However , contemporary Armenophobia in Azerbaijan traces its roots to the last years of the Soviet Union , when Armenians demanded that the Moscow authorities transfer the mostly Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast in the Azerbaijan SSR to the Armenian SSR . In response to those Armenian demands , anti-Armenian rallies were held in various cities , where nationalist groups encouraged anti-Armenian feeling that led to pogroms in Sumgait , Kirovabad and Baku . An estimated 350,000 Armenians left between 1988 and 1990 as a direct result of the violence directed towards them
Sumgait
Sumgait pogrom
Anti-Armenian sentiment in Azerbaijan