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This article presents a list of military occupations, both historic and contemporary, but only those that have taken place since the customary laws of belligerent military occupation were first clarified and supplemented by the Hague Convention of 1907. [1]
As currently understood in international law, "military occupation" is the effective military control by a power of a territory outside of said power's recognized sovereign territory. [2] The occupying power in question may be an individual state or a supranational organization, such as the United Nations.
Territory | Since | Occupied state/territory | Occupying state | Occupier's declared state/territory | Status | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Transnistria | 1992 | Moldova | Russia | Transnistria | Occupation by an armed group under the influence of a foreign power [a] | |
Abkhazia | 2008 | Georgia | Abkhazia | Occupation by an armed group under the influence of a foreign power [3] [b] | ||
South Ossetia | South Ossetia | |||||
Crimea [4] [5] | 2014 | Ukraine [c] | Federal subjects of Russia | Occupation by a foreign power with annexation [3] | ||
Significant parts of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts | 2014
[d]
2022 [e] |
Federal subjects of Russia
[f]
|
Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia Oblasts:
Mykolaiv Oblast:
Kharkiv Oblast:
| |||
East Jerusalem [13] [14] [15] [16] | 1967 |
Palestinian territories; Palestine (since 1988 declaration) [l] |
Israel | Part of the Jerusalem District ( effectively annexed in 1980) | Occupation by a foreign power with annexation [3] [21] [m] | |
West Bank [22] | Judea and Samaria Area | Occupation by a foreign power, [23] [n] with de facto partial annexation in the West Bank [3] | ||||
Gaza Strip [o] | — | |||||
Golan Heights [27] [28] [29] | Syria | Part of the Northern District ( effectively annexed in 1981) | ||||
Al-Tanf [31] | 2015 | United States | — | Occupation by an armed group under the influence of a foreign power [31] [q] | ||
Azaz, al-Bab and Jarabulus Districts [32] [33] | 2016 | Turkey | Syrian Interim Government | Occupation by an armed group under the influence of a foreign power [r] | ||
Afrin District | 2018 | Occupation by an armed group under the influence of a foreign power. [34] [s] | ||||
Tell Abyad and Ras al-Ayn Districts | 2019 | Occupation by an armed group under the influence of a foreign power. [t] | ||||
Northern Cyprus [35] | 1974 | Cyprus | Northern Cyprus | Occupation by an armed group under the influence of a foreign power [3] [6] [u] | ||
Sofulu, Barxudarlı, Yukhari Askipara and Karki [36] | 1992 | Azerbaijan | Armenia | Part of the Tavush and Ararat Provinces | Occupation by a foreign power | |
Artsvashen [37] | Armenia | Azerbaijan | Part of the Gadabay Rayon | |||
Majority of the Western Sahara [38] | 1975 | Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (declared in 1976) | Morocco |
Southern Provinces ( annexed between 1976-79) |
Occupation by a foreign power with annexation [3] [21] [v] |
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? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Korea | 1905–1910 | Korea | Japan | Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910 | Aftermath of Russo-Japanese War | Yes |
Cuba | 1906–1909 | Cuba | United States | Provisional Government of Cuba | Banana Wars | No |
Libya | 1911–1912 | Ottoman Empire | Italy | Invasion of Libya | Italo-Turkish War | Yes |
Albania | 1912–1913 [39] | Albania | Serbia | Occupation of Albania | Balkan Wars | No |
Nicaragua | 1912–1933 | Nicaragua | United States | Occupation of Nicaragua | Banana Wars | No |
Veracruz | 1914 | Mexico | United States | Occupation of Veracruz | Mexican Revolution | No |
Occupied territory | Years | Occupied state | Occupying state | Event | Part of war(s) | Subsequently annexed? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Transcaucasia | 1920 | Azerbaijan | Russia | Invasion of Azerbaijan | Russian Civil War | Yes |
1921 | Georgia | Invasion of Georgia | Yes | |||
Ruhr | 1923–1924 | Germany | Occupation of the Ruhr | Aftermath of World War I | No | |
Manchuria / Manchukuo | 1931–1945 | China | Japan | Invasion of Manchuria | Second Sino-Japanese War | No |
Xinjiang | 1934 | Soviet Union | Invasion of Xinjiang | Kumul Rebellion | No |
Occupied territory | Years | Occupied state | Occupying state | Event | Part of war(s) | Subsequently annexed? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2022–2023 | Ukraine | Russia | Russian invasion of Ukraine | Russo-Ukrainian War | No [am] |
Parts of
Mykolaiv Oblast
[an]
|
Partial [j] |
Today, the widely accepted definition of occupation is 'the effective control of a power (be it one or more states or an international organization, such as the United Nations) over a territory to which that power has no sovereign title, without the volition of the sovereign of that territory'
