Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked ethnic enclave located within western Azerbajian, in the South Caucasus. The region is majority Armenian, yet located completely within Azerbaijan and separated from Armenia proper by a narrow swath of land belonging to Azerbajian. The de facto government of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, has claimed independence from Azerbaijan since 1991; however, its independence is not recognized by any entity in the world, including any other unrecognized states. 

Statistics: The area of Nagorno-Karabakh is 11,458.38 km² (4,424.1 mi² ) -- for comparison, Qatar has an area of 11,586 km² . The declared capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is Stepanakert, home to approximately 50,000 Armenians, and after the Nagorno-Karabakh War of 1994, no Azerbaijanis. According to a 2007 estimate, Nagorno-Karabakh is home to 138,000 residents. For comparison, the island of Guam has a population of 178,000.The majority of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh, being Armenian, follows the Armenian Apostolic Church. The official language is Armenian, though it is a slightly different dialect than what is spoken in Armenia proper, as it has taken on a number of Russian, Turkish, and Persian words.

History: Armenians have inhabited present-day Nagorno-Karabakh for millenia, though the region was ruled by a number of outside powers over time. In ancient times, the Kura-Axares people, named for the Kura and Axares river valleys in the Caucasus, inhabited the region. The area was incorporated into the Kingdom of Armenia as the province of Artsakh from 180 BC until 387 AD, after which Armenia was split between the Roman and Persian empires. Artsakh then fell into the hands of Caucasian Albania before establishing itself as the Kingdom of Artsakh during the medieval era, ruled by the House of Khachen. The rule of the Khachen princes lasted until the 14th century, when the region was again split, this time into Turkish and Iranian tribal confederations. In the 16th century, the Persian Safavid Empire took hold of Karabakh, at first making it a part of the Ganja Khanate, and later in the mid-18th century, giving it de facto independence as the Karabakh Khanate. Finally, in 1823, Persia ceded Karabakh to the Russian Empire under the Treaty of Gulistan. While Russia encouraged Armenian families to emigrate from Persia to Karabakh, Muslim residents of Karabakh emigrated to Persia.

The current conflict began in 1918 when the Soviet Union began to carve up the Caucasus into various states. Joseph Stalin and the Caucasian bureau oversaw the division, with Stalin and his men purposefully playing the area's ethnicities against each other in order to make the Caucasus easier to rule. Armenia and Azerbaijan fought bitterly over their borders from 1918-1920, but the Soviet Union, hoping to one day turn Turkey communist, hoped to please Turkey by awarding Karabakh to Azerbaijan. At this time, 94% of Karabakh's population was Armenian.

The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast was established within the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic in 1923, and hostilities fell quiet for the next six decades. However, in the late 1980s when the Soviet Union began to dissolve, the majority Armenian population began to turn against the Azerbaijan SSR, and started a movement to transfer the autonomous oblast to the Armenian SSR.

Conflict: The original movement to unify Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia began relatively peacefully, sans violence. After expressing dissatisfaction with the 'Azerification' of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Regional Soviet of Karabakh voted in favor of unification with Armenia on February 20th, 1988. This action sparked protests in Baku, and Gorbachev responded to the matter by stating that unification would not only go against the Soviet constitution, but also set a precedent for other territories. By January 1989, known as 'Black January', most of Azerbaijan's ethnic Armenians were fleeing to Armenia, while in turn, most of Armenia's ethnic Azeris fled to Azerbaijan. During the following summer, the Azerbaijan Popular Front was founded, convincing the Azerbaijan SSR to form a railway and air blockade against Armenia in order to punish it economically. Small scale ethnically-motivated conflicts began to take place at this time, until December 1991, after Nagorno-Karabakh declared independence on the 10th and the fall of the Soviet Union on the 25th. After these events, Armenia and Azerbaijan saw no reason not to engage in full-scale war.

The Nagorno-Karabakh war lasted until May 1994, with a loss of over 25,000 lives altogether, and over 750,000 people left as refugees and internally displaced persons. Both sides utilized Soviet-made weaponry and volunteers from around the Soviet Union, although Azerbaijan had the advantage of Afghan mujahideen, as well as assistance from Iran, Turkey, and other Arab nations. The nascent Armenian and Azerbaijani states were not signed to international law agreements, such as the Geneva Conventions, until mid-1993. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch accuse both sides of having committed war crimes, such as the Khojaly Massacare against ethnic Azeris, and the Maraghar Massacre against ethnic Armenians. After the ceasefire, the violence ceased for the most part, but the larger conflict has not yet been resolved.

The Present: Today, Armenia, Karabakh, and Azerbaijan remain littered with landmines, with cities such as Karabakh's Shusha almost entirely leveled from shelling. Azerbaijan continues to have de jure control over the region, while it is de facto controlled by its Armenian population. In 1989, Nagorno-Karabakh was 75% Armenian and 25% Azerbaijani; today, it is 95% Armenian, with virtually no Azerbaijani residents. While Armenia does not officially recognize Nagorno-Karabakh, it supports it economically, particularly through use of the Armenian dram. The Armenian diaspora in the US, Iran, and beyond has also invested in Nagorno-Karabakh and its rebuilding, though it remains devastated and impoverished. 

Fortunately for all involved, both Armenia and Azerbaijan are making efforts toward the peace process. Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian and Azeri President Ilham Aliyev signed an agreement in November 2008 to intensify their efforts to find a peaceful solution to the issue, and in May 2009, the two met in Prague to discuss diplomacy.

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