The Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the small ethnic enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by the Republic of Armenia against the Republic of Azerbaijan. As the war progressed, Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former Soviet Republics, became enveloped in a protracted, undeclared war in the mountainous heights of Karabakh as Azerbaijan attempted to curb a secessionist movement in Nagorno-Karabakh. The enclave's parliament had voted in favor of uniting itself with Armenia and a referendum was held with the vast majority of the Karabakh population voting in favor of independence. The demand to unify with Armenia, which proliferated in the late 1980s, began in a relatively peaceful manner; however, in the following months, as the Soviet Union's disintegration neared, it gradually grew into an increasingly violent conflict between the two ethnic groups, resulting in claims of ethnic cleansing by all sides. Full-scale fighting erupted in the late winter of 1992. By the end of the war in 1994, the Armenians were in full control of most of the enclave and also held and currently control approximately 9% of Azerbaijan's territory outside the enclave. A Russian-brokered ceasefire was signed in May 1994 and peace talks, mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group, have been held ever since by Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagorno-Karabakh_War

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

216 BC:

Second Punic War: Carthaginian forces led by Hannibal defeated a numerically superior Roman army, near the town of Cannae in Apulia in southeast Italy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cannae

1870:

Tower Subway, one of the world's first underground tube railways, opened beneath the River Thames in London. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_Subway

1903:

In present-day Republic of Macedonia and Greece, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization started the Ilinden Uprising against the Ottoman Empire . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilinden-Preobrazhenie_Uprising

1980:

A terrorist bomb exploded at the Central Station of Bologna, Italy, killing 85 people and wounding more than 200. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_massacre

1989:

The Indian Peace Keeping Force began killing 64 minority Sri Lankan Tamil civilians over a two-day period in Valvettiturai, Sri Lanka. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Valvettiturai_massacre

1990:

Iraq invaded Kuwait, overrunning the Kuwaiti military within two days, and eventually sparking the outbreak of the Gulf War seven months later. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Kuwait

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

akimbo (adj): With a crook or bend; with the hand on the hip and elbow turned outward http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/akimbo

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Now, it is true that the nature of society is to create, among its citizens, an illusion of safety; but it is also absolutely true that the safety is always necessarily an illusion. Artists are here to disturb the peace. --James Baldwin http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Baldwin