Law on Abolishment of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast

[1] The law had been prompted by a vote in the National Assembly of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast in favor of uniting itself with the Armenian SSR on 20 February 1988.

[2][3] The declaration of secession from Azerbaijan was the final result of a territorial conflict regarding the land.

279-XII discussed in the Azerbaijani Parliament stated that whereas the existence of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast created in 1923 brought tensions between the Azerbaijani and Armenian peoples; ran counter to the national interests of Azerbaijan; and created the basis and conditions for Armenian nationalists to destroy all ethnic, historical, political, economic and moral values and riches of Azerbaijan, the parliament thus considered creation of the oblast to be illegitimate.

The text questioned why an enclave with an Armenian majority had been created on Azerbaijani territory while no cultural autonomy was given to half a million Azerbaijanis in Armenia, whom the text claimed were being deported en masse.

The cities of Stepanakert, Mardakert, and Martuni were renamed to their respective Azeri names.