allow him to speak and demanded that the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, come and speak.[6] At around 04:00, riots broke out, during which police cars were overturned.[57] Several demonstrators breached the National Assembly, protesting the government's inaction.[10] They smashed windows and chandeliers inside, but security forces later evicted them. A BBC Azerbaijani Service correspondent at the scene reported that although there were guards inside, they did not interfere with the crowd.[11] According to a report by the Azerbaijani Parliament, the demonstrators damaged a number of items in the Parliament worth 22,150 AZN in total.[58][59] The Azerbaijani Ministry of Internal Affairs accused the demonstrators of deliberately disobeying the demands of police officers and attacking them with stones and other objects. As a result, seven police officers were injured, two service cars of the State Traffic Police Department were overturned and rendered useless, fourteen more service cars and the road infrastructure in the area were seriously damaged.[11] After that, security forces used water cannons, tear gas and batons to disperse those gathered in front of the Parliament building.[5] Other demonstrators tried to convince police to join them.[8] The demonstrators moved towards Martyrs' Lane and continued protesting there. They began to disperse in the early morning near Baku Boulevard and Freedom Square.[6] According to Turan, an independent Azerbaijani news agency, several hundred protesters then marched, escorted by police, to the Nariman Narimanov Monument and the building of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Taxes, before dispersing.[5]

On 15 July, no opposition or government figure appeared in front of the crowd. Analysts said there was "neither a government official nor an intellectual" who could stand up to such a crowd. Some opposition members said they "did not appear that day because they were worried about provocation". Government officials said the government did not address the crowd because of the "restrictive and stay-at-home measures" for the COVID-19 pandemic. Political analyst Rashad Shirin attributed the government's reluctance to appear in public to the "fact that they were not used to speaking ... and were not prepared for such a tense situation". He also said the president's speech in a spontaneous, chaotic rally could be problematic because there were security issues. Isa Gambar, head of the National Centre for Strategic Thought, said the government had "no influential people to bring" before the crowd. According to him, the Azerbaijani government had subjugated the intellectuals, and "forced them to lose prestige, or completely excluded them from the socio-political process". Khadija Ismayilova, a human rights activist and investigative journalist, said that although the expectations of the crowd in front of the Parliament were a "promise of mobilisation", there was "no government in Azerbaijan that could make that promise". Recalling the 2013 Baku protests, Ismayilova speculated that the government will "once again take steps to get rid of unpopular people". Zahid Oruj, an Azerbaijani MP and head of the Centre for Social Research, believed that it was wrong to approach the issue through the prism of government officials failing to appear before the crowd.[13] Some interpreted the Parliament break-in, and some other earlier episodes, as provocations meant to discredit the protesters.[8]

Azerbaijani security forces using water cannons against the demonstrators who stormed the Parliament building.

The Azerbaijani government regarded the storming of the Parliament as a provocation, calling the protestors a "group of provocateurs". On 15 July, the Prosecutor General's Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan announced they had launched a criminal case against a group of individuals during a rally in support of the army in Baku and that investigative measures were being taken. On the same day, a statement issued on behalf of the Azerbaijani Parliament condemned the actions of "some provocateurs aimed at destruction and damage".[6] In a screed delivered on the same day, the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, blamed the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), the country's main opposition party, and the National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF), an alliance of Azerbaijan's opposition parties, for the storming of the Parliament building. He declared the need to "finish with the 'fifth column', calling them "worse than the Armenians".[14][60] In response, the PFPA and NCDF stated they had not organised the rally and declared their members innocent.[15] The PFPA released a statement saying it had declared its support for the Azerbaijani Armed Forces since the beginning of the skirmishes and called Aliyev's speech "a disgrace to the state" adding that it was "an announcement of the beginning of the next wave of repressions".[61]

The preliminary investigation over the arrests was completed on 11 September. 37 people were prosecuted, officially charged with intentionally causing minor bodily harm, intentionally destroying or damaging another's property, violating public order, and resisting or using force against a government official. Among them, 36 were arrested, and one was put under house arrest. 16 of those prosecuted were members of the PFPA. Others prosecuted included members of the Azerbaijan Democracy and Welfare Movement (ADR) and the Muslim Union Movement.[15] Despite this, according to other Azerbaijani sources, as many as 120 people were detained after the protests, including members of the NIDA Civic Movement and journalists.[14][62] Relatives of some detainees said they could not obtain information about them for more than a day. According to some reports, a number of detainees were not fed or given a place to sleep.[11]

In response to the demonstrators' calls for mobilisation, President Aliyev said that only 150 people had signed up to go to the frontline. This statement caused anger and frustration in the Azerbaijani public. Azerbaijani activist Bakhtiyar Hajiyev said that the president's statement was humiliating for the people who flooded the streets. According to him, the message that the Azerbaijani public expected from the state and the president was completely different—a positive reaction. Azerbaijani MP Zahid Oruj said those who "draw conclusions from the president's speech as disappointing distort the real purpose of the head of state". He stressed the president's speech had "increased the morale of the society and strengthened their confidence in victory". Oruj said that interpreting the president's speech as "Azerbaijan does not want to fight" meant distorting Aliyev's true purpose. He added that "against the background of people who sometimes sound like fighting, great ideals of young people, forces trying to gain points by exploiting the feelings of the homeland, not all applicants intended to go to the trenches".[63]

The protests are believed to have led to the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war later in September of the same year.[16][17][18]