Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan. When the Soviet Union witnessed rising tensions in its constituent republics in the 1980s, the Armenians of Karabakh illegally voted to join Armenia. This provoked a war that ended with a ceasefire in 1994.
For a long time, Karabakh was controlled by ethnic Armenian separatists, who were supported by the Armenian government. Until recently, negotiations mediated by international powers did not lead to a peace agreement.
In the autumn of 2020, Azerbaijan returned the occupied territories by military means.