In the West Bank, Israel pays lip service to the notion of a temporary occupation that is to be brought to an end by negotiation but in practice it has de facto annexed large portions of the territory under the pretext of security – as evidenced by the Wall in Palestinian territory – or by the settling of some 400,000 of its own citizens in the territory. In most cases today, however, the occupying power has formally annexed the territory in question. This is illustrated by the cases of Israel's annexations of East Jerusalem and the Golan, Morocco's annexation of Western Sahara and Russia's annexation of the Crimea. Alternatively, the occupying power has established a puppet regime that claims to be the TRNC, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Israel claims it no longer occupies the Gaza Strip, maintaining that it is neither a Stale nor a territory occupied or controlled by Israel, but rather it has 'sui generis' status. Pursuant to the Disengagement Plan, Israel dismantled all military institutions and settlements in Gaza and there is no longer a permanent Israeli military or civilian presence in the territory. However the Plan also provided that Israel will guard and monitor the external land perimeter of the Gaza Strip, will continue to maintain exclusive authority in Gaza air space, and will continue to exercise security activity in the sea off the coast of the Gaza Strip as well as maintaining an Israeli military presence on the Egyptian-Gaza border. and reserving the right to reenter Gaza at will.
Israel continues to control six of Gaza's seven land crossings, its maritime borders and airspace and the movement of goods and persons in and out of the territory. Egypt controls one of Gaza's land crossings. Troops from the Israeli Defence Force regularly enter pans of the territory and/or deploy missile attacks, drones and sonic bombs into Gaza. Israel has declared a no-go buffer zone that stretches deep into Gaza: if Gazans enter this zone they are shot on sight. Gaza is also dependent on Israel for water, electricity, telecommunications and other utilities, currency, issuing IDs, and permits to enter and leave the territory. Israel also has sole control of the Palestinian Population Registry through which the Israeli Army regulates who is classified as a Palestinian and who is a Gazan or West Banker. Since 2000 aside from a limited number of exceptions Israel has refused to add people to the Palestinian Population Registry.
It is this direct external control over Gaza and indirect control over life within Gaza that has led the United Nations, the UN General Assembly, the UN Fact Finding Mission to Gaza, International human rights organisations, US Government websites, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and a significant number of legal commentators, to reject the argument that Gaza is no longer occupied.
Even after the accession to power of Hamas, Israel's claim that it no longer occupies Gaza has not been accepted by UN bodies, most States, nor the majority of academic commentators because of its exclusive control of its border with Gaza and crossing points including the effective control it exerted over the Rafah crossing until at least May 2011, its control of Gaza's maritime zones and airspace which constitute what Aronson terms the 'security envelope' around Gaza, as well as its ability to intervene forcibly at will in Gaza.
While Israel withdrew from the immediate territory, Israel still controlled all access to and from Gaza through the border crossings, as well as through the coastline and the airspace. In addition, Gaza was dependent upon Israel for water, electricity, sewage, communication networks, and for its trade (Gisha 2007. Dowty 2008). ln other words, while Israel maintained that its occupation of Gaza ended with its unilateral disengagement, Palestinians—as well as many human right organizations and international bodies—argued that Gaza was by all intents and purposes still occupied.
OCCUPIED GOLAN.)
The continued occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights is recognized by many states as valid and consistent with the provisions of the United Nations Charter, on a self-defence basis. Israel, on this view, would be entitled to exact as a condition of withdrawal from the territory the imposition of security measures of an indefinite character—such as perpetual demilitarization, or the emplacement of a United Nations force—which would ensure, or tend to ensure, that the territory would not be used against it for aggression on future occasions. But the notion that Israel is entitled to claim any status other than that of belligerent occupant in the territory which it occupies, or to act beyond the strict bounds laid down in the Fourth Geneva Convention, has been universally rejected by the international community—no less by the United States than by any other state.
Turkish occupation "is an existential threat to the Assad government's ability to reclaim the entirety of its territory, which is a key argument that regime loyalists make in their support of Bashar al-Assad's government," Heras said.
You can't mistake the front line between the Syrian army and Turkey's occupation force east of Aleppo.
The sovereignty was Japanese until 1952. The Japanese Treaty came into force, and at that time Formosa was being administered by the Chinese Nationalists, to whom it was entrusted in 1945, as a military occupation.
