Nagorno-Karabakh is a formerly autonomous region within Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized borders (the borders of the Azerbaijani Soviet Republic at the time of the USSR’s break-up). Its predominantly ethnic Armenian population was seeking change of the territory’s status and independence since the late 1980s. The tensions escalated into a full-scale military conflict in 1991, which ended in 1994 with the de facto secession of Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan and mass displacement of population. Over 400,000 Armenians became refugees from Azerbaijan to Armenia while more than 600,000 Azerbaijanis were internally displaced in Azerbaijan.
