HISTORY

The area, historically known as Artsakh, was acquired by Russia in 1813. The Soviet Union created the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region (1,700 square miles) within Azerbaijan in 1924, when over 94 percent of the region's population was Armenian.

Artsakh gerb

The term Nagorno-Karabakh originates from the Russian for "mountainous Karabakh." Despite its "autonomous" status, the area, populated by about 180,000 Armenians, has long been controlled by the Azeri government in the capital of Baku. As the Azerbaijani population grew, the Karabakh Armenians chafed under discriminatory rule, and by 1960 hostilities had begun between the two populations of the region.

On February 20, 1988, Armenian deputies to the National Council of Nagorno-Karabakh voted to unify that region with Armenia. This act triggered an Azerbaijani massacre Armenians in the city of Sumgait, Kirovabad and Baku. Large numbers of refugees left Azerbaijan as pogroms began against Armenians.

Artsakh flag

Gorbachev's 1989 proposal for enhanced autonomy for Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan satisfied neither Armenians nor Azerbaijanis, and a long and conflict erupted between the two peoples. In September 1989, Azerbaijan began an economic blockade of Armenia's vital fuel and supply lines through its territory, which until that time had carried about 90 percent of Armenia's imports from the other Soviet republics. In 1991 full scale war erupted between Armenians and Azeris in and around Karabakh. By 1992 Armenians gained control of much of southwestern Azerbaijan, including Nagorno-Karabakh and territory connecting the enclave with Armenia. In 1994 a cease-fire was signed. Armenians remain in control of Karabakh and territories surrounding the region, representing close to 20 percent of the territory of Azerbaijan.