Part of a series on |
War |
---|
This article presents a list of military occupations, both historic and contemporary, but only those that have taken place since the customary laws of belligerent military occupation were first clarified and supplemented by the Hague Convention of 1907. [1]
As currently understood in international law, "military occupation" is the effective military control by a power of a territory outside of said power's recognized sovereign territory. [2] The occupying power in question may be an individual state or a supranational organization, such as the United Nations.
Territory | Since | Occupied state/territory | Occupying state | Occupier's declared state/territory | Status | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Transnistria | 1992 | Moldova | Russia | Transnistria | Occupation by an armed group under the influence of a foreign power [a] | |
Abkhazia | 2008 | Georgia | Abkhazia | Occupation by an armed group under the influence of a foreign power [3] [b] | ||
South Ossetia | South Ossetia | |||||
Crimea [4] [5] | 2014 | Ukraine [c] | Federal subjects of Russia | Occupation by a foreign power with annexation [3] | ||
Significant parts of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts | 2014
[d]
2022 [e] |
Federal subjects of Russia
[f]
|
Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia Oblasts:
Mykolaiv Oblast:
Kharkiv Oblast:
| |||
East Jerusalem [13] [14] [15] [16] | 1967 |
Palestinian territories; Palestine (since 1988 declaration) [l] |
Israel | Part of the Jerusalem District ( effectively annexed in 1980) | Occupation by a foreign power with annexation [3] [21] [m] | |
West Bank [22] | Judea and Samaria Area | Occupation by a foreign power, [23] [n] with de facto partial annexation in the West Bank [3] | ||||
Gaza Strip [o] | — | |||||
Golan Heights [27] [28] [29] | Syria | Part of the Northern District ( effectively annexed in 1981) | ||||
Al-Tanf [31] | 2015 | United States | — | Occupation by an armed group under the influence of a foreign power [31] [q] | ||
Azaz, al-Bab and Jarabulus Districts [32] [33] | 2016 | Turkey | Syrian Interim Government | Occupation by an armed group under the influence of a foreign power [r] | ||
Afrin District | 2018 | Occupation by an armed group under the influence of a foreign power. [34] [s] | ||||
Tell Abyad and Ras al-Ayn Districts | 2019 | Occupation by an armed group under the influence of a foreign power. [t] | ||||
Northern Cyprus [35] | 1974 | Cyprus | Northern Cyprus | Occupation by an armed group under the influence of a foreign power [3] [6] [u] | ||
Sofulu, Barxudarlı, Yukhari Askipara and Karki [36] | 1992 | Azerbaijan | Armenia | Part of the Tavush and Ararat Provinces | Occupation by a foreign power | |
Artsvashen [37] | Armenia | Azerbaijan | Part of the Gadabay Rayon | |||
Majority of the Western Sahara [38] | 1975 | Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (declared in 1976) | Morocco |
Southern Provinces ( annexed between 1976-79) |
Occupation by a foreign power with annexation [3] [21] [v] |
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? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Korea | 1905–1910 | Korea | Japan | Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910 | Aftermath of Russo-Japanese War | Yes |
Cuba | 1906–1909 | Cuba | United States | Provisional Government of Cuba | Banana Wars | No |
Libya | 1911–1912 | Ottoman Empire | Italy | Invasion of Libya | Italo-Turkish War | Yes |
Albania | 1912–1913 [39] | Albania | Serbia | Occupation of Albania | Balkan Wars | No |
Nicaragua | 1912–1933 | Nicaragua | United States | Occupation of Nicaragua | Banana Wars | No |
Veracruz | 1914 | Mexico | United States | Occupation of Veracruz | Mexican Revolution | No |
Occupied territory | Years | Occupied state | Occupying state | Event | Part of war(s) | Subsequently annexed? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Transcaucasia | 1920 | Azerbaijan | Russia | Invasion of Azerbaijan | Russian Civil War | Yes |
1921 | Georgia | Invasion of Georgia | Yes | |||
Ruhr | 1923–1924 | Germany | Occupation of the Ruhr | Aftermath of World War I | No | |
Manchuria / Manchukuo | 1931–1945 | China | Japan | Invasion of Manchuria | Second Sino-Japanese War | No |
Xinjiang | 1934 | Soviet Union | Invasion of Xinjiang | Kumul Rebellion | No |
Occupied territory | Years | Occupied state | Occupying state | Event | Part of war(s) | Subsequently annexed? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2022–2023 | Ukraine | Russia | Russian invasion of Ukraine | Russo-Ukrainian War | No [am] |
Parts of
Mykolaiv Oblast
[an]
|
Partial [j] |
Today, the widely accepted definition of occupation is 'the effective control of a power (be it one or more states or an international organization, such as the United Nations) over a territory to which that power has no sovereign title, without the volition of the sovereign of that territory'
