Karabakh movement

{{Short description|National liberation movement, 1988–1991}} {{Distinguish|text=[[Armenian national movement|Armenian national movement (1862–1921)]]}} {{pp-extended|small=yes}} {{Infobox civil conflict | title = Karabakh movement | partof = the [[Nagorno-Karabakh conflict]], [[First Nagorno-Karabakh War]] and the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] | image = Artsakh Movement, February 13, 1988.jpg | caption = The first major demonstration in [[Stepanakert]], 13 February 1988 | date = 13 February 1988 — 30 April 1991 | place = [[Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic|Armenian SSR]] (mainly [[Yerevan]]) [[Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast|Nagorno-Karabakh AO]] (mainly [[Stepanakert]]) | goals = Self-determination for the Karabakh Armenians, unification of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia | methods = [[Demonstration (people)|Demonstrations]], [[sit-in]]s, [[Strike action|strikes]], [[hunger strike]], [[student protest]], [[civil disobedience]] | result = Establishment of the [[Nagorno-Karabakh Republic]] Escalation of the [[First Nagorno-Karabakh War]] | side1 = [[Karabakh Committee]] (1988–1989) {{symbol|Armenian national movement.PNG}} [[Pan-Armenian National Movement]] (1989–1991) {{flagdeco|Armenian SSR}}/{{flagdeco|Armenia}} [[Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic|Armenian SSR]]<ref>[[Flag of Armenia]] was adopted on 24 August 1990.</ref> | side2 = {{flag|Soviet Union}} *{{flag|Azerbaijan SSR}} <hr />{{symbol|Emblem of Azerbaijani Popular Front Party.svg}} [[Azerbaijani Popular Front]] | leadfigures1 = '''[[Levon Ter-Petrosyan]]''' [[Vazgen Manukyan]] [[Movses Gorgisyan]] [[Babken Ararktsyan]] [[Igor Muradyan]] | leadfigures2 = {{flagicon|Soviet Union}} '''[[Mikhail Gorbachev]]''' {{flagicon|Azerbaijan SSR}} [[Kamran Baghirov]] {{flagicon|Azerbaijan SSR}} [[Abdurrahman Vazirov]] {{flagicon|Azerbaijan SSR}} [[Ayaz Mutallibov]] <hr />{{symbol|Emblem of Azerbaijani Popular Front Party.svg}} [[Abulfaz Elchibey]] | leadfigures3 = | howmany1 = '''Yerevan''': 200,000 (24-25 February 1988)<ref>{{cite news|title=Soviet Armenia erupts in protests|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=lfYaAAAAIBAJ&pg=6899,3916786&dq=yerevan+portests&hl=en|access-date=16 July 2013|newspaper=[[The Daily News (Kentucky)|The Daily News]]|date=24 February 1988|archive-date=11 August 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220811182552/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=lfYaAAAAIBAJ&pg=6899,3916786&dq=yerevan+portests&hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="ArmeniaUSSRreferendum1988" /> 1 million (26 February 1988)<ref>{{cite news|title=Pravda Talks of Ethnic Woes|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/19/world/pravda-talks-of-ethnic-woes.html|access-date=16 July 2013|newspaper=[[New York Times]]|date=19 April 1988|quote=As many as one million people demonstrated in the Armenian capital of Yerevan in February to demand that Nagorno-Karabakh be made part of Armenia|archive-date=11 August 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220811182553/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/19/world/pravda-talks-of-ethnic-woes.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="ArmeniaUSSRreferendum1988" /> 300,000 (May 1988)<ref>{{cite news|title=Mass Protests Said to Flare In Soviet Armenian Capital|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/31/world/mass-protests-said-to-flare-in-soviet-armenian-capital.html|access-date=16 July 2013|newspaper=[[New York Times]]|date=31 May 1988|archive-date=30 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230530215800/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/31/world/mass-protests-said-to-flare-in-soviet-armenian-capital.html|url-status=live}}</ref> 400,000 (January 1990)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=WYVKAAAAIBAJ&pg=3373,2883235&dq=baku+armenians&hl=en|title=The Press-Courier - Google News Archive Search|website=news.google.com|access-date=2020-09-27|archive-date=2022-12-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221219041646/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=WYVKAAAAIBAJ&pg=3373,2883235&dq=baku+armenians&hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref> '''Stepanakert''': 100,000 (25 February 1988)<ref name="ArmeniaUSSRreferendum1988">[https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/armenians-protest-ussr-s-refusal-honor-nagomo-karabakh-annexation-referendum-1988 Armenians protest USSR’s refusal to honor Nagomo-Karabakh annexation referendum, 1988] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220917135011/https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/armenians-protest-ussr-s-refusal-honor-nagomo-karabakh-annexation-referendum-1988 |date=2022-09-17 }} Matthew Heck, [[Global Nonviolent Action Database]], December 5, 2010</ref> 120,000 (26 February 1988)<ref name="ArmeniaUSSRreferendum1988" /> | howmany2 = | howmany3 = | casualties1 = | casualties2 = | casualties3 = | casualties_label = | notes = }} [[File:Artsakh movement 2013 post stamp.png|thumb|A 2013 post stamp dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the movement showing people with [[raised fist]]s in Yerevan's [[Freedom Square, Yerevan|Theatre Square]] and the [[Yerevan Opera Theatre|Opera Theatre]] in the background in 1988]]

The '''Karabakh movement''' ({{langx|hy|Ղարաբաղյան շարժում}} "''Gharapaghyan sharjhum"''), also known as the '''Artsakh movement'''<ref>{{cite news|title=An event dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Artsakh Movement taken place at the US Congress|url=http://www.nkr.am/en/news/2013-03-13/511/|access-date=4 August 2013|date=13 February 2012|agency=Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nagorno-Karabakh Republic|archive-date=20 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230320184225/http://www.nkr.am/en/news/2013-03-13/511|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=The Artsakh Movement started on this day 25 years ago|url=http://www.armradio.am/en/2013/02/20/the-artsakh-movement-started-on-this-day-25-years-ago/|access-date=4 August 2013|date=20 February 2013|agency=[[Public Radio of Armenia]]|archive-date=17 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160817164732/http://www.armradio.am/en/2013/02/20/the-artsakh-movement-started-on-this-day-25-years-ago/|url-status=live}}</ref> ({{langx|hy|Արցախյան շարժում}}), was a national liberation movement<ref name="Vicken Cheterian">{{cite book |author=Vicken Cheterian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iOCGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA123 |title=War and Peace in the Caucasus Russia's Troubled Frontier |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-78738-186-5 |pages=123 |quote=By June 1989, the Armenian National Movement (Hayots Hamazkayin Sharzhoum, ANM) was formed, transforming the Karabakh Committee into an instrument for the struggle of national independence.}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Anniversary of Karabakh movement reminds Yerevan residents about national idea |url=https://www.eng.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/42438 |access-date=2025-09-17 |website=Caucasian Knot}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Civilnet |date=2018-02-22 |title=Yerevan Photo Exhibit Celebrates 30th Anniversary of Karabakh Movement |url=https://www.civilnet.am/en/news/383782/yerevan-photo-exhibit-celebrates-30th-anniversary-of-karabakh-movement/ |access-date=2025-09-17 |website=CIVILNET |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":05">{{Cite book |last=Paylan |first=Sheila |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/jj.25941162 |title=Contested States in War and Law |date=2025-09-18 |publisher=Bristol University Press |isbn=978-1-5292-4691-9 |editor-last=Grzybowski |editor-first=Janis |pages=107-109 |chapter=Legitimization of Violence and State Dissolution in Nagorno-Karabakh: |doi=10.2307/jj.25941162.10 |quote=The case of Nagorno-Karabakh, by contrast, represents a genuine struggle for self-determination by the ethnic Armenian population, who have long expressed a clear and consistent will to determine their own political status and have sought to achieve this through established democratic processes, such as referendums |editor-last2=Oltramonti |editor-first2=Giulia Prelz |editor-last3=Verdebout |editor-first3=Agatha}}</ref> in [[Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic|Armenia]] and [[Nagorno-Karabakh]] from 1988 to 1991 that advocated for the reunification of the [[Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast]] (NKAO) – an autonomous enclave within [[Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic|Soviet Azerbaijan]] – with [[Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic|Soviet Armenia]]. The movement was motivated by fears of cultural and physical erasure under [[Anti-Armenian sentiment in Azerbaijan#Suppression of Armenian culture in Nagorno-Karabakh|government policies from Azerbaijan]].{{sfn|Malkasian|1996|pp=27–28}}<ref name=":142">{{Cite book |last1=Chorbajian |first1=Levon |title=The Caucasian knot: the history & geopolitics of Nagorno-Karabagh |last2=Donabédian |first2=Patrick |last3=Mutafian |first3=Claude |date=1994 |publisher=Atlantic Highlands, NJ : Zed Books |isbn=978-1-85649-287-4 |series=Politics in contemporary Asia |location=London |page=37}}</ref><ref name="Eduard Abrahamyan2">{{cite book |author=Eduard Abrahamyan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=951ZEQAAQBAJ&pg=PA1964 |title=Small States, Russia and the West Polarity, Constellations and Heterogeneity in the Geopolitics of the Caucasus |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2025 |isbn=978-10-4035016-4 |pages=1964 |quote=The violence prompted the Armenian society of the crumbling Soviet Union of 1990-1991 to act in self-defence, perceiving a 'tangible prospect of looming genocide in Artsakh.'}}</ref> Throughout the Soviet period, [[Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic|Azerbaijani authorities]] implemented policies aimed at suppressing Armenian culture and diluting the Armenian majority in Nagorno-Karabakh through various means, including border manipulations,<ref name=":02">{{harvnb|Saparov|2014|p=116}}: "The solution proposed by the [Karabakh uezdy] conference was similar to previous suggestions, but it also called for the creation of a Karabakh Oblast’, a region that would encompass both mountainous and lowland parts of Karabakh. It offered a way in which the creation of a predominantly Armenian autonomous unit in the mountainous part of the region could be avoided. During 1921, the position of the Azerbaijani leadership regarding Karabakh autonomy had been that suppression of banditry in the region would solve the ethnic conflict, and that there would be no need to grant autonomy to the Armenian-populated part of Karabakh. This tactic was successful in the short term."</ref><ref name="Levon Chorbajian, Patrick Donabédian, Claude Mutafian">{{harvnb|Chorbajian|Mutafian|Donabedian|1994|pp=138–140, 154}}: "The borders were to be drawn before 15 August by a mixed commission...but without the participation of either Yerevan or Moscow. All would be presided over by Karaiev. Under such circumstances, the Armenians could expect to be grossly disappointed. On the one hand...they excluded, on the west, the 'corridor' made up of Lachin, Kelbajar, and Kedabek, which had been carefully emptied of its Armenian population to separate Mountainous Karabagh from Armenian Zangezur. On the other hand, in the north, without any justification, they removed the districts of Shamkhor, Khanlar, Dashkesan and Shahumian.. where the Armenian population was predominant (about 90 per cent)... From Shamkhor in the north to Shahumian in the south, Armenian villages in these districts have been systematically emptied...Mountainous Karabagh delimited in this way is only a portion of what had always been Armenian Karabagh, which itself is only a part of what was included in the ancient Armenian provinces of Artsakh and Utik...The spectre of ‘Nakhichevanization’ haunts...Mountainous Karabagh, which had 125,000 inhabitants in 1926 who were 89 percent Armenian. This region has become an ‘enclave’ since the ‘cleansing’ of the Hagaru Valley in order to separate Karabagh from Zangezur by a narrow strip emptied of Armenians...Azerbaijan still contained a large Armenian minority. Aside from the ‘bastion’ of the Autonomous Region of Mountainous Karabagh, Armenians were numerous in Baku and in the region north of the Autonomous Region, up to Shamkhor, where the Armenian villages had been deliberately left outside the frontiers drawn in 1923 and, thereby, subjected to direct Azerbaijani authority. From north to south, these areas had already largely been ‘swept clean,’ with the exception of the area of Shahumian, the northern gateway to the Autonomous Region. The Azerbaijani plan was clearly described in the declaration by the Karabagh Committee on 2 December 1988: 'Exploiting the anarchic situation, the Azerbaijani authorities are about to unleash a monstrous programme: to expel Armenians from their several millennia old homes in Gandzak and the areas north of Artsakh, in preparation for an invasion of Mountainous Karabagh.' Already about 120,000 Armenians have left Azerbaijan, and 50,000 have sought refuge in Armenia and the others in the North Caucasus and Central Asia."</ref><ref name="Christopher J. Walker">{{cite book |author=Walker |first=Christopher |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Armenia&pg=PA |title=Armenia: A Very Brief History |publisher=Rouben Galichian, 2022 |year= |isbn=978-9939-68-926-5 |page=41 |quote=The borders between Armenia and Artsakh were manipulated such that Armenia could have no direct link with Artsakh.}}</ref> encouraging the exodus of Armenians, and settling Azerbaijanis in the region.<ref name=":13">{{Cite journal |last=Hein |first=Patrick |date=7 April 2024 |title=From Stalin to the Aliyev clan: 70 years of hindered autonomy in Nagorno-Karabakh |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sena.12420 |journal=Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism |language=en |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=197–215 |doi=10.1111/sena.12420 |issn=1473-8481 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref name="Patrick Wilson Gore">{{cite book |author=Patrick Wilson Gore |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tis_Some_Poor_Fellow_s_Skull&pg=PA |title='Tis Some Poor Fellow's Skull Post-Soviet Warfare in the Southern Caucasus |publisher=iUniverse |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-595-48679-3 |page=xii |quote=So after the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh that the Azeris undertook in 1991, Azeris...were settled in formerly Armenian towns and villages to reduce the oblast's overwhelmingly Armenian complexion.}}</ref> In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, Armenians protested against Azerbaijan's cultural and economic marginalization<ref>Broers, Laurence, ed. ''[https://rc-services-assets.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/The_limits_of_leadership_Elites_and_societies_in_the_Nagorny_Karabakh_peace_process_Accord_Issue_17.pdf The limits of leadership: Elites and societies in the Nagorny Karabakh peace process]''. Conciliation Resources, 2005. p.93</ref>{{sfn|Suny|1993|pp=192-194}}{{sfn|Zürcher|2007|p=154}} The concept of reunification (“[[Miatsum]]”) was so deeply embedded among Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh that the region was almost universally regarded as an integral part of Armenia rather than a distinct entity.<ref name="Eduard Abrahamyan22">{{cite book |author=Eduard Abrahamyan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=951ZEQAAQBAJ&pg=PA1964|title=Small States, Russia and the West Polarity, Constellations and Heterogeneity in the Geopolitics of the Caucasus|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2025|isbn=978-10-4035016-4|pages=1964}}</ref>

