Bishkek Protocol

The Bishkek Protocol was a provisional ceasefire agreement, signed by the representatives of Armenia, Azerbaijan, the breakaway Republic of Artsakh, and Russia on May 12, 1994, in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.

The protocol ended the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and the conflict entered a frozen state. The ceasefire was breached on a number of occasions, particularly during the 2008 clashes, 2016 clashes and during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh war in 2020. Two more ceasefire agreements have been reached – in 2020 and in 2023.

Background

Bishkek was proposed by Kyrgyz representative Medetkhan Sheremkulov who was head of negotiating group, and offered to proceed discussions in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan after the first meeting between parliamentarians of Azerbaijan and Armenia on ceasing fire in Nagorno-Karabakh was held in Mariehamn. Talks between Azerbaijani and Armenian delegations continued for hours. A representative of Azerbaijan Afiyaddin Jalilov questioned the legitimacy of the participation of Armenians who lived in Karabakh, and required to include the name of Nizami Bakhmanov, a member of his delegation who was the mayor of Shusha in Nagorno-Karabakh in the protocol. The protocol and these points were a subject of discussions between President Heydar Aliyev and Kazimirov where it was agreed to include signature of Nizami Bakhmanov into the protocol. Vladimir Kazimirov stated the following in his memoirs: "Aliyev agreed. At the end of the page, two alterations were written in a legible handwriting in Russian. The name of N. Bakhmanov was written by hand but they could not find him in for signature. On May 9, I took a copy of the text to Moscow with two alterations and the name of Bakhmanov but without his signature."