Nagorno-Karabakh

Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains. The region is mostly mountainous and forested and has an area of .

Most of the region is governed by the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, an unrecognized, de facto independent state established on the basis of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast within the Azerbaijan SSR of the Soviet Union. The territory is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, although it has not exercised power over most of the region since 1991. Since the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994, representatives of the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.on the region's status


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The Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the small enclave of Nagorno-KarabakhThe region's names in various languages tend to have the same approximate meaning. The name first originated in Georgian and Persian sources in the 13th and 14th centuries. In Azerbaijani, the name of the region translates to "mountainous Karabakh garden". Armenians also commonly refer to it as Artsakh, an allusion to the tenth province of the ancient Kingdom of Armenia; the name is often seen shortened to simply Karabakh in news sources and books. Other languages such as Russian, French and German refer to the region, respectively, as Nagorny Karabakh, Haut-Karabakh (Upper Karabakh) and Bergkarabach (Mountain-Karabach). in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by the Republic of Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan. As the war progressed, Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former Soviet Republics, entangled themselves in a protracted, undeclared war in the mountainous heights of Karabakh as Azerbaijan attempted to curb the secessionist movement in Nagorno-Karabakh. The enclave's parliament had voted

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The final borders of the conflict after the 1994 ceasefire was signed. Armenian forces of Nagorno-Karabakh currently control almost 9% of Azerbaijan's territory outside the former Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. And Azerbaijani forces control Shahumian and the eastern parts of Martakert and Martuni.

Stepanakert, Capital of the NKR
(www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

he Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) ( '), or Artsakh Republic ( ') is a de facto independent republic located in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of the South Caucasus. It controls most of the territory of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast and several Azerbaijani districts adjacent to the borders of Azerbaijan with Armenia to the west and Iran to the south.Official website of the President of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. General Information about NKR

The predominantly Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh became disputed between Armenia and Azerbaijan when both countries gained independence from the Russian Empire in 1918. After the Soviet Union established control over the area, in 1923 it formed the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) within the Azerbaijan SSR. In the final years of the Soviet Union, the region re-emerged as a source of dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan, culminating in a large ethnic conflict and, eventually, in the Nagorno-Karabakh War that was fought from 1991 to 1994.

On December 10, 1991, as the Soviet Union was collapsing, a referendum held in the NKAO and the neighboring Shahumian region resulted in a declaration of independence from Azerbaijan as the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The country remains unrecognized by any UN-member state, including Armenia. Only Transnistria, a UN non-member recognises the state.

Since the ceasefire in 1994, most of Nagorno-Karabakh and several regions of Azerbaijan around it remain under the joint Armenian and Nagorno-Karabakh military control. Representatives of the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan have since been holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.


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Large monument from tufa of an old Armenian man and woman hewn from rock, representing the mountain people of Karabakh.