Part of a series on |
War |
---|
This article presents a list of military occupations. Only military occupations since the customary laws of belligerent military occupation were first clarified and supplemented by the Hague Convention of 1907[1] are included In this article.
Military occupation is a type of effective control of a certain power over a territory which is not under the formal sovereignty of that entity, without the volition of the actual sovereign, and provisional in nature.[2][3][4] Military occupation is distinguished from annexation[a] by its intended temporary nature (i.e. no claim for permanent sovereignty), by its military nature, and by citizenship rights of the controlling power not being conferred upon the subjugated population.[5][6][7][8]
Between the end of World War II and the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, there have been only three occasions in which military occupation resulted in permanent colonization: the 1967 Israeli occupation of Palestine and the Golan, the 1974 Turkish occupation of Northern Cyprus, and the 1975 Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara.[9] Since then, all other permanent military occupations relate to Post-Soviet states.[9]
Territory | Since | Occupied state/territory | Occupying state | Declared state/territory | Status | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
East Jerusalem[10][11][12][13] | 1967 | Palestinian territories; Palestine (since 1988 declaration)[b] |
Israel | part of Jerusalem District (effectively annexed in 1980) | Occupation by a foreign power with illegal annexation[18][c] | |
West Bank[19] | — | Occupation by a foreign power[20][d] | ||||
Gaza Strip[e] | Occupation by a foreign power[20][f] | |||||
Golan Heights[23][24][25] | Syria | part of Northern District (effectively annexed in 1981) | Occupation by a foreign power with illegal annexation[18][g] Recognized by the United States as part of Israel.[26] | |||
Northern Cyprus[27] | 1974 | Cyprus | Turkey | Northern Cyprus | Occupation by an armed group under the influence of a foreign power[28][h] | |
Majority of Western Sahara[29] | 1975 | Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (declared in 1976) | Morocco | Southern Provinces since the 1991 ceasefire |
Occupation by a foreign power with illegal annexation[18][i] | |
Transnistria | 1992 | Moldova | Russia | Transnistria | Occupation by an armed group under the influence of a foreign power[j] | |
Nagorno-Karabakh (and surrounding territories) |
1994 | Azerbaijan | Armenia | Artsakh | Occupation by an armed group under the influence of a foreign power[k] | |
Abkhazia | 2008 | Georgia | Russia | Abkhazia | Occupation by an armed group under the influence of a foreign power[l] | |
South Ossetia | South Ossetia | |||||
Parts of Donetsk Oblast | 2014 | Ukraine | Donetsk People's Republic | Occupation by an armed group under the influence of a foreign power[28][m] | ||
Parts of Luhansk Oblast | Lugansk People's Republic | |||||
Crimea[30][31] | Occupation by a foreign power with illegal annexation[n] | |||||
Northern parts of Aleppo Governorate[32][33] | 2016 | Syria | Turkey | — | Occupation by a foreign power[o] | |
Al-Tanf (U.S. military base) | 2016 | Syria | United States | Occupation by a foreign power[34][35] |
Events before the Hague Convention of 1907 are out of scope.
Occupied territory | Years | Occupied state | Occupying state | Event | Part of war(s) | Subsequently annexed? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Falkland Islands | 1982 | United Kingdom | Argentina | Occupation of the Falkland Islands | Falklands War | No |
Grenada | 1983 | Grenada | United States | Invasion of Grenada | Grenadian Revolution | No |
Northern Province | 1987–1990 | Sri Lanka | India | Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan Civil War | Sri Lankan Civil War | No |
Maldives | 1988 | Maldives | 1988 Maldives coup d'état | No | ||
Panama | 1989–1990 | Panama | United States | Invasion of Panama | War on Drugs | No |
Kuwait | 1990–1991 | Kuwait | Iraq | Invasion of Kuwait | Gulf War | Yes |
Haiti | 1994–1995 | Haiti | Operation Uphold Democracy | 1991 Haitian coup d'état | No | |
Lesotho | 1998–1999 | Lesotho | Operation Boleas | Lesotho general election riots | No | |
Parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo | 1998–2002[43] | Democratic Republic of the Congo | Foreign support to the DR Congo | Second Congo War | No | |
Kargil District | 1999 | India | Pakistan | Kargil War | Indo-Pakistani Wars | No |
Occupied territory | Years | Occupied state | Occupying state | Event | Part of war(s) | Subsequently annexed? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gash-Barka, Southern, Northern Red Sea and Southern Red Sea regions of Eritrea |
2000–2018 | Eritrea | Ethiopia | Regions were seized at the end of the Eritrean–Ethiopian War in 2000, and subsequently delimited[44] and demarcated[45] by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague to be Eritrean territory.
Ethiopia returned all occupied territories in July 2018 following a peace summit between the two states. |
Eritrean–Ethiopian War | No |
Iraq | 2003–2011 | Iraq |
|
Iraq War | No | |
Parts of Somalia | 2006–2009[47] | Somalia | Ethiopia | War in Somalia (2006–09) | Somali Civil War | No |
Gori and Poti | 2008 | Georgia | Russia | Occupation of Gori and Poti | Russo-Georgian War | No |
Perevi | 2008–2010 | Occupation of Perevi | No | |||
Socotra | 2018 | Yemen | United Arab Emirates | Takeover of Socotra | Yemeni Civil War | No |