Armenians had petitioned [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] authorities to transfer the mostly Armenian-populated [[Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast]] (NKAO) in [[Azerbaijan SSR|Azerbaijan]] to [[Armenian SSR|Armenia]]. By 1988, nearly one million Armenians from several regions of the republic engaged in regular demonstrations, centered on Yerevan's Theater Square (today [[Freedom Square, Yerevan|Freedom Square]]).{{sfn|Malkasian|1996|p=41}}

The [[Karabakh Committee]], a group of ethnic Armenian intellectuals from Armenia along with the Karabakh-based local group "Krunk", led the movement.<ref name="Vicken Cheterian2">{{cite book |author=Vicken Cheterian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iOCGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA123 |title=War and Peace in the Caucasus |publisher=Hurst |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-78738-186-5 |pages=123 |quote=During the spring and summer of 1988, a new leadership was formed known as the Karabakh Committee, which directed the mass movement. At its head were Levon Ter-Petrossian and Vazgen Manuian, who later became the first president and prime minister of independent Armenia. By June 1989, the Armenian National Movement (Hayots Hamazkayin Sharzhoum, ANM) was formed, transforming the Karabakh Committee into an instrument for the struggle of national independence.}}</ref> After 1989, the movement transformed into the [[Pan-Armenian National Movement]] (HHSh) and won majority in the 1990 parliamentary election. In 1991, both Armenia and [[1991 Nagorno-Karabakh independence referendum|Nagorno-Karabakh]] declared independence from the [[Soviet Union]]. A referendum in 1988 was held to transfer the region to [[Soviet Armenia]], citing [[self-determination]] laws in the [[1977 Constitution of the Soviet Union|Soviet constitution]].{{efn|According to the [[Constitution of the USSR]], if a [[Republics of the Soviet Union|union republic]] voted to leave the [[Soviet Union]], its [[Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics|autonomous republics]], [[Oblasts of the Soviet Union|autonomous oblasts]], and [[Autonomous okrugs of the Soviet Union|autonomous okrugs]] had the right to hold their own [[referendum]]s to independently decide whether to remain in the USSR or to leave alongside the seceding union republic. They also had the right to raise questions regarding their own state-legal status.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://docs.cntd.ru/document/902002993|title=СОЮЗ СОВЕТСКИХ СОЦИАЛИСТИЧЕСКИХ РЕСПУБЛИК. ЗАКОН О порядке решения вопросов, связанных с выходом союзной республики из СССР|language=ru|access-date=13 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160912024819/https://docs.cntd.ru/document/902002993|archive-date=12 September 2016}}</ref>}} This act was met with a [[Anti-Armenian sentiment in Azerbaijan#During the Karabakh Movement (1988-1992)|series of pogroms against Armenians across Azerbaijan]], and in November 1991, the Azerbaijani government [[Law on Abolishment of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast|passed a motion aimed at abolishing the autonomy of the NKAO]] and prohibiting the use of Armenian placenames in the region.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Harzl |first=Benedikt |title=Secessionist Entities and International Law: The South Caucasus Disputes between Self-Determination, Territorial Integrity, and the Quest for a European Engagement Policy |date=2025 |publisher=Brill {{!}} Nijhoff |isbn=978-90-04-68710-3 |series=Human Rights and Humanitarian Law E-Books Online, Collection 2025 |location=Leiden Boston |pages=390 |quote=On 23 November 1991, when the National Assembly of Azerbaijan adopted the Law 'About Abolition of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region of the Azerbaijan Republic' This law not only revoked the autonomy arrangement of 1980, but also provided for culturally driven ethnic cleansing by returning alleged ‘historical names’ to the cities of Stepanakert, Mardakert, and Martuni, which was tantamount to prohibiting the use of their Armenian names and allowing only their Azerbaijani names (ibid., Art. 2).}}</ref> Initially, the movement relied on non-violent means, including petitions, marches, vigils, hunger strikes, demonstrations, and general strikes, and was met with anti-Armenian violence.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Making of Nagorno-Karabagh: From Secession to Republic |date=2001 |publisher=Palgrave |isbn=978-1-349-41594-6 |editor-last=Chorbajian |editor-first=Levon |location=Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire New York |quote=Armenians raised the issue of Karabagh in a peaceful manner during 1987 and 1988. They employed time honored means of non-violent resistance including petitions, marches, vigils, hunger strikes, demonstrations, rallies and general strikes. These actions were met with extreme violence, first in the Azerbaijani industrial city of Sumgait in late February of 1988. |editor-last2=ebrary, Inc}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Report |first=E. V. N. |date=2018-01-26 |title=Karabakh Movement 88: A Chronology of Events on the Road to Independence |url=https://evnreport.com/spotlight-karabakh/karabakh-movement-88-a-chronology-of-events-on-the-road-to-independence/ |access-date=2026-02-23 |website=EVN Report |language=en-US}}</ref> By 1992, the conflict had escalated into the [[First Nagorno-Karabakh War]].

Up until the [[2018 Armenian Revolution]], the Karabakh Movement was the largest mass movement in Armenian history.<ref>{{cite book |author= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fSX4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA53 |title=Armenia's Velvet Revolution | date=3 September 2020 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-78831-719-1 |pages=53}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Panossian |first=Razmik |author-link=Razmik Panossian |url=https://archive.org/details/armeniansfromkin00razm/page/385 |title=The Armenians: From Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2006 |isbn=9780231139267 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/armeniansfromkin00razm/page/385 385] |quote=The Gharabagh movement in Armenia—as mobilised for and through the issue of the enclave’s unification to the republic—is a prime example of a mass national movement.}}</ref> It was also the largest instance of public mobilization in the [[Soviet Union]] since its formative years in the 1920s.<ref name=":8">{{Cite book |title=The Making of Nagorno-Karabagh: From Secession to Republic |date=2001 |publisher=Palgrave |isbn=978-1-349-41594-6 |editor-last=Chorbajian |editor-first=Levon |location=Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire New York |pages=xi,1 |editor-last2=ebrary, Inc}}</ref><ref name=":7" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Archives |first=L. A. Times |date=1988-02-23 |title=120,000 Soviet Armenians Reported in Land Protest : Return of Territory Demanded |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-02-23-mn-44763-story.html |access-date=2026-02-23 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> At one point in the movement, up to a million protestors were mobilized in Yerevan.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Central Intelligence Agency |date=August 1, 1988 |title=Unrest in the Caucasus and the Challenges of Nationalism |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp91b00776r000600150001-9 |archive-url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP91B00776R000600150001-9.pdf |archive-date=23 February 2026 |access-date=23 February 2026 |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency — FOIA Electronic Reading Room |type=CREST |format=PDF |quote=The size of the crowds in Yerevan grew to close to a million, with the uninhibited influx of thousands from throughout the republic. |location=General CIA Records}}</ref><ref name=":10" />

Azerbaijan's inability to suppress the Karabakh Movement has significantly influenced [[Azerbaijani nationalism|Azeri nationalism]],<ref>{{cite web |last=Polonski |first=Andrei |script-title=ru:Ислам в контексте общественной жизни современного Азербайджана |url=http://his.1september.ru/1999/his28.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140622192852/http://his.1september.ru/1999/his28.htm |archive-date=22 June 2014 |access-date=22 January 2013 |publisher=Газета "История". № 28/1999. Издательский дом "Первое сентября" |language=ru |quote=Обстоятельства благоприятствовали абстрактным размышлениям интеллектуалов о национальных корнях, об истории и традиции, о своем месте и миссии в мире. Впрочем, в Азербайджане расслабленного гуманизма было меньше, чем в большинстве республик СССР. Карабахский кризис и нарастающая армянофобия способствовали формированию устойчивого образа врага, который в известной степени повлиял на характер новой идентичности (первоначально агрессивно-победительной).}}</ref> which is widely considered [[Anti-Armenian sentiment in Azerbaijan|institutionally anti-Armenian]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2 August 2011 |title="Первый и неразрешимый" |url=https://vz.ru/opinions/2011/8/2/511811.html |access-date=2025-07-15 |website=ВЗГЛЯД.РУ |language=ru}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Jeremy |title=Red nations: the nationalities experience in and after the USSR |date=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-12870-4 |location=Cambridge |page=296}}</ref><ref name=":32">{{Citation |last=Astourian |first=Stephan H. |title=Origins, Main Themes and Underlying Psychological Disposition of Azerbaijani Nationalism |date=2023-12-05 |work=Monuments and Identities in the Caucasus |page=222 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/9789004677388/BP000009.xml |access-date=2025-07-15 |publisher=Brill |language=en |doi=10.1163/9789004677388_010 |isbn=978-90-04-67738-8 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

