Conflict coverage · South Caucasus

The Karabakh movement begins

20 Feb 1988Key eventStepanakert / Khankendi · Yerevan

PoliticalArmenia–Azerbaijan / Karabakh legacy

The soviet of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast votes to request transfer from Soviet Azerbaijan to Soviet Armenia; mass demonstrations rise in Stepanakert (Khankendi) and Yerevan. Moscow refuses, and the dispute escalates beyond the system's ability to contain it.

Why it mattersThe first open territorial challenge of the glasnost era — the moment a stored Soviet border question became live politics, and the starting point of the conflict that would outlast the USSR by three decades.

Confidence: HighSources: Established historical recordMethodology Corrections

See this event in the timeline Interactive: select this record and follow what connects to it.

Related structure

3 records that this event names, or that name it. Every one is an explicit reference in a published record — nothing here is inferred from subject matter.

Part of

Campaigns whose record places this event inside them.

Karabakh conflictMovement, pogroms and the Soviet collapse

Actors

Actor records this event names.

Where this fits

This is one entry in the Caucasus timeline. The full Key Events surface carries every dated turning point with its filters and its essential subset, and this event in place shows what came before and after it. How Vigil grades, dates and sources its claims is set out in the methodology.