Karabakh movement

Karabakh movement
Part of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the dissolution of the Soviet Union
A 2013 post stamp dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the movement showing people with raised fists in Yerevan's Theatre Square and the Opera Theatre in the background in 1988
Date	February 1988 — 1991
Location	Armenia (mainly Yerevan) Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast
Goals	Unification of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia
Methods	Demonstrations, sit-ins, strikes, hunger strike, student protest, civil disobedience
Result	Establishment of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh War
Parties to the civil conflict
Karabakh Committee (1988–1989) Pan-Armenian National Movement (1989–1991) Armenia  Soviet Union Soviet Army KGB Azerbaijan
Lead figures
Levon Ter-Petrosyan Vazgen Manukyan Movses Gorgisyan Babken Ararktsyan Igor Muradyan Mikhail Gorbachev
Number
Yerevan: 1 million 400,000 300,000 200,000

 Soviet Union

The Karabakh movement (Armenian: Ղարաբաղյան շարժում, also the Artsakh Movement Արցախյան շարժում) was a mass nationalist movement in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh from 1988 to 1992 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. The intense fighting known as the Nagorno-Karabakh War turned into a full-scale war by 1992.