==Background== {{See also|Anti-Armenian sentiment in Azerbaijan}} During the Soviet Era, the Armenians of Nakhichevan<ref>{{Citation |last=Mutafian |first=Claude |title=Survey of Historical Geography of the South Caucasus from the Middle Ages to the Present Day |date=2023-12-05 |work=Monuments and Identities in the Caucasus |pages=30–32 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/9789004677388/BP000002.xml |access-date=2025-07-16 |publisher=Brill |language=en |doi=10.1163/9789004677388_003 |isbn=978-90-04-67738-8 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> and of [[Lachin#Early history|Lachin]]<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Chorbajian |first1=Levon |title=The Caucasian knot: the history and geopolitics of Nagorno-Karabagh |last2=Donabédian |first2=Patrick |last3=Mutafian |first3=Claude |date=1994 |publisher=Zed Books |isbn=978-1-85649-288-1 |series=Politics in contemporary Asia |location=London |pages=136}}</ref> were subjected to gradual [[Armenians in Nakhchivan#Ethnic cleansing|ethnic cleansing by Soviet Azeri authorities]]<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Herzig |first1=Edmund |url=https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203004937 |title=The Armenians |last2=Kurkchiyan |first2=Marina |date=2004-11-10 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-203-00493-7 |pages=151 |doi=10.4324/9780203004937}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Dorfmann-Lazarev |first=Igor |title=Stalin's Legacy in the Post-Soviet Nations and the Genesis of Nationalist Extremism in Azerbaijan |date=2023-12-05 |work=Monuments and Identities in the Caucasus |pages=254–255 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/9789004677388/BP000010.xml |access-date=2025-07-16 |publisher=Brill |language=en |doi=10.1163/9789004677388_011 |isbn=978-90-04-67738-8 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The Making of Nagorno-Karabagh: From Secession to Republic |date=2001 |publisher=Palgrave |isbn=978-1-349-41594-6 |editor-last=Chorbajian |editor-first=Levon |location=Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire New York |pages=210–212 |editor-last2=ebrary, Inc}}</ref> resulting in the exodus of all Armenians from the region. During the Soviet Era, Armenians were scapegoated for state, societal and economic shortcomings in Azerbaijan.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Alexandre Bennigsen]], S. Enders Wimbush |title=Muslims of the Soviet empire: a guide |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=1986 |isbn=9780253339584 |location=Bloomington |page=145 |quote=The Armenian presence is strongly felt by Azeris traditionally, the Azeri elite have regarded the Armenians as rivals. Before and during the Revolution this anti-Armenianism was the basis of Azeri nationalism, and under the Soviet regime Armenians remain the scapegoats who are responsible for every failure.}}</ref><ref name=":32"/> The Karabakh Movement is characterized as a struggle for [[Wars of national liberation|national liberation]] by both Armenians<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-02-20 |title=Artsakh Marks "Karabakh Movement's" 35th Anniversary |url=https://hetq.am/en/article/153387 |access-date=2025-09-19 |website=Hetq.am |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Parks |first=Michael |date=1989-11-06 |title=Nationalists in Armenia Form New Movement |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-11-06-mn-687-story.html |access-date=2025-09-19 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Artsakh |url=https://www.armenianmuseum.org/artsakh |access-date=2025-09-19 |website=Armenian Museum of America |language=en-US}}</ref> and others.<ref name="Vicken Cheterian2" /><ref name="Vicken Cheterian" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> The concept of reunification (“[[Miatsum]]”) was so deeply embedded among Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh that the region was almost universally regarded as an integral part of Armenia rather than a distinct entity.<ref name="Eduard Abrahamyan22" /> Nagorno-Karabakh was unique in the Soviet Union as the only [[Autonomous oblast|autonomous region]] whose ethnic majority matched that of a neighboring republic (Armenia) but was not allowed to join it.<ref>{{Citation |last=Suny |first=Ronald Grigor |title=Nationalism and Democracy in Gorbachev’s Soviet Union: The Case of Karabagh |date=2018-02-06 |work=The Soviet Nationality Reader |pages=487 |editor-last=Denber |editor-first=Rachel |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429964381/chapters/10.4324/9780429495830-26 |access-date=2026-02-23 |edition=1 |publisher=Routledge |language=en |doi=10.4324/9780429495830-26 |isbn=978-0-429-49583-0|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Building on these grievances, Armenian intellectuals within the Karabakh Movement also rejected the long-standing belief that Armenia’s membership of the USSR was necessary for protection against Turkey. Up until Armenia's incorporation into the Soviet Union, the Republic of Turkey and its Ottoman predecessor had aimed at [[Turkish invasion of Armenia|eliminating Armenia]]<ref name="Karabekir 1960 901">{{cite book |last=Karabekir |first=Kâzim |url=https://tr.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Dosya:%C4%B0stiklal_Harbimiz.pdf |title=İstiklâl Harbimiz |publisher=Türkiye Yayinevi |year=1960 |page=901 |language=tr}}</ref><ref name="Safrastyan 2019 88">{{cite book |last=Safrastyan |first=Ruben |author-link=Ruben Safrastyan |url=https://www.academia.edu/43051073 |title=Մուսթաֆա Քեմալ. Պայքար Հայաստանի Հանրապետության դեմ (1919-1921 թթ.) |publisher=Տիր |year=2019 |isbn=978-9939-865-56-0 |location=Yerevan |pages=87–90 |language=hy}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite book |last1=Kévorkian |first1=Raymond |title=Collective and State Violence in Turkey: The Construction of a National Identity from Empire to Nation-State |date=2020 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=978-1-78920-451-3 |pages=164–165 |language=en |chapter=The Final Phase: The Cleansing of Armenian and Greek Survivors, 1919–1922 |authorlink=Raymond Kévorkian}}</ref><ref name=":33">{{cite book |last1=Nichanian |first1=Mikaël |author1-link=:fr:Mikaël Nichanian |title=Détruire les Arméniens. Histoire d'un génocide |date=2015 |publisher=[[Presses Universitaires de France]] |isbn=978-2-13-062617-6 |pages=238 |language=fr |trans-title=Destroying the Armenians: History of a Genocide}}</ref> and transforming it into [[Treaty of Alexandropol|a Turkish protectorate or vassal state]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mdePAgAAQBAJ&dq=The+remaining+terms+effectively+made+Armenia+a+vassal+of+Turkey&pg=PT144 |title=The Armenians: past and present in the making of national identity |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group |isbn=978-1-138-87458-9 |editor-last=Herzig |editor-first=Edmund |edition=First issued in paperback |series=Caucasus world: peoples of the Caucasus |location=London New York |editor-last2=Kurkchiyan |editor-first2=Marina}}</ref><ref name=":15">Walker, Christopher J., ed. ''Armenia and Karabagh: The struggle for unity''. Minority Rights Group, 1991. p. 134-135,106</ref> Led by figures such as [[Levon Ter-Petrosyan]] and [[Vazgen Manukyan]], Armenian intellectuals aimed for complete independence and the possibility of peaceful coexistence with neighboring states, marking a fundamental shift in Armenian political thought.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cheterian |first=Vicken |date=2018-07-03 |title=The Uses and Abuses of History: Genocide and the Making of the Karabakh Conflict |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09668136.2018.1489634 |journal=Europe-Asia Studies |language=en |volume=70 |issue=6 |pages=884–903 |doi=10.1080/09668136.2018.1489634 |issn=0966-8136|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

=== Suppression of Armenian culture in Nagorno-Karabakh === Although the Karabakh Movement came to a flashpoint in 1988, its origins date back to the 1920s, during which it was suppressed by the Soviet authorities.<ref>{{Cite web |last=amartikian |date=2023-02-20 |title=Karabakh movement: "From the desire for freedom to its loss" |url=https://jam-news.net/35th-anniversary-of-the-karabakh-movement/ |access-date=2025-09-19 |website=Jamnews in English |language=en-US}}</ref> For decades, an underground movement in Nagorno-Karabakh sought unification with Armenia. During periods of political easing or major change in the USSR—such as in 1945, 1965, and 1977—Armenians submitted letters and petitions to Moscow requesting that Nagorno-Karabakh be transferred to Soviet Armenia.<ref>{{Cite book |last=De Waal |first=Thomas |title=Black garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through peace and war |date=2003 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=978-0-8147-1944-2 |location=New York |page=16}}</ref>

