Armenia vs Azerbaijan conflict – Nagorno-Karabakh’s brief History

Following the Bolshevik revolution of 1918 in Russia, many Caucasian states also became Soviet republics in the early 1920s. Joseph Stalin was the Commissar for Nationalities of the Soviet Union, and decided that the Nagorno-Karabakh region should be within the Azerbaijan Soviet. Historians disagree about whether this decision was intended to placate Turkey or to divide and rule ethnic groups in the region. Soviet dominance in the region kept tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh under control until the late 1980s. With the breakdown of the Soviet system, Karabakh Armenians began to agitate for unification with Armenia. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan attained independence…