There are currently no diplomatic relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, though both countries committed to a peace agreement on 8 August 2025. The two neighboring states had formal governmental relations between 1918 and 1921, during their brief independence from the collapsed Russian Empire, as the First Republic of Armenia and the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan; these relations existed from the period after the Russian Revolution until they were occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union, becoming the constituent republics of Soviet Armenia and Soviet Azerbaijan. Due to the five wars waged by the countries in the past century—one from 1918 to 1921, another from 1988 to 1994, and the most recent in 2016, 2020 and 2023—the two countries have had strained and largely hostile relations. Azerbaijan has continued to enforce a blockade of Armenia since 1989. Social memory of Soviet-era cohabitation is widely repressed through censorship, stigmatization, and government policies that promote mutually hostile sentiment.
History In the Russian Empire In the Armenian–Tatar massacres of 1905–1906, Armenians and Caucasian Tatars (later known as Azerbaijanis) killed each other and destroyed homes with up to 10,000 deaths and 286 villages destroyed throughout the Russian Caucasus. Relations between 1918 and 1921 Upon the disintegration of the Transcaucasian Federation with the proclamation of the independent Democratic Republic of Georgia on 26 May 1918, both Azerbaijan and Armenia proclaimed their independence on the same day, 28 May 1918. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan laid claim to the territory which they saw as historically and ethnically theirs; these territorial disputes led to the Armenian–Azerbaijani War between 1918 and 1920, a series of conflicts that ended only when both Armenia and Azerbaijan were annexed by the Soviet Union.
Soviet Union (1922–1991) Upon the establishment of the USSR in 1922, Azerbaijan SSR and Armenian SSR became constituent states, initially as a part of the Transcaucasian SFSR, and from 1936 as separate entities within the union. The relations between the Azerbaijani and Armenian authorities, including in Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO), were generally peaceful and friendly whilst all Soviet entities. In December 1947, the communist leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan addressed a joint letter to supreme Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. In the letter, the leaders of the two republics agreed to relocate 130,000 Azerbaijanis from Armenia to Azerbaijan, thereby creating vacancies for Armenians coming to Armenia from abroad.ARPIISSA, f. 1, op. 222, d. 72, pp. 1–2 Though occasional confrontations did occur, particularly the 1948 and the 1964 public protests in Armenia which resulted in the exodus of a large number of Azeris, they remained unknown to a broader public due to strict Soviet censorship. According to Soviet Census (1979), 160,841 Azeris lived in Armenia and 352,410 Armenians lived in Azerbaijan outside of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Soviet Census (1989) showed a decline of those minorities to 84,860 Azeris in Armenia and 245,045 Armenians in Azerbaijan outside of Nagorno-Karabakh.
First Nagorno-Karabakh War
The Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, motivated by fears of cultural and physical erasure under government policies from Azerbaijan, began the 1988 Karabakh movement advocating for reunification (Miatsum) with Armenia. In 1988, the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh voted to secede and join Armenia. This was met with extreme violence from Azerbaijani authorities and civilians in Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad, escalating tensions and culminating in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. Azerbaijan and Turkey imposed a transportation and economic blockade of Armenia which persists to this day, while Artsakh was also blockaded until 2023.
The Soviet government in Moscow initially backed Azerbaijan in return for Azerbaijan supporting Mikhail Gorbachev's attempts to keep the Soviet Union together. Soviet and Soviet Azerbaijani troops both forcibly uprooted Armenian civilians in part of Nagorno-Karabakh during Operation Ring.Zürcher, Christoph and Jan Koehler. Potentials of Disorder: Explaining Conflict and Stability in the Caucasus and in the Former Yugoslavia. Oxford: Manchester University Press, 2003 p. 158. . Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the war clearly became an international conflict between sovereign states.
The war resulted in de facto Armenian occupation of the former NKAO and seven surrounding Azerbaijani territories, this advance was effectively halted when both sides agreed to observe a cease-fire in May 1994. In late 1995, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to find a negotiated resolution to the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group. The Minsk Group is currently co-chaired by the US, France, and Russia and comprises Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and several European states.