Between 1921 and 1990, under the control of the [[Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic|Azerbaijan SSR]] within the USSR, Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh faced economic marginalization, deportation,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Dorfmann-Lazarev |first1=Igor |url=https://brill.com/view/title/68142 |title=Monuments and Identities in the Caucasus: Karabagh, Nakhichevan and Azerbaijan in Contemporary Geopolitical Conflict |last2=Khatchadourian |first2=Haroutioun |date=2023-12-14 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-67737-1 |pages=1–11 |doi=10.1163/9789004677388_002 |quote=The promotion of Azerbaijan's Turkish-speaking majority to the status of sole titular nation was accompanied by the persecution of peoples of different ethnic origins rooted in the same territory.... Mir Dzhafar Bağırov, already elected First Secretary of Azerbaijan's Communist Party...was responsible for the deportation of numerous minority groups, the suppression of their languages, and the systemic discrimination against Armenians.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230508965 |title=The Making of Nagorno-Karabagh |date=2001 |isbn=978-1-349-41594-6 |editor-last=Chorbajian |editor-first=Levon |pages=210–212 |doi=10.1057/9780230508965}}</ref> and cultural discrimination,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Huttenbach |first=Henry R. |date=June 1997 |title=Levon Chorbajian, Patrick Donabedian and Claude Mutafian, The Caucasian Knot: The History and Geopolitics of Nagorno-Karabagh. London: Zed Books, 1994, xx, 173 pp., appendices and index. |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/s0090599200004669 |journal=Nationalities Papers |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=140–143 |doi=10.1017/s0090599200004669 |issn=0090-5992 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> leading to a significant exodus.<ref name=":03">{{Cite journal |last=Yamskov |first=A. N. |date=1991 |title=Ethnic Conflict in the Transcausasus: The Case of Nagorno-Karabakh |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/657781 |journal=Theory and Society |volume=20 |issue=5 |pages=631–660 |doi=10.1007/BF00232663 |issn=0304-2421 |jstor=657781 |s2cid=140492606 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>Laurila, Juhani. [https://publications.bof.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/45048/92219.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y "Power Politics and Oil as Determinants of Transition: the case of Azerbaijan."] (1999). "The Azerbaijanis can be accused of depriving the 130 000 Armenians living in the Nogorno-Karabakh of their possibilities to watch TV broadcasts from Yerevan, of their right to study Armenian history and their access to Armenian literature. The Azerbaijani government, too, can be said to have conducted racial, cultural and economic discrimination against the Nagorno Karabakh Armenians. Over 80 000 Nagorno-Karabakh residents signed an address asking for annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. Based on this address the Council of Representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh turned to Supreme Council of the USSR, Azerbaijan and Armenia with request to transfer the Nagorno-Karabakh under Armenia."</ref> Meanwhile, authorities encouraged the inflow of Azeris from outside Nagorno-Karabakh.<ref>Starovotova, Galina Vasilevna. ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20150905002501/https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/pwks19.pdf Sovereignty after empire: self-determination movements in the former Soviet Union]''. Vol. 31. No. 19. US Institute of Peace, 1997. "Limited employment opportunities and discrimination against Armenians contributed to the gradual emigration of the Armenian population from the region, while republican authorities encouraged the inflow of Azeris from outside Nagorno-Karabakh."</ref> This policy – sometimes called a "[[White genocide (Armenians)|White Genocide]]"{{sfn|Malkasian|1996|p=56}}<ref>Tsypylma Darieva, Wolfgang Kaschuba. ''Representations on the Margins of Europe: Politics and Identities in the Baltic and South Caucasian States'', Campus Verlag GmbH, 2007, {{ISBN|9783593382418}}, p. 111 "Thus, the notion of 'genocide', as perceived by the people, included the expressions 'white genocide' (bearing in mind the example of the ethnic cleansing of Nakhichevan and Nagorno- Karabagh of Armenians)...".</ref><ref>Ole Høiris, Sefa Martin Yürükel. ''Contrasts and solutions in the Caucasus'', Aarhus Univ. Press, 1998, {{ISBN|9788772887081}}, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=dOloAAAAMAAJ&q=%22White+Genocide%22+armenian 234] "...the Azerbaijanization of Nakhichevan is called a 'white genocide', that is, one that operates by erasure of evidence of Armenian residence"</ref> – aimed at "de-Armenizing" the territory culturally and then physically and followed a similar pattern to Azerbaijan's treatment of [[Armenians in Nakhchivan]].<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |title=Armenia and Karabagh: the struggle for unity |date=1991 |publisher=Minority Rights Group |isbn=978-1-873194-00-3 |editor-last=Walker |editor-first=Christopher J. |series=Minority Rights Publications |location=London |quote="[The exodus of many Armenians is] not a matter of chance, but is due to the persistent policy of Baku, whose aim is to 'Nakhichevanize' the territory, to de-Armenize it, first culturally and then physically."}}</ref> Census data from the Soviet period reflects these demographic shifts. The city of [[Shusha]]—once a major center of Armenian cultural life within Nagorno-Karabakh—became overwhelmingly Azerbaijani. In 1959, Armenians constituted 84.4% of Nagorno-Karabagh’s population; twenty years later, their share had fallen to 76%.<ref>{{Citation |last=Suny |first=Ronald Grigor |title=Nationalism and Democracy in Gorbachev’s Soviet Union: The Case of Karabagh |date=2018-02-06 |work=The Soviet Nationality Reader |pages=488 |editor-last=Denber |editor-first=Rachel |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429964381/chapters/10.4324/9780429495830-26 |access-date=2026-02-27 |edition=1 |publisher=Routledge |language=en |doi=10.4324/9780429495830-26 |isbn=978-0-429-49583-0|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The suppression of Armenian language and culture was widespread; many Armenian churches, cemeteries, and schools were closed or destroyed, clerics arrested, and Armenian historical education was banned.<ref>Chorbajian, Levon. ''The making of Nagorno-Karabagh: from secession to republic''. Springer, 2001. "There was overwhelming evidence demonstrating the existence of anti-Armenian policy in Nagorno-Karabagh sanctioned by Azerbaijan. Accounts of forced migrations and resettlement were substantiated by the decreasing and increasing percentage of Armenians and Azeris respectively in the population.61 The lack of economic development and demographic manipulations had been accompanied by cultural suppression. In the 1930s, 118 Armenian churches were closed, clerics arrested and text- books on Armenian history banned from schools. During the 1960s, 28 Armenian schools were closed, churches and cemeteries destroyed and Azeri was imposed as the official language of the republic. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, cultural ties with Armenia were severed and Azeris began to be appointed in Nagorno-Karabagh’s law enforcement and economic bodies."</ref> The Armenian educational institutions that remained were under the administration of the Azeri Ministry of Education, which enforced prohibitions against teaching Armenian history and using Armenian materials and led to a curriculum that significantly differed from that of Armenia itself.<ref name=":12" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Ethnicity, Nationalism and Conflict in the South Caucasus: Nagorno-Karabakh and the Legacy of Soviet Nationalities Policy |url=https://www.routledge.com/Ethnicity-Nationalism-and-Conflict-in-the-South-Caucasus-Nagorno-Karabakh/Geukjian/p/book/9781138279032 |access-date=2024-01-29 |website=Routledge & CRC Press |language=en |quote=The Armenian schools were attached to the Azerbaijani Ministry of Education and were prohibited from teaching Armenian history. The employed staff was Azerbaijani. Armenian books and journals from neighbouring Armenia and the Armenian diaspora were totally banned. These measures were taken to ‘hamper Armenian cultural development’ in N-K [Nagorno-Karabakh].}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Ethnicity, Nationalism and Conflict in the South Caucasus: Nagorno-Karabakh and the Legacy of Soviet Nationalities Policy |url=https://www.routledge.com/Ethnicity-Nationalism-and-Conflict-in-the-South-Caucasus-Nagorno-Karabakh/Geukjian/p/book/9781138279032 |access-date=2024-01-29 |website=Routledge & CRC Press |language=en |quote="80 per cent of the population of Mountainous Karabakh are Armenians and they constitute about 130,000 individuals. The region is about 4500 square kilometers. There are 187 Armenian schools, which unfortunately are administered not by the Ministry of Education of Armenia, but that of Azerbaijan, in which there is not a single inspector or a single person who knows Armenian. This is a very dangerous thing and it is harming us."}}</ref> Moreover, restrictions limited cultural exchanges and communication between Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians and Armenia, with significant neglect in transportation and communication infrastructure.<ref name=":03" /> Health clinics were restricted from Armenian villages and limited to Azerbaijani villages.<ref name="John Wright, Richard Schofield, Suzanne Goldenberg">{{cite book |author=John Wright, Richard Schofield, Suzanne Goldenberg |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P_2NAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA102 |title=Transcaucasian Boundaries |publisher=Routledge |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-135-36850-0 |pages=102 |quote=The Azerbaijani authorities in effect ran an apartheid system in Karabakh, and the Armenian population decreased as a result...The use of the Armenian language in education was chauvinistically restricted by Azerbaijani authorities, and television programmes were in either Russian or Turki. Health clinics were for Azerbaijani villages, not Armenian.}}</ref> In 1936, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia [[Aghasi Khanjian]] was murdered by the deputy head (and soon head) of the [[NKVD]] [[Lavrentiy Beria]] after submitting Armenian grievances to Stalin, which included requests to return Nagorno-Karabakh and Nakhichevan to Armenia.{{sfn|Libaridian|1988|p=150}}

The Azerbaijani government's decree in 1957 that Azerbaijani was to be the main language and the alteration of educational content to favor Azerbaijani history over Armenian exemplify the systemic efforts to assimilate the Armenian population culturally.{{sfn|Malkasian|1996|pp=27-28}} The 1981 "law of the NKAO" denied additional rights, restricted cultural connections between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, and removed provisions that had explicitly listed Armenian as a working language to be used by local authorities.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ethnicity, Nationalism and Conflict in the South Caucasus: Nagorno-Karabakh and the Legacy of Soviet Nationalities Policy |url=https://www.routledge.com/Ethnicity-Nationalism-and-Conflict-in-the-South-Caucasus-Nagorno-Karabakh/Geukjian/p/book/9781138279032 |access-date=2024-01-29 |website=Routledge & CRC Press |page=109 |language=en}}</ref> Resentment against what was perceived as a forced "Azerification" campaign led to a mass movement for reunification with Armenia.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Armenia and Azerbaijan: Between war and peace {{!}} Think Tank {{!}} European Parliament |url=https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document/EPRS_BRI(2023)747919 |access-date=2024-02-07 |website=www.europarl.europa.eu |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Palmer |first=James |date=2024-02-12 |title=Why Are Armenia and Azerbaijan Heading to War? |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/09/28/why-are-armenia-azerbaijan-heading-to-war-nagorno-karabakh/ |access-date=2024-02-07 |website=Foreign Policy |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=30 September 2020 |title=Conflict in the Caucasus |url=https://www.ft.com/content/47c6ef77-1f84-48e6-81a3-83ad11d078b7 |access-date=2024-02-07 |website=www.ft.com}}</ref>

== Escalation of movement in 1988 == The beginning of the movement is widely considered to have escalated on February 13 when the first major demonstration occurred in [[Stepanakert]], Nagorno-Karabakh.{{sfn|Malkasian|1996|p=29}}<ref name=":3" /> Several hundred Karabakh Armenians held an unsanctioned rally in Lenin Square calling for unification with Armenia. Addressing the crowd, actress Zhanna Galstian said she felt happy "because by coming out here, the Karabakhi has killed the slave in himself," prompting chants of "Miatsum!" ("Unity!").<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=De Waal |first=Thomas |title=Black garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through peace and war |date=2003 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=978-0-8147-1944-2 |location=New York |pages=11}}</ref> On 15 February 1988, during a gathering of the Armenian Writers’ Union—one of the most vocal organizations in the country—the poet Silva Kaputikian voiced her backing for the Armenians of Karabakh.<ref>{{Cite book |last=De Waal |first=Thomas |title=Black garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through peace and war |date=2003 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=978-0-8147-1944-2 |location=New York |pages=22}}</ref> On 20 February 1988, just before the Regional Soviet convened in Stepanakert, 30,000 people gathered in protest in [[Freedom Square, Yerevan|Freedom Square]], and the crowd doubled each day. By 22 February, the protests in Stepanakert exceeded 100,000, rose to about 300,000 the following day, and a transport strike was launched in Yerevan.<ref name=":9">{{Cite book |last=De Waal |first=Thomas |title=Black garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through peace and war |date=2004 |publisher=New York Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-8147-1944-2 |edition=1st publ. in paperback |location=New York |pages=23}}</ref> The unprecedented mass rallies swept both the Armenian SSR and the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, marking the largest public mobilization seen in the Soviet Union since the 1920s.<ref name=":8" />

On 20 February 1988, the Soviet of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region voted 110-17 in favor of uniting with Armenia.<ref>{{Citation |last=Suny |first=Ronald Grigor |title=Nationalism and Democracy in Gorbachev’s Soviet Union: The Case of Karabagh |date=2018-02-06 |work=The Soviet Nationality Reader |pages=491 |editor-last=Denber |editor-first=Rachel |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429964381/chapters/10.4324/9780429495830-26 |access-date=2026-02-26 |edition=1 |publisher=Routledge |language=en |doi=10.4324/9780429495830-26 |isbn=978-0-429-49583-0|url-access=subscription }}</ref> adopting a resolution "welcoming the wishes of the workers" and calling on higher authorities to show "deep understanding of the aspirations of the Armenian population."<ref name=":7" /> Though couched in formal language, the measure effectively sought the region’s transfer from Soviet Azerbaijan to Soviet Armenia, amounting to a challenge to established Soviet internal borders. According to the journalist [[Thomas de Waal]], this resolution was "truly revolutionary" since "the Karabakh Armenians were, in effect, making politics from below for the first time in the [[Soviet Union]] since the 1920s."<ref name=":7" />

In March 1988, Armenian radicals created "Krunk"—named after the crane as a symbol of longing for Armenia—and it became the first organization in the late Soviet Union to deploy strikes as a political weapon. [[Levon Ter-Petrosyan|Levon Ter-Petrosian]], the first prime minister of Armenia, later acknowledged that unification with Armenia was the catalyst of the 1988 movement but not necessarily its ultimate objective. He described a split between early activists who sought to resolve Karabakh within the Soviet system and those who concluded that the system itself had to be transformed in order to solve the issue.

