"Proceeding from the necessity for national peace among Muslims and Armenians, and of the economic ties between Upper and Lower Karabakh, of its permanent links with Azerbaijan, Mountainous Karabakh is to remain within the borders of the Azerbaijan SSR, granting it wide regional autonomy with the administrative center in Shusha, which is to become an autonomous region."
Caucasian Bureau of the RCP(b) (Kavbiuro) · 1921-07-05
Operative resolution of the Caucasian Bureau session of 5 July 1921, reversing its own decision of the previous evening (4 July) to assign Karabakh to Soviet Armenia. Reproduced from the Russian-language minutes (no "kavbiuro" institution slug yet).