Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Information.
KARABAKH (The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic - NKR or Artsakh Republic ) is a de facto independent republic located in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of the South Caucasus. Area - 11000 sq.km. Population - 141 400. Capital - Stepanakert The predominantly Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh became disputed between Armenia and Azerbaijan when both countries gained independence from the Russian Empire in 1918. After the Soviet Union established control over the area, in 1923 it formed the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) within the Azerbaijan SSR. In the final years of the Soviet Union, the region re-emerged as a source of dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan, culminating in a large ethnic conflict and, eventually, in the Nagorno-Karabakh War that was fought from 1991 to 1994. On December 10, 1991, as the Soviet Union was dissolving, a referendum held in the NKAO and the neighboring Shahumian region resulted in a declaration of independence from Azerbaijan as the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The country remains unrecognized by any UN-member state, including Armenia. Only Transnistria, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia, UN non-members, recognize the state. Since the ceasefire in 1994, most of Nagorno-Karabakh and several regions of Azerbaijan around it remain under joint Armenian and Nagorno-Karabakh military control. Representatives of the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan have since been holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group. Currency : In use Armenian dram. Nagorno-Karabakh dram only as souvenirs.