In the first half of 1988, strikes shut down factories in Nagorno-Karabakh and started to disrupt the tightly interconnected Soviet command economy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=De Waal |first=Thomas |title=Black garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through peace and war |date=2003 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=978-0-8147-1944-2 |location=New York |pages=67-68}}</ref>

== Response by the central government of the Soviet Union == The central Soviet government responded to the Karabakh Movement by attempting to contain the crisis without altering republican borders, pairing limited administrative and economic measures with growing reliance on force. In July 1988, the USSR Supreme Soviet’s Presidium rejected demands to transfer Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan to Armenia on constitutional grounds. As violence escalated, Moscow deployed internal troops and security forces, imposed emergency measures in affected areas, and in 1991 participated in [[Operation Ring]]—a joint Soviet–Azerbaijani campaign that involved mass arrests and the forced removal of Armenian villagers from multiple settlements within Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding areas. The USSR never recognized either unification with Armenia or Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence.

The [[Politburo]] initially rejected the demands of the Regional Soviet of Nagorno-Karabakh and portrayed the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh as disloyal "extremists." The [[Politburo|Politburo’s]] adviser on nationalities, [[Vyacheslav Molotov|Vyacheslav Mikhailov]], later stated, "This was something completely new for us." The movement came from within a Soviet institution, and Karabakh Armenians argued they were simply reviving Lenin’s slogan, "All power to the Soviets."<ref>{{Cite book |last=De Waal |first=Thomas |title=Black garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through peace and war |date=2003 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=978-0-8147-1944-2 |location=New York |pages=13}}</ref>

On 3 March 1988, [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] (the leader of the Soviet Union) told the [[Politburo]] that it had failed to recognize clear warning signs. He noted that although the Central Committee had received five hundred letters about Nagorny Karabakh over three years, they were met with only routine replies and little real attention;<ref>{{Cite book |last=De Waal |first=Thomas |title=Black garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through peace and war |date=2003 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=978-0-8147-1944-2 |location=New York |pages=16 |quote=On 3 March 1988, Gorbachev told the Politburo that it had been remiss in failing to spot warning signals: 'We must not simplify anything here, and we should look at ourselves too. The Central Committee received five hundred letters in the last three years on the question of Nagorny Karabakh. Who paid any attention to this? We gave a routine response.'}}</ref> however, declassified records from June 1988 suggest that Gorbachev never planned to transfer Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, yet he hesitated to firmly oppose the Armenian demonstrators.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kramer |first=Mark |date=2023-04-28 |title=Official Responses to Ethnic Unrest in the USSR, 1985–1991 |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/ruhi/49/2-4/article-p289_8.xml |journal=Russian History |volume=49 |issue=2-4 |pages=300 |doi=10.30965/18763316-12340051 |issn=0094-288X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

After Azerbaijan engaged in [[Sumgait pogrom|anti-Armenian pogroms in Sumgait]], Moscow dismissed local officials, initiated prosecutions, expanded the use of internal security forces, and later replaced the first secretaries of both Armenia and Azerbaijan, while relying on emergency governance tools such as curfews and restrictions on gatherings.<ref>{{Citation |last=Suny |first=Ronald Grigor |title=Nationalism and Democracy in Gorbachev’s Soviet Union: The Case of Karabagh |date=2018-02-06 |work=The Soviet Nationality Reader |pages=485–507 |editor-last=Denber |editor-first=Rachel |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429964381/chapters/10.4324/9780429495830-26 |access-date=2026-02-27 |edition=1 |publisher=Routledge |language=en |doi=10.4324/9780429495830-26 |isbn=978-0-429-49583-0|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In July 1988, the central government publicly reaffirmed its position in a Supreme Soviet presidium session, rejecting the transfer of Nagorno-Karabakh while acknowledging grievances and promising Union-level involvement. After that, Moscow pursued a practical workaround: it increased direct central oversight in Karabagh by sending [[Arkady Volsky]] with extraordinary authority, reducing effective Azerbaijani control without formally altering jurisdiction, and in January 1989 it formalized this approach by placing the region under a special administration responsible to the central government.<ref>{{Citation |last=Suny |first=Ronald Grigor |title=Nationalism and Democracy in Gorbachev’s Soviet Union: The Case of Karabagh |date=2018-02-06 |work=The Soviet Nationality Reader |pages=485–507 |editor-last=Denber |editor-first=Rachel |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429964381/chapters/10.4324/9780429495830-26 |access-date=2026-02-27 |edition=1 |publisher=Routledge |language=en |doi=10.4324/9780429495830-26 |isbn=978-0-429-49583-0|url-access=subscription }}</ref> At the same time, the Soviet authorities acted against Armenian movement leaders and organizations through denunciations, investigations, and arrests—steps that intensified under emergency conditions following the December 1988 earthquake.<ref>{{Citation |last=Suny |first=Ronald Grigor |title=Nationalism and Democracy in Gorbachev’s Soviet Union: The Case of Karabagh |date=2018-02-06 |work=The Soviet Nationality Reader |pages=485–507 |editor-last=Denber |editor-first=Rachel |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429964381/chapters/10.4324/9780429495830-26 |access-date=2026-02-27 |edition=1 |publisher=Routledge |language=en |doi=10.4324/9780429495830-26 |isbn=978-0-429-49583-0|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

== Response in Azerbaijan == The sudden events in Nagorno-Karabakh in February 1988 surprised Azerbaijan, revealing both its underlying insecurities and a longstanding lack of awareness of how deeply Armenians cared about the region.<ref>{{Cite book |last=De Waal |first=Thomas |title=Black garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through peace and war |date=2003 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=978-0-8147-1944-2 |location=New York |pages=29 |quote=The extraordinary events in Nagorny Karabakh in February 1988 caught Azerbaijan by surprise and revealed its hidden insecurities...Many intellectuals in Baku say that they had never taken an interest in the Karabakh issue before 1988; unaware that it was a potent theme for Armenians, they had simply taken for granted that Karabakh would always be theirs.}}</ref> Soviet Azerbaijani authorities categorically rejected petitions made by the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to [[Secession|secede]], declaring the unanimous vote made by the enclave's legislature in June 1988 to be "null and void."<ref>{{Cite web |last=amartikian |date=2023-02-20 |title=Karabakh movement: "From the desire for freedom to its loss" |url=https://jam-news.net/35th-anniversary-of-the-karabakh-movement/ |access-date=2025-11-05 |website=Jamnews in English |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":6" /> The Karabakh Movement was met with extreme violence from Azerbaijani authorities and civilians, escalating tensions and culminating in the [[First Nagorno-Karabakh War]]. The anti-Armenian violence between 1988 and 1992, described by [[Genocide Watch]] as a "campaign of terror,"<ref>{{Cite web |last=Genocide Watch |date=2020-11-06 |title=Genocide Emergency: Azerbaijan in Artsakh |url=https://download-files.wixmp.com/ugd/09ea84_a7ecddcf57664e9289de8f8fdb6e1202.pdf?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpc3MiOiJ1cm46YXBwOmU2NjYzMGU3MTRmMDQ5MGFhZWExZjE0OWIzYjY5ZTMyIiwic3ViIjoidXJuOmFwcDplNjY2MzBlNzE0ZjA0OTBhYWVhMWYxNDliM2I2OWUzMiIsImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTpmaWxlLmRvd25sb2FkIl0sImlhdCI6MTc1MzExNzE0OSwiZXhwIjoxNzUzMTUzMTU5LCJqdGkiOiI4NjQ3NTg5Ny04OWNiLTRlMmUtYmQ5YS03NTMxNzNjODIxNTQiLCJvYmoiOltbeyJwYXRoIjoiL3VnZC8wOWVhODRfYTdlY2RkY2Y1NzY2NGU5Mjg5ZGU4ZjhmZGI2ZTEyMDIucGRmIn1dXSwiZGlzIjp7ImZpbGVuYW1lIjoiR2Vub2NpZGUgRW1lcmdlbmN5LUF6ZXJiYWlqYW4gaW4gQXJ0c2FraC5wZGYiLCJ0eXBlIjoiYXR0YWNobWVudCJ9fQ.MWcwbXUhmW5TyrtUnF_Ez2fHm49Yscq197BckmJTvYg&dn=Genocide%20Emergency-Azerbaijan%20in%20Artsakh |access-date=2025-07-21 |website=genocidewatch |language=en}}</ref> heightened fears of another [[Armenian genocide]],<ref>MacDonald, David B. [https://www.routledge.com/Identity-Politics-in-the-Age-of-Genocide-The-Holocaust-and-Historical-Representation/MacDonald/p/book/9780415543521 ''Identity politics in the age of genocide''. Routledge], 2007. p. 120</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Remembrance and Denial: The Case of the Armenian Genocide |date=1998 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |isbn=978-0-8143-2777-7 |editor-last=Hovannisian |editor-first=Richard G. |location=Detroit |pages=187}}</ref><ref>Golubiewski, Mikolaj, Joanna Kulas, and Krzysztof Czyżewski, eds. ''A Handbook of Dialogue: Trust and Identity''. Wydawnictwo Pogranicze, 2011. p 229-240</ref> leading to the flight of 350,000 Armenians from Azerbaijan.<ref>{{cite book |last=Miller |first=Donald E. |title=Remembrance and Denial: The Case of the Armenian Genocide |publisher=Wayne State University Press |year=1998 |editor-last=Hovannisian |editor-first=Richard G. |editor-link=Richard G. Hovannisian |pages=197 |chapter=Chapter 8: The role of historical memory in interpreting events in the Republic of Armenia}}</ref><ref name="Dawisha">{{cite book |last=Dawisha |first=Karen |title=The International Politics of Eurasia |author2=Parrot, Bruce |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |year=1994 |isbn=9781563243530 |location=Armonk, NY |page=242}}</ref><ref>[https://www.un.org/esa/gopher-data/ga/cedaw/17/country/Armenia/C-ARM1C1.EN Committee on the elimination of discrimination against women]</ref>

