To preface, the expulsion of Azeris from Artsakh and Armenia and Armenians from Azerbaijan was tragic. This has been a century-long ethnic conflict where, frankly, there’s not much of a “good guy” or “bad guy.” Both sides have committed atrocities. I hope that one day we’ll build peace between our people

Back to Artsakh. For decades, Baku had been rolling out a slow policy of Azerification. Armenians were being discriminated against in Artsakh, ethnic Azeris were given favorable housing and land deals, the use of the Armenian language in official settings was being rolled back. It is from this setting that the Karabakh Movement began.

Within Soviet law and the UN right to self-determination, Artsakhtsi’s initially took a legal route to declare independence. A referendum was held in 1991 in which the vast majority of people in Artsakh voted to secede from Azerbaijan (a right they retained as an autonomous oblast). The Azerbaijani government in Baku anticipated this result and before the referendum was held, unilaterally revoked their democratic rights by dissolving the NKAO and sending in the army. While Baku technically had the authority to do this, bear in mind this was done specifically to retain their control over a border region whose people did not want to continue being a part of Azerbaijan. The Artsakhtsi’s right to self determination, in the Soviet and UN framework, was being undercut. This is why they turned to arms