Why Autonomy? The Making of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region 1918–1925

Mountainous Karabakh—an Armenian-populated area within Elizavetpol’ guberniya with a Turkic majority—became a source of dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan after the collapse of the Russian Empire. During the Soviet conquest of the region, the Bolshevik Party used the issue of Karabakh to promote its agenda by supporting at times the claims of its ally Azerbaijan, or those of Armenia when it needed to facilitate the capture of Zangezur. By 1921, when the Sovietisation of the region was complete, the Karabakh issue was still unresolved. The solution adopted was to leave Karabakh under Azerbaijani control on condition that it had autonomous status, but this was a solution that satisfied neither side.