| Conventional Long Name: | Kurdish Republic of Lachin |
| Native Name: | Komara kurdî ya Laçînê |
| Capital: | Lachin |
| Government Type: | Republic |
| Leader Title1: | President |
| Leader Name1: | Wekîl Mustafayev |
| Life Span: | 1992 |
| Date Start: | 20 May 1992 |
| Date End: | late 1992 |
| P1: | Azerbaijan |
| S1: | Nagorno-Karabakh Republic |
| Flag P1: | Flag of Azerbaijan.svg |
| Flag S1: | Flag of Artsakh.svg |
| Today: | Azerbaijan |
The Kurdish Republic of Lachin (Kurmanji Kurdish: Komara kurdî ya Laçînê) was a short-lived unrecognized state declared by Kurdish nationalists on the territory of the former Kurdistan Uezd[1] in 1992, during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, and dissolved in the same year.
In 1923, the government of the Soviet Union had created an administrative unit known as Kurdistan Uezd, or "Red Kurdistan" within the Azerbaijan SSR. It consisted of the districts of Lachin, Qubadli and Zangilan, with its capital in Lachin.[2] According to the 1926 census, 73% of its population was Kurdish and 26% was Azerbaijani.[3] The Kurdistan Uezd was briefly reorganized into the Kurdistan Okrug in 1930 and then dissolved; after this, a series of deportations of the Kurds followed.[4]
Starting from 1961, when the First Iraqi–Kurdish War started, there were efforts by the deportees for the restoration of their rights, spearheaded by Mehmet Babayev; these proved to be futile.[5] Later, during the perestroika era in the 1980s, there was a resurgence in the nationalist aspirations of Soviet Kurds, leading to the formation of the Yekbûn organization in 1989, which aimed to reestablish Kurdish autonomy. The government of the USSR under Gorbachev attempted to cooperate with the Yekbûn to negotiate the reestablishment of the restoration of Red Kurdistan. Nonetheless, the 1991 collapse of the USSR coupled with Turkey's hostility to this plan ended all aspirations for an autonomous Kurdish state within the Soviet Union.[6]
The First Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988-1994), fought by the Armenian separatists of the nascent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic together with Armenia against Azerbaijan, spilled over into the areas of the former Red Kurdistan. The fighting caused more than 80% of the existing Kurdish population to flee the region.[7]
However, members of a new organization, the "Caucasian Kurdistan Freedom Movement",[8] led by Wekîl Mustafayev, stayed behind. Mustafayev, who had been exiled to the Uzbek SSR as a young man during the Soviet deportations, had returned to help organize the nationalists.[9] After Armenian forces captured Lachin in May 1992, this organization convened in the town and declared the establishment of the Kurdish Republic of Lachin on 20 May, raising the Kurdish flag in Lachin.[10] The districts of Lachin, Jabrayil, Kalbajar, Qubadli, and Zangilan all came under the administration of the republic.[11] The first congress of the republic was held on 9 June, resulting in the election of Mustafayev as president.[12]
Armenia's stance regarding the nationalists' actions was initially supportive. The proclamation of the republic, in the eyes of the Armenian authorities, could be used as leverage against Azerbaijan by showing that the Kurds and Armenians were standing together to fight against Azerbaijan.[13] Furthermore, it was presumed that the Kurdish Republic of Lachin would be effectively under the suzerainty of Armenia and its existence would not affect the corridor connecting Armenia with Nagorno-Karabakh proper.[14] The government of Russia also lent its support to the nascent republic;[15] in June 1992 Mustafayev traveled to Moscow to meet with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In a 2014 interview with Rudaw, Mustafeyev alleged that following the meeting with the Russians, Azerbaijan had attempted to bribe him to dissolve the republic, but he refused.[16]
Much to the chagrin of Azerbaijan, Armenia continued to back the Kurdish Republic of Lachin throughout 1992. The Azerbaijani media routinely condemned what was seen as a joint Kurdish-Armenian effort to destabilize Azerbaijan. The deputy president of the organization "Kurdish Liberation Movement", Alikhane Mame, said that the fate of the Kurds depended on an Armenian victory in the war, and his claims were repeated in the Armenian media, infuriating Azerbaijan.[17]
Mustafayev also attended a conference of the PKK concerning the Kurdish struggle in Turkey in summer 1992; after this, he named Ishhan Aslan, a Kurd from Armenia, as the "military commander of this new republic".[18]
Mustafayev also said he had contact with Abdullah Öcalan during this time. Mustafayev criticized Öcalan for his efforts to establish an independent Kurdistan in Syria since Hafiz al-Assad's government would never let that come to fruition. Rather, he invited Öcalan to come to the Kurdish Republic of Lachin and be its president, saying that the republic was a free and secure land for Kurds under Armenian protection.[19]
By the end of 1992, however, the Armenian authorities had begun to turn against Mustafayev and his fellow nationalists, realizing that allowing the existence of a Kurdish republic in the region conflicted with the narrative that all Karabakh had always been ethnically Armenian, therefore undermining the entire argument for the war.[20]
Aside from the growing hostility from Armenia, the other main problem for the Kurdish Republic of Lachin was that the vast majority of the Kurdish population of the region had by then fled due to the war.[21] It was becoming increasingly clear that prolonging the republic's existence was no longer feasible, and it collapsed, marking the definitive end of Kurdish nationalism in the region. The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic subsequently assumed full control over Lachin and the general area claimed by the Kurds.
The remaining Kurds of the region left for Azerbaijan, and Mustafayev himself fled to Italy; he died in on 19 April 2019 in Brussels and was buried in Erbil of the autonomous Kurdistan region. His nephew Bahaddin Mustafayev told the media that his uncle "dedicated all his life for the freedom of the Kurdish people" and had supported the 2017 Kurdistan region independence referendum.[22]
In 2007, the government of Azerbaijan alleged that the PKK's leadership was moving its bases from Iraqi Kurdistan to the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, and that a Kurdish autonomous administration would be recreated in the Lachin and Kelbajar regions. This never materialized and Azerbaijan's claims appear to have amounted to mere allegations.[23]