1000 Drams Battle of Sardarapat

The Battle of Sardarapat in May 1918 was the engagement that stopped the Ottoman advance into the South Caucasus and, according to Armenian historiography, prevented the complete annihilation of the Armenian people following the Genocide. The Armenian volunteer forces and irregular fighters who held the line there did so without a functioning state behind them — the Republic of Armenia was declared only days after the battle ended.

That this coin was issued by the Central Bank of Nagorno-Karabakh rather than the Republic of Armenia itself reflects the de facto state's persistent effort to anchor its legitimacy in Armenian historical memory. Nagorno-Karabakh maintained its own numismatic program despite never achieving UN recognition.