Conflict coverage · South Caucasus

Second Nagorno-Karabakh War

27 Sep – 10 Nov 2020Key eventEssentialKarabakh · Shusha / Shushi

Explore the system13 analytical layers in this conflict

Understand

Military & security

Effects & resilience

MilitaryTerritorial changeWeapons deliveriesArmenia–Azerbaijan / Karabakh legacy

Azerbaijan launches a full offensive and wins in 44 days — Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones, Israeli loitering munitions and artillery mass against entrenched Armenian defences, culminating in the fall of Shusha (Shushi). Several thousand die on each side; Azerbaijan recovers the seven surrounding districts and part of the former NKAO.

Why it mattersThe war ended the post-1994 order, previewed the drone-centric warfare Ukraine would generalise, made Türkiye a formal party to the region's security, and reduced Russian primacy to a peacekeeping mandate it would fail to honour.

Confidence: HighSources: Established historical record · International Crisis GroupMethodology Corrections

Related structure

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

Part of

Campaigns whose record places this event inside them.

Karabakh conflictThe forty-four-day war

Participants

Organisations this event records, with the role and confidence it states.

Armenian Armed Forces · atlasDefending forcehigh confidence
Azerbaijani Armed Forces · atlasAttacking forcehigh confidence
Karabakh Armenian forces · atlasDefending forcehigh confidence

Also named

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.