Armenians refused to allow the issue to subside despite a compromise made by Gorbachev , which included a promise of a 400 million-ruble package to introduce Armenian language textbooks and television programming in Karabakh . At the same time , Azerbaijan was unwilling to cede any territory to Armenia . Calls to transfer Karabakh to Armenia briefly subsided when a devastating earthquake hit Armenia on 7 December 1988 , which leveled the towns of Leninakan ( now Gyumri ) and Spitak , killing an estimated 25,000 people . But conflict brewed up once more when the eleven members of the newly formed Karabakh Committee , including the future president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan , were jailed by Moscow officials in the ensuing chaos of the earthquake . Such actions polarized relations between Armenia and the Kremlin ; Armenians lost faith in Gorbachev , despising him even more because of his handling of the earthquake relief effort and his uncompromising stance on Nagorno-Karabakh
devastating earthquake
1988 Armenian earthquake
Nagorno-Karabakh War