The Armenian-controlled territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh are parts of Nagorno-Karabakh that were deliberately excluded from Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast by the Communist Party of Azerbaijan in 1923, are formally part of Azerbaijan, which since the end of the Karabakh War are controlled by the military forces of the de facto Nagorno-Karabakh Republic supported by Armenia.
These areas have also been referred to as:
Based on the administrative and territorial division of Azerbaijan, Armenian forces control the territory of the following districts of Azerbaijan:
The total land area is 7,634 km2. The outer perimeter of these territories is a line of direct contact between the military forces of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijan.
At the outset of the Karabakh conflict, the majority-Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast / Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was surrounded by regions with Azerbaijani and Kurdish majorities and had no land border with Armenia. During the Nagorno-Karabakh war Azerbaijan had subjected Nagorno-Karabakh to a total blockade, which resulted in famine. As reported by the Human Rights Watch, "By the winter of 1991-92, as a result of Azerbaijan's three-year economic and transport blockade, Nagorno-Karabakh was without fuel…, electricity, running water, functioning sanitation facilities, communication facilities and most consumer goods." In 1992 the United States Congress added Section 907 to the Freedom Support Act of 1992, which banned direct US government support to the government of Azerbaijan. The bill namely stated: