ABSTRACT
The history of relations between the Armenians and the Azerbaidzhanis is a troubled one. Tensions long predate the dispute over whether or not the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast should be transferred from the Azerbaidzhan Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) to the Armenian SSR. Azerbaidzhan was the home of an ancient Persian-speaking population. But after the Arab conquest the local population, converted to Islam, began to absorb growing numbers of Turkic-speaking tribesmen. By the fifteenth century the mass of the population was Turkic-speaking, although, as adherents of Shiite Islam, they maintained a cultural affinity to Persia. The Bolshevik takeover of Azerbaidzhan in 1919–20 led to a renewal of ethnic violence. This time the fighting centered in three territories whose possession was disputed between Soviet Armenia and Soviet Azerbaidzhan: Nakhichevansk, Zanzegur, and Nagorno-Karabakh. At first, in 1920, the newly formed Moscow-dominated Soviet government in Azerbaidzhan recognized Armenian claims over the three regions.
