Conflicts & Resolutions · War

First Nagorno-Karabakh War

1988–1994 · 20th century · Also known as First Karabakh War

The First Nagorno-Karabakh War was fought between Azerbaijan and Armenian forces over Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-majority region of Soviet Azerbaijan, as the Soviet Union collapsed. Armenian forces took the region and seven surrounding districts, and hundreds of thousands of people on both sides were displaced. A Russian-brokered ceasefire in May 1994 froze the conflict until the war of 2020.

First Nagorno-Karabakh War
Image: Nicholas Babaian, Oleg Litvin, Jalpeyrie, MarshallBagramyan, collage: Gulustan · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 2 state histories

ArmeniaAzerbaijan

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). First Nagorno-Karabakh War. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/first-nagorno-karabakh-war
MLA
“First Nagorno-Karabakh War.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/first-nagorno-karabakh-war. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “First Nagorno-Karabakh War.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/first-nagorno-karabakh-war.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘First Nagorno-Karabakh War’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/first-nagorno-karabakh-war (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