The Karabakh Council was an unrecognised government of Nagorno-Karabakh of eastern Armenia between 1918-1920. It was elected by the Karabakh Congress, the representative body of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, on July 27, 1918. Initially it was called the People's Government of Karabakh, but in September, 1918 it was renamed into the Karabakh Council. The claims surrounding the council 1918-1920 are related to the historical Artsakh (189 BC - 387 AD) and the unrecognized modern "Republic of Artsakh" founded January 1992.
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Historical Context
From 1918 until the Soviet takeover of the region in 1920, Armenia and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic both sought control over Nagorno Karabagh.
Conflicting claims
Some Armenians claim that Nagorno-Karabakh was not a part of Azerbaijan in 1918-1920 and that it was independent and affiliated the Republic of Armenia. Against this some Azerbaijani writers dismiss these claims as "nonsense."
Formation of the Karabakh Council
According to Armenian sources the Karabakh Council was an independent national government which exercised its powers during the periods following the congresses. Emanuele Aliprandi, an Italian writer who edits the bi-weekly newsletter of the Italian Armenian community's online website has published such claims in Le ragioni del Karabakh (2010), which is "the first text in Italian on the little Republic of Artsakh." Aliprandi claims that Council considered itself authorized to act both as a legislative and executive body, and that the decisions on major political and economic issues of the region during 1918-1920 were taken by the Karabakh Congress. Geographically, the scope of the powers of the Council covered the mountainous regions of Karabagh, including the Armenian villages of Gandzak District.
The first provisional government included:
The Council was chaired by Yeghishe Ishkhanian, and Melikset Yesayan was elected its secretary.
When the Yerevan-based Armenian Congress of Eastern Armenians was established at October 1917, it incorporated the Armenian National Councils all around the Russian Empire including activities of Armenian National Councils in Karabagh, Tiflis and Baku.