On 27 September, one of the world’s most bitter conflicts erupted into a full-scale war. Armenia and Azerbaijan fought for six brutal weeks over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabkah, which is internationally recognised as Azerbaijani territory but traditionally populated by a majority of ethnic Armenians.
The war ended on 10 November, after Russia brokered a ceasefire. Under this deal, Armenia has handed over seven areas in a buffer zone that surround Karabakh, and Azerbaijan has kept the territories it recaptured. Russian peacekeepers now protect the road that connects Nagorno-Karabkah to Armenia.
For nearly a century, the two communities lived in relative peace. But as the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, the dispute descended into ethnic conflict. Armenia eventually won the war. 250,000 ethnic Armenians fled reprisals in Azerbaijan and up to 700,000 Azerbaijanis fled, or were forcibly expelled from territories in and around Nagorno-Karabakh.
