However , the current xenophobia in Azerbaijan toward Armenia and Armenians have shaped mostly during the last years of the Soviet Union , when Armenians demanded the Moscow authorities to incorporate the mostly Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast with the Armenian SSR . In response to Armenian claims , the Azerbaijani nationalists , most prominently the Azerbaijani Popular Front , organized pogroms of Armenians in Sumgait , Kirovabad and Baku . An estimated of 350,000 Armenians left " in two waves in 1988 and in 1990 after anti-Armenian violence . " The tensions eventually escalated into a large-scale military conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh . The Armenian forces took control of most of former NKAO and seven adjacent districts outside of NKAO area . A cease-fire was reached in 1994 and is still in effect as the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is '' de facto '' independent , while '' de jure '' inside the Azerbaijani borders
Sumgait
Sumgait pogrom
Anti-Armenian sentiment