TheBishkek Protocol was a provisionalceasefire agreement, signed by the representatives ofArmenia,Azerbaijan, the breakawayRepublic of Artsakh, andRussia on May 12, 1994, inBishkek, the capital ofKyrgyzstan.
The protocol ended theFirst Nagorno-Karabakh War andthe conflict entered afrozen state. The ceasefire was breached on a number of occasions, particularly during the2008 clashes,2016 clashes and during theSecond Nagorno-Karabakh war in 2020. Two more ceasefire agreements have been reached –in 2020 andin 2023.
Bishkek was proposed by Kyrgyz representativeMedetkhan 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 inMariehamn. Talks between Azerbaijani and Armenian delegations continued for hours. A representative of AzerbaijanAfiyaddin Jalilov questioned the legitimacy of the participation of Armenians who lived in Karabakh, and required to include the name ofNizami Bakhmanov, a member of his delegation who was the mayor ofShusha in Nagorno-Karabakh in the protocol. The protocol and these points were a subject of discussions between PresidentHeydar 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 inBaku 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."[1][2]