In the West Bank, Israel pays lip service to the notion of a temporary occupation that is to be brought to an end by negotiation but in practice it has de facto annexed large portions of the territory under the pretext of security – as evidenced by the Wall in Palestinian territory – or by the settling of some 400,000 of its own citizens in the territory. In most cases today, however, the occupying power has formally annexed the territory in question. This is illustrated by the cases of Israel's annexations of East Jerusalem and the Golan, Morocco's annexation of Western Sahara and Russia's annexation of the Crimea. Alternatively, the occupying power has established a puppet regime that claims to be the TRNC, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Israel claims it no longer occupies the Gaza Strip, maintaining that it is neither a Stale nor a territory occupied or controlled by Israel, but rather it has 'sui generis' status. Pursuant to the Disengagement Plan, Israel dismantled all military institutions and settlements in Gaza and there is no longer a permanent Israeli military or civilian presence in the territory. However the Plan also provided that Israel will guard and monitor the external land perimeter of the Gaza Strip, will continue to maintain exclusive authority in Gaza air space, and will continue to exercise security activity in the sea off the coast of the Gaza Strip as well as maintaining an Israeli military presence on the Egyptian-Gaza border. and reserving the right to reenter Gaza at will.
Israel continues to control six of Gaza's seven land crossings, its maritime borders and airspace and the movement of goods and persons in and out of the territory. Egypt controls one of Gaza's land crossings. Troops from the Israeli Defence Force regularly enter pans of the territory and/or deploy missile attacks, drones and sonic bombs into Gaza. Israel has declared a no-go buffer zone that stretches deep into Gaza: if Gazans enter this zone they are shot on sight. Gaza is also dependent on Israel for water, electricity, telecommunications and other utilities, currency, issuing IDs, and permits to enter and leave the territory. Israel also has sole control of the Palestinian Population Registry through which the Israeli Army regulates who is classified as a Palestinian and who is a Gazan or West Banker. Since 2000 aside from a limited number of exceptions Israel has refused to add people to the Palestinian Population Registry.
It is this direct external control over Gaza and indirect control over life within Gaza that has led the United Nations, the UN General Assembly, the UN Fact Finding Mission to Gaza, International human rights organisations, US Government websites, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and a significant number of legal commentators, to reject the argument that Gaza is no longer occupied.
Even after the accession to power of Hamas, Israel's claim that it no longer occupies Gaza has not been accepted by UN bodies, most States, nor the majority of academic commentators because of its exclusive control of its border with Gaza and crossing points including the effective control it exerted over the Rafah crossing until at least May 2011, its control of Gaza's maritime zones and airspace which constitute what Aronson terms the 'security envelope' around Gaza, as well as its ability to intervene forcibly at will in Gaza.
While Israel withdrew from the immediate territory, Israel still controlled all access to and from Gaza through the border crossings, as well as through the coastline and the airspace. In addition, Gaza was dependent upon Israel for water, electricity, sewage, communication networks, and for its trade (Gisha 2007. Dowty 2008). ln other words, while Israel maintained that its occupation of Gaza ended with its unilateral disengagement, Palestinians—as well as many human right organizations and international bodies—argued that Gaza was by all intents and purposes still occupied.
OCCUPIED GOLAN.)
The continued occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights is recognized by many states as valid and consistent with the provisions of the United Nations Charter, on a self-defence basis. Israel, on this view, would be entitled to exact as a condition of withdrawal from the territory the imposition of security measures of an indefinite character—such as perpetual demilitarization, or the emplacement of a United Nations force—which would ensure, or tend to ensure, that the territory would not be used against it for aggression on future occasions. But the notion that Israel is entitled to claim any status other than that of belligerent occupant in the territory which it occupies, or to act beyond the strict bounds laid down in the Fourth Geneva Convention, has been universally rejected by the international community—no less by the United States than by any other state.
Turkish occupation "is an existential threat to the Assad government's ability to reclaim the entirety of its territory, which is a key argument that regime loyalists make in their support of Bashar al-Assad's government," Heras said.
You can't mistake the front line between the Syrian army and Turkey's occupation force east of Aleppo.
The sovereignty was Japanese until 1952. The Japanese Treaty came into force, and at that time Formosa was being administered by the Chinese Nationalists, to whom it was entrusted in 1945, as a military occupation.