Background

The NKAO had petitioned Moscow repeatedly during the Soviet period, arguing that Armenian-majority Karabakh should be joined to the Armenian SSR. Glasnost made old grievances speakable. By February 1988, demonstrations in Stepanakert and Yerevan had turned the issue into mass politics.

The vote

On 20 February 1988, the oblast Soviet voted to request transfer from Soviet Azerbaijan to Soviet Armenia. Armenian deputies supported the appeal; Azerbaijani representatives largely boycotted or rejected it. The request was framed by Armenians as lawful self-determination within Soviet constitutional procedures. Moscow rejected it, fearing that revising internal borders would destabilise the union.

Consequences

The vote did not cause violence by itself, but it changed the political field. It made Karabakh a mass national question, encouraged the Karabakh Movement, and provoked Azerbaijani mobilisation against territorial loss. Within a week, the Sumgait pogrom destroyed any remaining Armenian trust that autonomy under Azerbaijan could be safe editorial.

The legal contradiction remains central. Armenians stress that the vote used Soviet institutions; Azerbaijanis stress that a regional vote could not override republican territorial integrity contested. Both principles existed in Soviet law, and the system had no legitimate way to reconcile them once mass politics entered the street editorial.