When Azerbaijan declared its independence from the Soviet Union, the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabagh followed suit. Before long, pogrom and war were the order of the day, resulting in thousands of Armenian and Azeri casualties. This book examines the history of mountainous Karabagh, the ancient Artsakh of the Armenians, and assesses the mass of archaeological material and documentary evidence supporting the conflicting Azeri and Armenian claims. The authors follow the populations of the area from antiquity through periods of Mongol, Turkmen and Persian occupation, onto Turkey's and Russia's entry on to the scene, the period of Bolshevik rule, perestroika and, finally, the war with Azerbaijan. The book highlights the Armenian culture of the enclave, traces Karabagh's demographic evolution and situates the current hostilities firmly in the regional context in terms of the interests of neighbouring Russia, Iran and Turkey. The picture that emerges is one of a clash of nationalistic passions and Russian economic, military and diplomatic calculation.