During the conflict the largest city Stepanakert was besieged by Azerbaijani forces from late 1991 to May 1992 whereby Armenians were bombarded, civilian and armed.The Daily Telegraph, Azeri jets bomb capital of enclave – 23 August 1992Bloodshed in the Caucasus: escalation of the armed conflict in Nagorno Karabakh. Human Rights Watch, 1992. , 9781564320810, p. 32 The indiscriminate shelling, sniper shooting and aerial attacks killed or maimed hundreds of civilians and destroyed homes, hospitals and other buildings that were not legitimate military targets, and generally terrorized the civilian population. Azerbaijan blockaded all essential supplies, including water, electricity, food and medicines causing many deaths. Human Rights Watch reported that key bases used by forces for bombardment were the towns of Khojaly and Shusha.Bloodshed in the Caucasus: escalation of the armed conflict in Nagorno Karabakh. 1992, page 12; 34
Amid this Khojaly massacre – the mass murder of ethnic Azerbaijani citizens of Khojaly occurred on 26 February 1992. According to Human Rights Watch, the tragedy struck when a large column of residents, accompanied by a few dozen retreating fighters, fled the city as it fell to Armenian forces. As they approached the border with Azerbaijan, they came across an Armenian military post and were fired upon".Kristen Eichensehr, William Michael Reisman. Stopping wars and making peace: studies in international intervention, 2009, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers p. 63,Annika Rabo, Bo Utas. "The role of the state in West Asia", Istanbul 2005, p. 175,
Relations from 1994–2015
After the war, relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan remained very tense. In 2008, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev declared that "Nagorno Karabakh will never be independent; the position is backed by international mediators as well; Armenia has to accept the reality" and that "in 1918, Yerevan was granted to the Armenians. Khanate of Iravan was the Azeri territory, the Armenians were guests here."Azerbaijani president: Armenians are guests in Yerevan , REGNUM News Agency, 17 January 2008
Citizens of Armenia, people of Armenian descent and those who have visited the disputed region are forbidden entry to Azerbaijan without prior formal authorisation.Azerbaijan Country Page . NCSJ: Advocates on Behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia. Accessed 23 May 2010.
In 2008, in what became known as the 2008 Mardakert Skirmishes, Armenia and Azerbaijan clashed over Nagorno-Karabakh. The fighting between the two sides was brief, with few casualties on either side.
June 2010 saw a brief flare-up of the conflict, resulting in the deaths of four Armenian soldiers and one Azeri soldier. The clash came a day after peace talks between the presidents of the two countries held in Moscow.
On 31 August 2010, a border clash killed three Armenians and two Azeris. The Armenian army claimed up to seven Azeris had been killed. Both sides blamed the other for the incident.
On 24 June 2011, the two sides met in Kazan, Russia, to negotiate an end to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, but the talks ended in failure. Following the breakdown of talks, the Azeri President Ilham Aliyev used the 26 June Salvation Day military parade to warn Armenia that Azerbaijan may retake Nagorno-Karabakh by force. On 5 October 2011, border clashes around Nagorno Karabakh left one Armenian soldier and two Azeris dead. Two Armenians were also wounded by sniper fire the same day. Another violent incident occurred on 5 June 2012 when, according to the Azerbaijani side, Armenian troops crossed the border and shot dead five Azerbaijani soldiers before withdrawing. Armenia denied the claim and accused Azerbaijan of crossing the border first.
In October 2013, Zakir Hasanov was appointed as Azerbaijani Defence Minister despite controversy.
From 27 July to 8 August 2014, clashes began once again between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces. Reported casualties of the clashes were some of the highest since the 1994 ceasefire agreement that ended the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.
2016 clashes
After the 2016 clashes, in which an estimated 350 troops and civilians from both sides were killed, Azerbaijan declared a unilateral cease fire (the clashes started when Azerbaijani forces launched strikes to regain control of territory occupied by the Armenia-backed breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh).
2020 clashes and the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War
Both sides clashed on the Armenia–Azerbaijan border: Tavush and Tovuz (respectively) from 12 until 18 July 2020, in a conflict involving artillery, tanks, and shock drones, which killed at least 17 soldiers and a civilian and injured many more. Both sides reported four commanding or junior officer-rank army deaths, one on the Azeri side being a major general.
On 27 September 2020, heavy fighting along the line of contact between locally based Armenian and Azeri troops resumed. Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh (or the de facto territory of Artsakh), and Azerbaijan declaring martial law and mobilizing new and existing conscripts and professional soldiers.
On 9 October 2020, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet appealed for an urgent ceasefire, citing civilian sufferings in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone. She also raised concerns about overpopulated areas that were becoming targets for the heavy weaponry attacks.
On 17 October a new ceasefire agreement was announced by the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers following phone calls between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his counterparts. Lavrov strongly urged the countries to abide by the Moscow deal. However, both sides have accused each other of violating the truce further continuing the conflict. Bachelet expressed concerns on possible war crimes during the clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone. On 30 October 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan reached an agreement that abstained them from deliberately targeting the civilians’ population, despite which artillery strikes in populated areas were reported.
Ceasefire
A ceasefire agreement brokered by Russia and agreed upon by Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the Republic of Artsakh (non-signatory) on 9 November 2020, and effective since midnight 10 November 2020, Moscow Time ended all hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Azerbaijan claimed victory as it gained control of 5 cities, 4 towns, 240 villages and the entire Azerbaijan–Iran border. Some parts of Nagorno-Karabakh, along with all Armenian-occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh are to be ceded to Azerbaijan by 1 December 2020. As part of the 2020 ceasefire agreement, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to open transport links between their two countries, although the details have not been finalized.