Azerbaijan

Muslim state in the Caucasus conquered by Russia and Turkey in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Declaring independence 1918, Azerbaijan was conquered by the Bolsheviks in 1920 and became part of the Soviet Union in 1922. In 1988-89, clashes with Armenian Christians living in the enclave of Ngorno-Karabakh began, continuing after Azerbaijan became independent of the USSR on 23 August 1991. A cease-fire was agreed (1994-95) but did not resolve the dispute.