Between 1988 and 1992, Azerbaijani authorities and civilians engaged in actions to accelerate the elimination of Armenians and settle Azerbaijanis in their place.<ref>Cox, Caroline. [https://www.proquest.com/magazines/nagorno-karabakh-forgotten-people-war/docview/1294643948/se-2 "Nagorno Karabakh: Forgotten People in a Forgotten War."] ''Contemporary Review'' 270 (1997): 8–13. "These operations were part of a policy designated [[Operation Ring]], comprising the proposed ethnic cleansing (a word used in relation to Azerbaijan's policy before it became familiar to the world in the context of the former Yugoslavia) of all Armenians from their ancient homeland of Karabakh."</ref><ref name=":142"/><ref>{{Cite book |title=Armenia and Karabagh: the struggle for unity |date=1991 |publisher=Minority Rights Group |isbn=978-1-873194-20-1 |editor-last=Walker |editor-first=Christopher J. |series=Minority rights publications |location=London |page=107 |quote=Since November 1989 Mountainous Karabagh has been ruled from Baku and the Azerbaijani authorities there are doing all that they can to make life impossible for the population with the apparent aim of driving them out and re-populating the territory with Azerbaijanis. In July 1990 the Second Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party seriously formulated a plan for deporting all Armenians from Nagorno=Karabagh — a grisly echo of the 1915 massacres. The Azeris have employed every means to isolate Mountainous Karabagh.}}</ref> Notable instances include pogroms in [[Sumgait pogrom|Sumgait]] (1988),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chorbajian |first=Levon |title=The making of Nagorno-Karabagh: from secession to republic |date=2001 |publisher=Palgrave |isbn=978-0-333-77340-6 |location=Basingstoke New York |page=16 |quote=The killings of Armenians in Sumgait were, therefore, exemplary crimes and bear strong similarities to the lynching of African-Americans in the USA and the victims of other pogroms and genocides. In all these cases, even though the victims were individuals, the purpose of the crimes was to intimidate the entire community of people to which the victims belonged.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The Sumgait tragedy: pogroms against Armenians in Soviet Azerbaijan |date=1990 |publisher=Aristide D. Caratzas; Zoryan Institute for Contemporary Armenian Research and Documentation |isbn=978-0-916431-31-0 |editor-last=Shahmuratian |editor-first=Samvel |series=Zoryan Institute files |location=New Rochelle, N.Y. : Cambridge, Mass |pages=xi-page 8 |quote=Pogroms involve the violation of a number of human rights, including the right to life for the victims both as individuals and as members of an ethnic group. According to the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, these pogroms can be defined as genocides. By any standard, these are genocidal acts...Understanding the factors which make pogroms possible, just as understanding factors which make genocides possible, should not evolve into such empathy that there is reluctance to call a pogrom by its name. Explanations become excuses, understanding turns in justification. Ultimately, such ostensibly detached characterizations of pogroms [namely, that it was only a result of political and economic purposes], is most insulting to and paternalizing of the culture and religion of Azeri Turks, the majority of whom did not participate in the pogroms and many of whom helped Armenians at the risk of their own lives. |editor-last2=Jones |editor-first2=Steven}}</ref>{{sfn|Waal|2004|p=40}} [[Kirovabad pogrom|Kirovabad]] (1988),<ref>{{cite book |last=Kaufman |first=Stuart J. |title=Modern hatreds: the symbolic politics of ethnic war |publisher=Cornell university press |year=2001 |isbn=9780801487361 |location=Ithaca |page=77}}</ref> and [[Baku pogrom|Baku]] (1990),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kaufman |first=Stuart J. |title=Modern hatreds: the symbolic politics of ethnic war |date=2001 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-0199-3 |series=Cornell studies in security affairs |location=Ithaca |page=70 |quote=The next day, a massive wave of attacks on Armenians in Baku got underway, with strong evidence of government involvement but also with evidence of material motivations, as many rioters appear to have been homeless refugees who occupied Armenians' apartments immediately after ejecting them.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=O'Ballance |first=Edgar |title=Wars in the Caucasus, 1990-1995 |date=1997 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |isbn=978-1-349-14229-3 |location=London s.l |page=23 |quote=Violent attacks on resident Armenians suddenly erupted [in 1990]...The violence gathered momentum and developed into what amounted to an attempt at ethnic cleansing, as it was generally Azeris attacking Armenians, some of whom were killed and many others injured.}}</ref> as well as [[Operation Ring]] (1991),<ref>Tranca, Oana. [https://www.bradford.ac.uk/library/library-resources/journal-of-peace-conflict-and-development/Ethnic-conflict-Azerbajian-Macedonia_Oana-Tranca.pdf "What Causes Ethnic Conflict Diffusion? A Study of Ethnic Conflicts in Azerbaijan and Macedonia."] ''Journal of Peace, Conflict and Development Issue. Online'' 12 (2008): pp 14,18,21</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Papazian |first=Taline |date=2006-03-01 |title=From Ter-Petrossian to Kocharian: Explaining Continuity in Armenian Foreign Policy, 1991-2003 |url=http://www.metapress.com/openurl.asp?genre=article&id=doi:10.3200/DEMO.14.2.235-251 |journal=Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization |volume=14 |issue=2 |page=239 |doi=10.3200/DEMO.14.2.235-251 |doi-broken-date=28 August 2025 |issn=1074-6846 |quote="It became clear that Soviet troops had helped Azeri OMONs cleanse several Armenian villages in Karabakh and at the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan" |doi-access=free}}</ref> and the [[Maraga Massacre]] (1992).{{sfn|Waal|2004|p=176}} The journalist [[Thomas de Waal|De Waal]] stated that the Popular Front of Azerbaijan (forerunner of the [[Azerbaijani Popular Front Party]]) was responsible for the [[Baku pogrom|mass pogrom in Baku]], as they shouted "Long live Baku without Armenians!"{{sfn|Waal|2004|p=91}} The anti-Armenian pogroms in Azerbaijan involved elements of premeditation, such as the use of lists to target Armenians specifically and hand-made weapons.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Kushen |first1=Robert |title=Conflict in the Soviet Union: Black January in Azerbaidzhan |last2=Neier |first2=Aryeh |date=1991 |publisher=Human Rights Watch |others=Human Rights Watch (Organization), Inter-Republic Memorial Society |isbn=978-1-56432-027-8 |series=A Helsinki Watch/Memorial Report |location=New York |pages=7}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=De Waal |first=Thomas |title=Black garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through peace and war |date=2004 |publisher=New York Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-8147-1945-9 |edition=1st publ. in paperback |location=New York |pages=35}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cheterian |first=Vicken |date=2018-07-03 |title=The Uses and Abuses of History: Genocide and the Making of the Karabakh Conflict |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2018.1489634 |journal=Europe-Asia Studies |volume=70 |issue=6 |page=890 |doi=10.1080/09668136.2018.1489634 |issn=0966-8136 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> The perpetrators targeted the victims based solely on their Armenian ethnicity.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Dorfmann-Lazarev |first1=Igor |url=https://brill.com/view/title/68142 |title=Monuments and Identities in the Caucasus: Karabagh, Nakhichevan and Azerbaijan in Contemporary Geopolitical Conflict |last2=Khatchadourian |first2=Haroutioun |date=2023-12-14 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-67737-1 |pages=249 |doi=10.1163/9789004677388_011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The making of Nagorno-Karabagh: from secession to republic |date=2001 |publisher=Palgrave |isbn=978-0-333-77340-6 |editor-last=Chorbajian |editor-first=Levon |location=Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York |page=16 |quote=The victims of these crimes are best seen as representatives of the Armenian people as a whole and not as individual Armenians. The killings of Armenians in Sumgait were, therefore, exemplary crimes and bear strong similarities to the lynching of African Americans in the USA and the victims of other pogroms and genocides. In all these cases, even though the victims were individuals, the purpose of the crimes was to intimidate the entire community of people to which the victims belonged. The victims were chosen for who they were—in this case, Armenians—and not for anything they may have done. The killings were a response to the protests in Karabagh and Armenia that challenged the hierarchy of ethnic relations and threatened to alter the subordinated status of the Karabagh Armenians.}}</ref> The apartments of Armenians (which were marked in advance) were attacked and the residents were indiscriminately murdered, raped, and mutilated by the Azerbaijani rioters.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Collitt |first=Lesley |date=March 16, 1988 |title=Armenians killed in Azerbaijan 'pogroms' |url=https://ia804602.us.archive.org/27/items/FinancialTimes1988UKEnglish/Mar%2016%201988%2C%20Financial%20Times%2C%20%2330490%2C%20UK%20%28en%29_text.pdf |work=Financial Times |page=2}}</ref><ref>New York Times. 22 May 1988.</ref><ref>Rodina (Motherland) magazine (# 4, 1994, pp. 82–90)</ref> Looting, arson and destruction of Armenian property was also perpetrated.{{sfn|Waal|2004|p=31}} Azerbaijani authorities took no action to stop the atrocities,<ref>Shahmuratian. ''Sumgait Tragedy'', Interview with Rima Avanesyan, pp. 233–237.</ref> and the failure to conduct a timely, thorough investigation or hold the perpetrators accountable,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Aslanyan |first=Andranik Eduard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Brm9DwAAQBAJ&dq=https%3A%2F%2Fregnum.ru%2Fnews%2F1131088.html&pg=PA385 |title=Energie- und geopolitische Akteure im Südkaukasus: Der Bergkarabach-Konflikt im Spannungsfeld von Interessen (1991 – 2015) |date=2019-11-11 |publisher=Springer-Verlag |isbn=978-3-658-28516-6 |pages=62–63 |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cheterian |first=Vicken |title=War and peace in the Caucasus : Russia's troubled frontier |date=2008 |publisher=Hurst & Co |isbn=978-1-85065-929-7 |location=London |pages=111 |oclc=243545841}}</ref> further escalated tensions.<ref>[http://www.memo.ru/hr/hotpoints/karabah/getashen/chapter1.htm МЕМОРИАЛ. ХРОНОЛОГИЯ КОНФЛИКТА] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305185925/http://www.memo.ru/hr/hotpoints/karabah/getashen/chapter1.htm|date=5 March 2012}} "Своевременного расследования обстоятельств погромов, установления и наказания виновных не было проведено, что привело к эскалации конфликта."</ref> Many of those who participated in the massacre were later hailed as national heroes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Khazanov |first=Anatoly M. |date=1993 |title=Samvel Shakhmuradian, Sumgaitskaia Tragedia v Svidetel'stvakh Ochevidtzev ("Sumgait Through the Eyes of the Victims"). Erevan: Armianskii Fond Kul'tury, 1989. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/nationalities-papers/article/abs/samvel-shakhmuradian-sumgaitskaia-tragedia-v-svidetelstvakh-ochevidtzev-sumgait-through-the-eyes-of-the-victims-erevan-armianskii-fond-kultury-1989/7EA6475FE24E26BBA092670609D0328C |journal=Nationalities Papers |language=en |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=230–232 |doi=10.1017/S0090599200021760 |issn=0090-5992 |s2cid=189221116 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kaufman |first=Stuart J. |title=Modern hatreds : the symbolic politics of ethnic war |date=2001 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-0199-3 |location=Ithaca, New York |pages=65, 205 |oclc=1160511946}}</ref>{{Sfn|Waal|2004|p=41}} Following the devastating [[1988 Armenian earthquake|1988 Spitak earthquake]] in Armenia, which killed tens of thousands, multiple countries sent humanitarian aid, while pianist [[Evgeny Kissin]] claimed that Azerbaijan sent only crutches and coffin nails.<ref name="Anzhela Elibegova, Armine Adibekian3">{{cite book |author=Anzhela |first1=Elibegova |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cmQ1EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA |title=Armenophobia in Azerbaijan |last2=Adibekian |first2=Armine |publisher=Aegitas |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-369-40559-3 |pages=29–30}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=LLC |first=Helix Consulting |title="КЛИШЕ АНТИАРМЯНСКОЙ ПРОПАГАНДЫ ИДЕНТИЧНЫ АНТИЕВРЕЙСКИМ..." {{!}} Голос Армении - Общественно-политическая газета - 20404 (51) |url=htp://golosarmenii.am/ru/20404/world/26789/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130607052214/htp://golosarmenii.am/ru/20404/world/26789/ |archive-date=2013-06-07 |access-date=2025-10-15 |website=golosarmenii.am |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Պանորամա {{!}} Հայաստանի նորություններ |url=https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2013/05/16/golos1/518399 |access-date=2025-10-15 |website=www.panorama.am}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Open letter: "Jewish Voice from Germany" {{!}} Evgeny Kissin |url=https://www.kissin.org/openletter |access-date=2025-10-15 |website=evgenykissin |language=en}}</ref>

