NAGORNO-KARABAKH

also spelled Nagorno-karabach, region of southwestern Azerbaijan. It occupies an area of 1,700 square miles (4,400 square km) on the northeastern flank of the Karabakh Range of the Lesser Caucasus and extends from the crest line of the range to the margin of the Kura River lowland at its foot. Nagorno-Karabakh's environments vary from steppe on the Kura lowland through dense forest of oak, hornbeam, and beech on the lower mountain slopes to birchwood and alpine meadows higher up. The peaks of the Karabakh Range culminate in Mount Gyamysh (12,218 feet ). Vineyards, orchards, and mulberry groves for silkworms are intensively developed in the valleys of Nagorno-Karabakh. Cereal grains are grown, and cattle, sheep, and pigs are kept. The region has some light industry and many food-processing plants. Xankndi (formerly Stepanakert) is the chief industrial centre. The area, historically known as Artsakh, was acquired by Russia in 1813, and in 1923 the Soviet government established it as an autonomous oblast (province) of the Azerbaijan S.S.R., even though its population was about 80 percent Armenian. Isolated from the Armenian S.S.R. to the west by the Karabakh Range, Nagorno-Karabakh thus became a minority enclave within Azerbaijan. The region developed quietly through decades of Soviet rule, but in 1988 the ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh began agitating for the transfer of their oblast to Armenian jurisdiction, a demand that was strongly opposed by both the Azerbaijan S.S.R. and the Soviet government. Ethnic antagonisms between Armenians and Azerbaijanis grew inflamed over the issue, and when Armenia and Azerbaijan gained their independence from the collapsing Soviet Union in 1991, Armenians and Azerbaijanis in the enclave went to war. By the mid-1990s the Karabakh Armenian forces, supported by Armenia, had gained control of much of southwestern Azerbaijan, including Nagorno-Karabakh and territory connecting the enclave with Armenia.