Armenians in Azerbaijan are the Armenians who lived in great numbers in the modern state of Azerbaijan and its precursor , Soviet Azerbaijan . According to the statistics , about 500,000 Armenians lived in Soviet Azerbaijan prior to the outbreak of Nagorno Karabakh War in 1988 . Most of the Armenian-Azerbaijanis however had to flee the republic , like Azerbaijanis in Armenia , in the events leading up to the Nagorno-Karabakh War , a result of the ongoing Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict . Atrocities directed against the Armenian population have reportedly taken place in Sumgait ( February 1988 ) , Ganja ( Kirovabad , November 1988 ) and Baku ( January 1990 ) . Today the vast majority of Armenians in Azerbaijan live in territory controlled by the break-away region Nagorno-Karabakh ( 120,700 as of 1999 Azerbaijani official statistics ) which declared its unilateral act of independence in 1991 under the name Nagorno-Karabakh Republic but has not been recognised by any country , including Armenia
Ganja
Kirovabad pogrom
Armenians in Azerbaijan