Russian political writer [[Roy Medvedev]] and USSR Journalists' Union described the pogroms as a [[genocide]] against Armenians.<ref>Glasnost: : Vol. 2, Issue 1, Center for Democracy (New York, N.Y.) – 1990, p. 62, cit. 'The massacre of Armenians in Sumgait, the heinous murders in Tbilisi—these killings are examples of genocide directed by the Soviet regime against its own people.', an announcement by USSR Journalists' Union</ref><ref>Time of change: an insider's view of Russia's transformation, Roy Medvedev, Giulietto Chiesa – 1991 – p. 209</ref> Sociologist [[Donald E. Miller]] and historian [[Richard G. Hovannisian|Richard Hovannisian]], note that the 1988 pogroms against Armenians, while horrific, only explained the mass flight of Armenians when seen as a [[Risk factors for genocide|precursor to genocide]], as many who fled left behind well-established homes, jobs, and property.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Remembrance and denial: the case of the Armenian genocide |date=1998 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |isbn=978-0-8143-2777-7 |editor-last=Hovannisian |editor-first=Richard G. |location=Detroit |pages=187, 197}}</ref> Many observers compared the plight of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh with those that were persecuted in Turkey and Azerbaijan during the [[Armenian genocide|Armenian Genocide]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Avedian |first=Vahagn |date=2013 |title=Recognition, Responsibility and Reconciliation. The Trinity of the Armenian Genocide |url=https://doi.org/10.24989/0014-2492-2013-34-77 |journal=Europa Ethnica |volume=70 |issue=3–4 |pages=77–86 |doi=10.24989/0014-2492-2013-34-77 |issn=0014-2492 |quote=Other than being a remnant from the post-genocide era, the early days of the Karabakh conflict reminded many of the initial phases of the WWI genocide. Many compared the pogroms in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait with the killings in the Ottoman Empire, but this time Armenians did not intend to allow history to repeat itself.|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Genocide Watch |date=2020-11-06 |title=Genocide Emergency Alert on the War in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) |url=https://www.genocidewatch.com/single-post/genocide-emergency-alert-on-the-war-in-artsakh-nagorno-karabakh |access-date=2025-07-21 |website=genocidewatch |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Cox |first1=Caroline |title=Ethnic cleansing in progress: war in Nagorno Karabakh |last2=Eibner |first2=John |last3=Bonnėr |first3=Elena |date=1993 |publisher=Institute for Religious Minorities in the Islamic World |isbn=978-3-9520345-2-1 |location=Zürich; Washington |quote="The available evidence points to historic continuity between the genocide of ethnic minorities in Turkey and the war against Nagorno-Karabakh."}}</ref> In 1989, [[Nobel Peace Prize]] laureate [[Andrei Sakharov]] wrote "the Armenian people are again facing the threat of genocide...for Nagorno-Karabakh this is a question of survival, for Azerbaijan—just a question of ambition."<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Chorbajian |first1=Levon |title=The Caucasian knot: the history & geopolitics of Nagorno-Karabagh |last2=Donabédian |first2=Patrick |last3=Mutafian |first3=Claude |date=1994 |publisher=Atlantic Highlands, NJ : Zed Books |isbn=978-1-85649-287-4 |series=Politics in contemporary Asia |location=London |pages=1}}</ref>

In 1990, a group of 130 prominent academics — including [[Jacques Derrida]], [[Isaiah Berlin]], [[Alain Finkielkraut]], [[Richard Rorty]] — published a letter condemning anti-Armenian violence in Azerbaijan. They warned that "flagrant violations of human rights a half century after the genocide of the Jewish people in Nazi concentration camps" reflected the enduring threat of racism and called for [[Responsibility to protect|international action]]. Citing repeated attacks that "followed the same pattern," the signatories argued these were no "accidents or spontaneous outbursts," but that "crimes against the Armenian minority have become consistent practice – if not [[Anti-Armenian sentiment in Azerbaijan|consistent policy]] – in Soviet Azerbaijan."<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Gluecksmann |first1=Andre |last2=Zelnick |first2=Reginald E. |last3=Wiehl |first3=Reiner |last4=Taylor |first4=Charles |last5=Shestack |first5=Jerome J. |last6=Ricoeur |first6=Paul |last7=Poulain |first7=Jacques |last8=Levinas |first8=Emmanuel |last9=Hooks |first9=Benjamin L. |date=1990-09-27 |title=An Open Letter on Anti-Armenian Pogroms in the Soviet Union |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1990/09/27/an-open-letter-on-anti-armenian-pogroms-in-the-sov/ |access-date=2025-07-21 |work=The New York Review of Books |language=en |volume=37 |issue=14 |issn=0028-7504}}</ref> Azeri academic [[Ziya Bunyadov]], gained notoriety for his article ''"Why Sumgait?"'' in which he blamed the Armenian victims themselves for orchestrating the pogrom—a stance that led British journalist [[Thomas de Waal]], to describe him as "Azerbaijan’s foremost Armenophobe."{{sfn|Waal|2004|p=42}}

In November 1991, the Azerbaijani government [[Law on Abolishment of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast|passed a motion to abolish the autonomy of the NKAO]] and facilitate a form of culturally motivated ethnic cleansing by enforcing the exclusive use of Azerbaijani placenames for the cities of Stepanakert, Mardakert, and Martuni.<ref name=":4" /> In 1991, two groups of independent international experts visited the Caucasus and concluded that Azerbaijan was the primary aggressor in the conflict, aiming to [[Ethnic cleansing|ethnically cleanse]] Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Cox |first1=Caroline |title=The very stones cry out: the persecuted church: pain, passion and praise |last2=Rogers |first2=Benedict |date=2011 |publisher=Continuum |isbn=978-0-8264-4272-7 |location=London; New York |pages=82}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Cox |first1=Caroline |title=Ethnic cleansing in progress: war in Nagorno Karabakh |last2=Eibner |first2=John |date=1993 |publisher=Institute for Religious Minorities in the Islamic World |isbn=978-3-9520345-2-1 |location=Zürich |pages=66–67}}</ref> The experts cited several reasons for their conclusion: the [[Operation Ring|brutal deportations]], the [[Turkish-Azeri Blockade of Armenia|blockades of Armenia]] and [[Siege of Stepanakert|Nagorno-Karabakh]], and the use of particular military equipment against civilians and civilian areas.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Cox |first1=Caroline |title=Ethnic cleansing in progress: war in Nagorno Karabakh |last2=Eibner |first2=John |last3=Bonnėr |first3=Elena |date=1993 |publisher=Institute for Religious Minorities in the Islamic World |isbn=978-3-9520345-2-1 |location=Zürich; Washington |pages=66–67}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Chorbajian |first1=Levon |title=The Caucasian knot: the history & geopolitics of Nagorno-Karabagh |last2=Donabédian |first2=Patrick |last3=Mutafian |first3=Claude |date=1994 |publisher=Atlantic Highlands, NJ : Zed Books |isbn=978-1-85649-287-4 |series=Politics in contemporary Asia |location=London |pages=40}}</ref>

== Leaders and prominent voices in the movement == The leaders of the movement included people from the [[Karabakh Committee]] as well as others.

The Karabakh Committee was formed in May 1988 and comprised activists, demonstration-organizers, professors, and environmentalists.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Making of Nagorno-Karabagh: From Secession to Republic |date=2001 |publisher=Palgrave |isbn=978-1-349-41594-6 |editor-last=Chorbajian |editor-first=Levon |location=Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire New York |pages=81 |editor-last2=ebrary, Inc}}</ref> {{columns-list|* Levon Ter-Petrosyan * Vazgen Manukyan * Vano Siradeghyan * Babken Ararktsyan * Ashot Manucharyan * David Vardanyan * Rafael Ghazaryan * Hambardzum Galstyan * Silva Kaputikyan * Arkady Manucharov * Robert Kocharyan * Serzh Sargsyan|colwidth=15em}}

== Miatsum == [[File:Armenia_and_Artsakh_graffiti_in_Yerevan.jpg|thumb|203x203px|Graffiti in Yerevan with the outline of a united Armenia and Republic of Artsakh, with text in Armenian saying "Liberated, not occupied"]]{{Main|Miatsum}}

''Miatsum'' ({{langx|hy|Միացում|Unification}})<ref>{{cite web |last1=Nodia |first1=Ghia |date=Winter 1997–1998 |title=Causes and Visions of Conflict in Abkhazia |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/4999872 |publisher=[[University of California, Berkeley]] |page=15 |quote=Mountainous Karabakh should not be part of Azerbaijan not because Artsakh (the Armenian name for Karabakh) is an ancient Armenian land and Miatsum (unification) is a legitimate Armenian project, but because Azerbaijan allegedly mistreats its minorities. |authorlink1=Ghia Nodia}}</ref> was a concept and a slogan<ref>{{cite web |date=14 September 2005 |title=Nagorno-Karabakh: Viewing the Conflict from the Ground |url=http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/europe/166_nagorno_karabakh_viewing_the_conflict_from_the_ground |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923230535/http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/europe/166_nagorno_karabakh_viewing_the_conflict_from_the_ground |archivedate=23 September 2015 |publisher=[[International Crisis Group]] |page=4 |quote=The 1988 Karabakh movement started with the slogan "Miatsum" ("Unification" in Armenian).}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author1=Toal, Gerard |author2=O'Loughlin, John |date=1 April 2013 |title=Land for Peace in Nagorny Karabakh? Political Geographies and Public Attitudes Inside a Contested De Facto State |journal=Territory, Politics, Governance |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=158–182 |doi=10.1080/21622671.2013.842184 |s2cid=54576963 |quote=Unity with Armenia, after all, had been the proclaimed goal previous to this (the slogan of the early phases of the Karabakh movement was miatsum, ‘unification’), and an annexationist policy endorsed by the Soviet Armenian parliament.}}</ref> used during the Karabakh movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which led to the [[First Nagorno-Karabakh War]] in 1992–1994.<ref>{{cite web |title=Miatsum (From 1987 to 1989) - History of Armenia |url=http://www.hayastan.com/armenia/history/armenia/index12.php |access-date=23 April 2023 |website=www.hayastan.com}}</ref>

== Timeline ==

===1987=== *September: the [[Union for National Self-Determination]], the first non-Communist party, established in Armenia by [[Paruyr Hayrikyan]] *October 17: the first protests concerning ecological issues held in [[Yerevan]]<ref name="asbarez 1987">{{cite news|title=Reports of demonstrations in Yerevan and Clashes in Mountainous Karabagh. |url=http://www.armeniaforeignministry.com/fr/nk/nk_file/article/49.html |access-date=29 May 2013 |newspaper=[[Asbarez]] |date=24 October 1987 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070914104126/http://www.armeniaforeignministry.com/fr/nk/nk_file/article/49.html |archive-date=September 14, 2007 }}</ref> *October 18: a minor rally on [[Freedom Square, Yerevan]] for the unification of the NKAO with Soviet Armenia<ref name="asbarez 1987"/> *August 1987: a petition calling for reunification in the name of [[Leninism|Leninist traditions]], signed by approximately 75,000 Armenians, was submitted to [[Mikhail Gorbachev]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Report |first=E. V. N. |date=2018-01-26 |title=Karabakh Movement 88: A Chronology of Events on the Road to Independence |url=https://evnreport.com/spotlight-karabakh/karabakh-movement-88-a-chronology-of-events-on-the-road-to-independence/ |access-date=2026-02-23 |website=EVN Report |language=en-US}}</ref>

