Editing Nagorno-Karabakh (section)

=== 1921–1987 ===
1923 statistics indicate that the NKAO was 94.8 percent Armenian, numbering 149,600, whilst the Azerbaijani population numbered 7,700. Historian Cory Welt writes of a "discrepancy" of the Armenian population jumping by over 25,000 individuals between the 1921 and 1923 censuses, also pointing out that the Armenian population declined to 111,700 in 1926, thus indicating an "unexplained drop" of 38,000 individuals.<ref name="welt">{{Cite book |last=Cory D. |first=Welt |url=https://home.gwu.edu/~cwelt/ExplainingEthnicConflict_Welt.pdf |title=Explaining ethnic conflict in the South Caucasus: Mountainous Karabagh, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia |publisher=[[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] |year=2004 |pages=116 |oclc=59823134 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220911110408/https://home.gwu.edu/~cwelt/ExplainingEthnicConflict_Welt.pdf |archive-date=11 September 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> In the 1920s, the NKAO had a population of 131,500 people, 94.4 percent (124,136) of whom were ethnic Armenians and only 5.6 percent (7,364) of whom were ethnic Azerbaijanis.<ref name="thearmenianspastandpresent">{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/229988654 |title=The Armenians: Past and Present in the Making of National Identity |date=2005 |publisher=RoutledgeCurzon |first1=Edmund |last1=Herzig |first2=Marina |last2=Kurkchiyan |isbn=0-203-00493-0 |location=London |pages=66 & 121 |oclc=229988654}}</ref> In 1933, Nagorno-Karabakh had a population of 147,308, 10,751 (7.3 percent) of whom were urban dwellers, and 136,557 (92.7 percent) of whom were rural residents.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://rusneb.ru/catalog/000200_000018_rc_2682917/ |title=Административное деление АССР... 1. Районы, сельсоветы, списки, населенных мест с указанием численности населения, национального состава числа хозяйств по состоянию на 1/1-1933 г. 2. Список колхозов, совхозов, МТС и МТФ. 3. Карты, районов на тюрк. и рус. яз. (отдельно) - Азербайджанская ССР Управление народно-хозяйственного учета |date=1933 |language=ru |access-date=22 November 2022 |archive-date=28 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211228083343/https://rusneb.ru/catalog/000200_000018_rc_2682917/ |url-status=live }}</ref> On 1 January 1973, the oblast had a population of 153,000.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/greatsovietencyc0017unse |title=Great Soviet Encyclopedia |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] |year=1973 |volume=17 |location=New York |pages=301}}</ref>

==== Discrimination and stagnation ====

Whilst the region was a part of the Azerbaijan SSR, the Armenian share of the population dropped from 94.7 to 76.9 percent, whilst the Azerbaijani share of the population quadrupled from 5.1 to 21.5 percent<ref name="thearmenianspastandpresent" /> as a result of "migratory influx"<ref name="thepursuitofinternationalcriminaljustice" /> — indicative of the socio-economic difficulties local Armenians experienced under Soviet Azerbaijani leadership which led them to emigrate from Karabakh.<ref name="thearmenianspastandpresent" /> Emeritus professor of law [[M. Cherif Bassiouni]] writes of the stagnation of the Armenian population "due to the discriminatory policies of Azerbaijani authorities that compelled Armenians to emigrate"; also adding that 600,000 Armenians from Karabakh reside in Armenia and the countries of the [[Commonwealth of Independent States|CIS]].<ref name="thepursuitofinternationalcriminaljustice" /> According to historian Deon Geldenhuys, "[t]his was due to Baku's deliberate promotion of Azerbaijani settlement in Karabagh as part of a policy of 'cultural de-Armenization' of the region"; further adding that Azerbaijan "neglected the economic needs of the territory".<ref>{{cite book |last=Geldenhuys |first=Deon|title= Contested States in World Politics |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |year=2009 |isbn= 9780230234185 |volume=3 |location=Berkeley |page=97}}</ref> Stuart J. Kaufman, a professor of political science and international relations,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stuart Kaufman |url=https://www.udel.edu/faculty-staff/experts/stuart-kaufman/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221020085939/https://www.udel.edu/faculty-staff/experts/stuart-kaufman/ |archive-date=20 October 2022 |access-date=22 November 2022 |website=[[University of Delaware]]}}</ref> writes of the difficulties of Karabakh Armenians:<blockquote>… Armenian-language education was not easily available, Armenian history was not taught at all, and those who went to Armenia for training were discriminated against in competing for jobs in the province, … Underinvestment in the region—also blamed on Baku—meant less economic development and poor infrastructure even by Soviet standards, and therefore fewer jobs overall, especially for Armenians. Cultural ties with Armenia were strangled in red tape in Baku, and a decision to make Armenian-language television available in the region was left unimplemented. One result of these policies was a continuing exodus of Armenians from Karabagh in search of greener pastures.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kaufman |first=Stuart J. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1160511946 |title=Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War |date=2001 |isbn=978-1-5017-0199-3 |location=Ithaca, New York |pages=58–59 |oclc=1160511946}}</ref></blockquote>