The idea originated in an era of realignment among the Armenians who were unhappy that the area inhabited predominantly by an Armenian population has remained under the jurisdiction of Azerbaijan. From the 1970s, with the support of the first secretary of the Central Committee of Communist Party of Azerbaijan SSR, Heydar Aliyev, a policy of settling NKAO by Azerbaijanis was being implemented. The Armenian pogroms in Sumgait and Baku only exacerbated these trends, which led to military clashes between troops of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the forces of the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army (Artsakh).[5]
^Nodia, Ghia (Winter 1997–1998). "Causes and Visions of Conflict in Abkhazia". University of California, Berkeley. p. 15. Mountainous Karabakh should not be part of Azerbaijan not because Artsakh (the Armenian name for Karabakh) is an ancient Armenian land and Miatsum (unification) is a legitimate Armenian project, but because Azerbaijan allegedly mistreats its minorities.
^Toal, Gerard; O'Loughlin, John (1 April 2013). "Land for Peace in Nagorny Karabakh? Political Geographies and Public Attitudes Inside a Contested De Facto State". Territory, Politics, Governance. 1 (2): 158–182. doi:10.1080/21622671.2013.842184. S2CID54576963. Unity with Armenia, after all, had been the proclaimed goal previous to this (the slogan of the early phases of the Karabakh movement was miatsum, 'unification'), and an annexationist policy endorsed by the Soviet Armenian parliament.
