Sept. 19 marks the first anniversary of a lightning Azerbaijani military operation against armed Armenian separatists in the Karabakh region, which fully reunited the enclave with Azerbaijan after over 30 years.

Karabakh is a region of Azerbaijan that came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by the Armenian military, in separatist fighting that ended in 1994. During a six-week war in 2020, Azerbaijan took back parts of Karabakh and surrounding territory that Armenian forces had claimed during the earlier conflict.

In 23 hours and 43 minutes, Azerbaijani forces destroyed the deep positions of the separatists, who were forced to surrender and ultimately dismantle their unrecognized government.

Following the 2023 operation, Khankendi and Khojaly, two cities the separatists considered as the so-called capital of Karabakh, as well as the Khojavand and Aghdere districts, were handed over to Baku.

Azerbaijan, having now established full sovereignty in the region, called on the Armenian population in Karabakh to become part of Azerbaijani society and sent in humanitarian aid, but a large majority of some 150,000 Armenian residents opted to leave for Armenia.

Today, officials say restoration and development work is underway in Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur as part of Baku’s plan to revive the region’s infrastructure, restore schools, build new roads and cultural facilities to transform it into a "flourishing corner of Azerbaijan ultimately."

Azerbaijan detained some 15 people, including former "presidents" of Karabakh’s so-called Armenian government, Arkadi Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, Arayik Harutyunyan, as well as parliamentary speaker Davit Ishanyan and minister Ruben Vardanyan, all of whom were taken to Baku where they are currently on trial.

According to the Azerbaijani tally, some 204 soldiers were killed during the operation, while Armenian separatists lost 310, and 614 people were injured.

Azerbaijani forces destroyed eight tanks, 22 canons, 14 howitzers, three antiaircraft weapons and nine military vehicles and seized 1,713 various military vehicles and weapons, as well as 18,600 rifles.

The operation also prompted Russia, Yerevan’s longtime ally, to gradually withdraw its peacekeeping troops for good from Karabakh, which were deployed until November 2025 under a trilateral agreement Moscow brokered to end the 2020 war.

A Turkish-Russian Joint Center, set up in the Aghdam region after the 2020 war to supervise the cease-fire and prevent any violations, subsequently completed its mission.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have since been working to sign a peace treaty to end the decadeslong dispute over the enclave, but there are still several stumbling blocks in negotiations.

The issue of opening transport links in the region, including the Zangezur corridor, a land route connecting Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan through Armenia, has been one contentious issue.

Baku also insists reaching a peace agreement with Armenia is impossible until Armenia removes from its Constitution a problematic reference to the country's 1991 declaration of independence from the Soviet Union, which proclaims Armenia's unification with Karabakh as a national goal.

The sides have sporadically exchanged fire along their troubled border in recent months, stoking concerns that an agreement could be further delayed.

Moscow has sought to mediate the conflict between the two ex-Soviet republics, but its invasion of Ukraine has since waned its influence in the South Caucasus. Thus, The issue has drawn the United States and the European Union, who hosted Azerbaijani and Armenian representatives for peace negotiations.

Earlier this month, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Yerevan and Baku have managed to agree on 13 articles and preface of the draft peace agreement and that Armenian authorities propose to sign the already agreed points, which so far includes a provision on "establishing diplomatic relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan."