Flag of the NKR	The NKR Coat of Arms
Map of the region. (Orange area indicates Armenian-occupied territory)

Nagorno-Karabakh (Russian (Нагорный Карабах) form of Azeri-Persian name Qarabağ; (باغ Bagh meaning Garden in Persian). Official Armenian name is Lernayin Gharabagh (Լեռնային Ղարաբաղ) but many Armenians call it Artsakh (Արցախ); in English the name means "Mountainous Black Garden") is a disputed area in the Caucasus. It is claimed by Azerbaijan but is controlled by its ethnic Armenian inhabitants as a de facto independent republic (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic - NKR). The NKR's sovereign status is not recognized by any country in the world except Armenia.

The region's area is 4 400 km&sup2, and as of 1990 it had a population of 192,000. The population was mainly Armenian (76%) and Azeri (23%), with Russian and Kurdish minorities. The capital is Stepanakert (in Armenian, in Azeri called Xankendi (Xankəndi)), and the only other major city is Shusha , parts of which today lie in ruins.

Nagorno-Karabakh comprises one of the historical parts of Alwania, or Caucasian Albania. In 95 BC it was conquered by Tigranes II, ruler of the Kingdom of Armenia. In the early 4th century AD Alwanians managed to regain Artsakh, and eventually in 387 AD it became a part of Alwania again. In the 5th century many Alwanians adopted Christianity from the Armenian Church and established close cultural ties.

In the 7th and 8th century the region was invaded by Arabs, who pillaged it and converted a small portion of the population to Islam. Since the 8th century Alwania diminished in size and came to exist only as a principality of Khachen in Artsakh. In the 11th century Turks destroyed the kingdom of Armenia, but the mountainous regions remained relatively unharmed.

In the early 17th century, control of the district passed to Persia, which allowed local autonomy; and in the mid-18th century the Karabakh khanate was formed. Karabakh passed to the Imperial Russia by the Treaty of Gulistan in 1813, before the rest of Russia-controlled Armenian territories, which were incorporated into the Empire in 1828. In 1822 the Karabakh khanate was dissolved and the area became part of a Russian province which later formed Azerbaijan.

After the Russian Revolution in 1917 Karabakh became part of the Transcaucasian Federation , which soon dissolved into separate Armenian, Azeri and Georgian states. Azerbaijan claimed sovereignty over the province and sought to conquer it with help from the Young Turks. Despite the fact that Turkey was defeated in the course of World War I, Karabakh was subdued by Azerbaijan, with approval from the Allies interested in the oilfields of Baku.

In 1920 Transcaucasia was taken over by the bolsheviks who made promises they will return Karabakh to Armenia, however had no intention to do so as they needed to appease Turkey. The young Turkish respublic was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with Soviet Russia and Moscow hoped Turkey would, with a little help of Russia, develop more along Communist lines. The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region was established as part of the Azerbaijan SSR in 1923 on most of the territory and the rest was directly incorporated.

With the upcoming fall of the USSR the question of Artsakh reemerged. Complaining about forced Azerification of the region, local population started a motion to transfer it to Armenian SSR. In November 1991, seeking to squelch this movement, the Parliament of Azerbaijan abolished the autonomous status of the region, and in response on December 10, 1991 the government of the (abolished) autonomous region held a referendum in which the overwhelming majority of the population voted for outright independence. These events led to pogroms of ethnic Armenians in Sumgait, Baku and elsewhere in Azerbaijan.

In the early 1990s, the region became the center of a war between Armenians and Azerbaijan. The Armenian forces eventually drove the Azeris out of much of the (Soviet-time) Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region and secured the Lachin corridor linking it with the Republic of Armenia and the so-called security zone - strips of Azerbaijan territory along the NKR borders which could be (and were during the war) used by Azeris to shell Armenian villages. After that an unofficial cease-fire was reached on May 12th, 1994 through Russian negotiation.

Today the so-called Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is a de-facto independent state, with a market economy, democratically elected government, and all necessary attributes. It is closely tied to the Republic of Armenia and uses its currency, the dram, however successive Armenian governments have resisted internal pressure to unite the two. Politics of both states are so intermingled that a former President of NKR, Robert Kocharyan has become first Prime Minister (1997) and then the President of Armenia (1998 to the present).

External links

• artsakhworld - An Armenian site about Nagorno-Karabakh
• The official site of the NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Office of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic in the United States
• Resources Related to Karabakh (Armenian)
• Karabakh Travel Guide