inter ethnic fighting between armenia and neighbouring azerbaijan broke out shortly after the parliament of nagorno-karabakh, an autonomous oblast in azerbaijan, voted to unify the region with armenia on february 20, 1988. the armenian demand to unify karabakh with armenia, which proliferated in the late 1980s, began in a relatively peaceful manner; however, as the soviet union's disintegration neared, the dispute gradually grew into a violent conflict between the ethnic groups in nagorno-karabakh, resulting in ethnic cleansing by all sides.