Bishkek Protocol — the Karabakh ceasefire — Key Events — Caucasus

What happened

A Russian-brokered ceasefire ends the First Karabakh War with Armenian forces holding the former NKAO and seven surrounding districts. No peacekeepers deploy; the line of contact is held by the armies that made it, under an OSCE Minsk Group mediation that will run for twenty-six years without settlement.

The ceasefire froze a victor's map without legitimising it — a "no war, no peace" that armed both sides' politics. Its central flaw, a line without guarantees, is what 2016 probed and 2020 erased.

Confidence: High

WhenMay 1994

KindDiplomatic · Military

ArenaArmenia–Azerbaijan / Karabakh legacy

Confidence: High Sources: Established historical record · OSCE texts and mission records ↗ Methodology Corrections

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Connected records

3 records that this event names, or that name it — every one an explicit reference in a published record, nothing inferred from subject matter.

Part of1

Campaigns whose record places this event inside them.

Karabakh conflictThe first war and the 1994 ceasefire

Actors2

Actor records this event names.

Where this fits

This is one entry in the Caucasus timeline. The full Key Events surface carries every dated turning point with its filters and its essential subset, and this event in place shows what came before and after it. How Vigil grades, dates and sources its claims is set out in the methodology.