The most recent Armenian irredentist movement , the Karabakh movement that began in 1988 , sought to unify Nagorno-Karabakh with then-Soviet Armenia . As a result of the subsequent war with Azerbaijan , the Armenian forces have established effective control over most of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts , thus succeeding in '' de facto '' unification of Armenia and Karabakh . Some Armenian nationalists consider Nagorno-Karabakh " the first stage of a United Armenia . " In its current meaning , the term " United Armenia " was coined during the Armenian national awakening in the second half of the 19th century . During this period , the Armenian-populated areas were divided between the Russian Empire ( Eastern Armenia ) and the Ottoman Empire ( Western Armenia ) . One of the earliest uses of the phrase " United Armenia " is by the English Society of Friends of Russian Freedom in an 1899 edition of '' Free Russia '' monthly . It quotes a confidential report of Grigory Golitsin ( the Russian governor of the Caucasus ) sent to tsar Nicholas II " containing suggestions for a future policy . " Golitsin is convinced that there exists a nationalist movement which " aims at the restoration of the independent Armenia of the past . " Golitsin writes that " their ideal is one great and united Armenia . " The idea of an independent and united Armenia was the main goal of the Armenian national liberation movement during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries . By the 1890s , a low-intensity armed conflict developed between the three major Armenian parties — the Armenian Revolutionary Federation ( Dashnak ) , Hnchak and Armenakan — and the Ottoman government . Calls from the great powers for reforms in the Armenian provinces and Armenian aspirations of independence resulted in the Hamidian massacres between 1894 and 1896 , during which up to 300,000 Armenian civilians were slaughtered by the order of Sultan Abdul Hamid II , after whom the massacres were named . After the 1908 Young Turk Revolution , some Armenians felt that the situation would improve ; however , a year later the Adana massacre took place and Turkish-Armenian relations deteriorated further . After the Balkan Wars of 1912 – 1913 , the Ottoman government was pushed to accept the reforms in the Armenian provinces in early 1914
Hamidian massacres
Hamidian massacres
United Armenia