===1988=== *February 13: First demonstration in [[Stepanakert]].{{sfn|Malkasian|1996|p=29}} Traditionally considered the start of the movement.<ref name=":3">{{cite news|title=Karabakh Armenians mark 25th anniversary of liberation movement|url=http://armenianow.com/karabakh/43478/armenia_karabakh_stepanakert_liberation_anniversary_rally|access-date=19 August 2013|newspaper=[[ArmeniaNow]]|date=14 February 2013|archive-date=18 February 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130218055802/http://armenianow.com/karabakh/43478/armenia_karabakh_stepanakert_liberation_anniversary_rally|url-status=dead}}</ref> Approximately 8,000 people attend the demonstration.<ref name=":10">{{Cite web |last=Report |first=E. V. N. |date=2018-01-26 |title=Karabakh Movement 88: A Chronology of Events on the Road to Independence |url=https://evnreport.com/spotlight-karabakh/karabakh-movement-88-a-chronology-of-events-on-the-road-to-independence/ |access-date=2026-02-23 |website=EVN Report |language=en-US}}</ref> *February 18–26: Major demonstrations held in [[Yerevan]] for the unification of the NKAO with Soviet Armenia.{{sfn|Verluise|1995|p=86}} By 20 February, 30,000 people gathered in protest in [[Freedom Square, Yerevan|Freedom Square]] in Yerevan, Armenia with the crowd doubling each day.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":10" /> *February 20: The NKAO Supreme Council issued a request to transfer the region to Soviet Armenia.<ref name=":5">{{Cite news |last=Steele |first=Jonathan |date=2023-09-27 |title=Nagorno-Karabakh votes to secede from Soviet Azerbaijan – archive, 1988 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/27/nagorno-karabakh-votes-to-secede-from-soviet-azerbaijan-1988 |access-date=2025-11-05 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> *February 22–23: Local Armenians and Azerbaijanis [[Askeran clash|clash in Askeran]], resulting in several deaths. By 22 February, the protests in Yerevan, Armenia rose to between 300,000 to one million the following day, and a transport strike was launched in Yerevan.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":10" /> *February 26: Demonstrations paused after [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]'s asked for time to develop a position.{{sfn|Verluise|1995|p=87}} *February 27–29: [[Sumgait pogrom]] starts, Armenians of Azerbaijan start to leave in large numbers{{sfn|Verluise|1995|p=87}} *March 9: Gorbachev meets with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan [[Karen Demirchyan]] and [[Kamran Baghirov]] in Moscow to discuss the public demands of unification of the NKAO with Soviet Armenia{{sfn|Verluise|1995|p=89}} *March 22: Over 100,000 people discontented with the tendencies demonstrate in Yerevan.{{sfn|Verluise|1995|p=90}} *March 23: The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union rejects the demand of NKAO Regional Party.{{sfn|Verluise|1995|p=90}} *March 25: Gorbachev rejects Armenian claims, forbade demonstrations in Yerevan.{{sfn|Verluise|1995|p=90}} *March 26: Despite not being authorized by the Moscow government, tens of thousands demonstrate in Yerevan.{{sfn|Verluise|1995|p=91}} *March 30: NKAO Communist Party adopts a resolution demanding unification.{{sfn|Verluise|1995|p=91}} *April 24: Hundreds of thousands of Armenians march to the genocide memorial in Yerevan.{{sfn|Verluise|1995|p=91}} *May 12-16: A general strike is launched in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh that forces the shutdown of factories and public transportation.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Report |first=E. V. N. |date=2018-01-26 |title=Karabakh Movement 88: A Chronology of Events on the Road to Independence |url=https://evnreport.com/spotlight-karabakh/karabakh-movement-88-a-chronology-of-events-on-the-road-to-independence/ |access-date=2026-02-23 |website=EVN Report |language=en-US}}</ref> *May 21: [[Karen Demirchyan]] resigns. *May 28: [[Flag of Armenia]] first raised in front of [[Matenadaran]].{{sfn|Verluise|1995|p=92}} *June 4-15: Peaceful protests intensify in Yerevan and Stepanakert, with hundreds of students staging hunger strikes and sit-ins demanding reunification talks and an impartial All-Union review of the Sumgait trials.<ref name=":10" /> *June 12, the legislature of Nagorno-Karabakh unanimously votes to secede from Azerbaijan and to reunify with Soviet Armenia<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |last=Report |first=E. V. N. |date=2018-01-26 |title=Karabakh Movement 88: A Chronology of Events on the Road to Independence |url=https://evnreport.com/spotlight-karabakh/karabakh-movement-88-a-chronology-of-events-on-the-road-to-independence/ |access-date=2025-11-05 |website=EVN Report |language=en-US}}</ref> *June 13: the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR refuses the request.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Martirosyan |first=Armine |date=2023-02-20 |title=Karabakh movement: "From the desire for freedom to its loss" |url=https://jam-news.net/35th-anniversary-of-the-karabakh-movement/ |access-date=2025-11-05 |website=Jamnews in English |language=en-US}}</ref> *June 14: A [[general strike]] occurs in Yerevan, closing all businesses and schools, in support of the Armenian legislature.<ref name=":6" /> A demonstration of 100,000 continues in Yerevan.<ref name=":6" /> *June 15: Soviet Armenian Supreme Council votes in favor of the unification of NKAO.{{sfn|Verluise|1995|p=92}} *June 17: Soviet Azerbaijani Supreme Council opposes the transfer of NKAO to Armenia.{{sfn|Verluise|1995|p=92}} *June 28–29: Conference of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union disapproves Armenian claims to NKAO.{{sfn|Verluise|1995|p=92}} *July 5: A general strike is announced. Strikers demand the resolution of the Karabakh question and transfer of the trials of those involved in the [[Sumgait pogrom]] from Azerbaijan to the USSR Supreme Court.<ref>{{Citation |last=Suny |first=Ronald Grigor |title=Nationalism and Democracy in Gorbachev’s Soviet Union: The Case of Karabagh |date=2018-02-06 |work=The Soviet Nationality Reader |pages=494 |editor-last=Denber |editor-first=Rachel |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429964381/chapters/10.4324/9780429495830-26 |access-date=2026-02-27 |edition=1 |publisher=Routledge |language=en |doi=10.4324/9780429495830-26 |isbn=978-0-429-49583-0|url-access=subscription }}</ref> There is a [[Zvartnots Airport clash|clash at Zvartnots Airport]], between the Soviet troops and protesters in [[Zvartnots International Airport|Zvartnots Airport]], leaving one man left dead, and tens injured.{{sfn|Verluise|1995|p=93}}<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Making of Nagorno-Karabagh: From Secession to Republic |date=2001 |publisher=Palgrave |isbn=978-1-349-41594-6 |editor-last=Chorbajian |editor-first=Levon |location=Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire New York |pages=2 |editor-last2=ebrary, Inc}}</ref> *July 12–13: NKAO Soviet Council votes in favor of unification with Armenia.{{sfn|Verluise|1995|p=93}}<ref name=":5" /> *July 18: Soviet Supreme Council refuses Armenian claims.{{sfn|Verluise|1995|p=93}} *July 21: [[Paruyr Hayrikyan]] deported to Ethiopia.{{sfn|Verluise|1995|p=93}} *Autumn: Around 167,000 Azerbaijanis of Armenia start to leave in large numbers.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Lowell W. Barrington|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pyWpKKlukLcC&q=some+167000+people+|title=After independence: making and protecting the nation in postcolonial & postcommunist states|publisher=University of Michigan Press|year=2006|isbn=0-472-06898-9|location=Michigan|page=231|quote="In late 1988, the entire Azerbaijani population (including Muslim Kurds) — some 167000 people — was deported out of the Armenian SSR. In the process, dozens of people died due to isolated Armenian attacks and adverse conditions. This population transfer was partially in response to Armenians being forced out of [[Azerbaijan]], but it was also the last phase of the gradual homogenization of the republic under Soviet rule. The population transfer was the latest episode of ethnic cleansing that increased Armenia’s homogenization from 90 percent to 98 percent. Nationalists, in collaboration with the Armenian state authorities, were responsible for this exodus"}}</ref> *September: State of emergency declared in [[Stepanakert]] after Armenian and Azerbaijanis clash. *November: [[Kirovabad pogrom]] *November 7: Hundreds of thousands demonstrate in Yerevan to support the [[Karabakh Committee]].{{sfn|Verluise|1995|p=97}} *November 22: Soviet Armenian Supreme Council recognizes the Armenian Genocide.{{sfn|Verluise|1995|p=97}} *November 24: State of emergency declared in Yerevan.{{sfn|Verluise|1995|p=97}} *December 7: [[1988 Armenian earthquake|Armenian earthquake]]. *December 10: [[Karabakh Committee]] members arrested, sent to Moscow.{{sfn|Verluise|1995|p=99}}

===1989=== *March 16: [[Armenian Nuclear Power Plant|Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant]] shut down. *May 31: [[Karabakh Committee]] members freed. *December 1: Soviet Armenian Supreme Council and NKAO Supreme Council declare the unification of the two entities [http://www.encyclopedia.am/pages.php?bId=2&hId=1389]

===1990=== *January 13–19: [[Baku pogrom|Pogrom of Armenians in Baku]]. *May 20: [[1990 Armenian Supreme Soviet election|1990 Armenian parliamentary election]], pro-independence members form majority. *August 4: [[Levon Ter-Petrosyan]] elected chairman of the Supreme Council, ''de facto'' leader of Armenia. *August 23: Soviet Armenian Supreme Council declared independence.

===1991=== *April 30 – May 15: ''[[First Nagorno-Karabakh War]]'': Soviet and Azeri forces deport thousands of Armenians from Shahumyan during [[Operation Ring]]. *August 19–21: [[1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt]] *September 2: [[Republic of Artsakh|Nagorno-Karabakh Republic]] proclaimed in Stepanakert through a popular independence referendum.<ref>{{cite book|last=Zürcher|first=Christoph|title=The Post-Soviet Wars: Rebellion, Ethnic Conflict, and Nationhood in the Caucasus|year=2007|publisher=New York University Press|location=New York|isbn=9780814797099|page=168|edition=[Online-Ausg.].|author-link=:de:Christoph Zürcher}}</ref>

== Notes == {{notelist}}

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography== * {{cite book|last1=Chorbajian|first1=Levon|last2=Mutafian|first2=Claude|last3=Donabedian|first3=Patrick|author-link1=Levon Chorbajian|author-link2=Claude Mutafian|title=The Caucasian Knot: The History and Geopolitics of Nagorno-Karabagh|date=1994|publisher=Zed Books|isbn=978-1-85649-288-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OUlnYdOHJ3wC}} * {{cite book|last=Libaridian | first = Gerard | author-link = Gerard Libaridian | title = The Karabagh File: Documents and Facts on the Region of Mountainous Karabagh, 1918–1988 | publisher=Zoryan Institute for Contemporary Armenian Research & Documentation | year = 1988 | location = New York | isbn = 0-916431-26-6 |url=https://zoryaninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Karabagh-File.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201215042241/https://zoryaninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Karabagh-File.pdf|archive-date=15 December 2020}} * {{cite book|last=Malkasian|first=Mark|title=Gha-ra-bagh!: The Emergence of the National Democratic Movement in Armenia|publisher=Wayne State University Press|location=Detroit|year=1996|isbn=0-8143-2605-6}} * {{Cite book |last=Saparov |first=Arsène |title=From Conflict to Autonomy in the Caucasus: The Soviet Union and the Making of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno Karabakh |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-315-75899-2 |language=en |doi=10.4324/9781315758992 }} * {{cite book |last=Suny |first=Ronald Grigor |title=Looking toward Ararat: Armenia in Modern History |author-link=Ronald Grigor Suny|date=1993 |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington |isbn=978-0-253-20773-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/lookingtowardara00rona}} *{{cite book|last=Verluise|first=Pierre|title=Armenia in Crisis: The 1988 Earthquake|year=1995|publisher=Wayne State University Press|location=Detroit|isbn=9780814325278|url=https://archive.org/details/armeniaincrisis100verl}} *{{cite book|last=Waal|first=Thomas de|title=Black garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through peace and war|year=2004|publisher=New York University Press|location=New York|isbn=9780814719459|page=42}}

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