Karabakh movement | |||
---|---|---|---|
Part of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, First Nagorno-Karabakh War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union | |||
Date | 13 February 1988 — 30 April 1991 | ||
Location | |||
Goals | Unification of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia | ||
Methods | Demonstrations, sit-ins, strikes, hunger strike, student protest, civil disobedience | ||
Resulted in | Establishment of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Escalation of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War | ||
Parties | |||
Lead figures | |||
Number | |||
The Karabakh movement (Armenian: Ղարաբաղյան շարժում), also known as the Artsakh movement[7][8] (Armenian: Արցախյան շարժում), was a national mass movement[9] in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh from 1988 to 1991 that advocated for the transfer of the mainly Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of neighboring Azerbaijan to the jurisdiction of Armenia.
Initially, the movement was entirely devoid of any anti-Soviet sentiment and did not call for independence of Armenia. The Karabakh Committee, a group of intellectuals, led the movement from 1988 to 1989. It transformed into the Pan-Armenian National Movement (HHSh) by 1989 and won majority in the 1990 parliamentary election. In 1991, both Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh declared independence from the Soviet Union. The intense fighting known as the first Nagorno-Karabakh War turned into a full-scale war by 1992.[citation needed]
As many as one million people demonstrated in the Armenian capital of Yerevan in February to demand that Nagorno-Karabakh be made part of Armenia
The Gharabagh movement in Armenia—as mobilised for and through the issue of the enclave's unification to the republic—is a prime example of a mass national movement.