The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of Azerbaijan SSR which started in early 1988[2] had developed unmitigated and claimed lives of many civilians, interior troops and army.

With consent from the authorities in Azerbaijan and Armenia, Boris Yeltsin and Nursultan Nazarbayev led a mediating mission on September 20–23 visiting Baku, Ganja, Stepanakert (also known as Վարարակն (Vararakn) by Armenians, and called Xankəndi (Khankendi) by Azerbaijanis) and Yerevan.

[3] This allowed the parties to agree to a joint communique the next day, committing both sides to disarm and withdraw militias, allow return of refugees and IDPs, re-establish Soviet-era administrative order of the Nagorno-Karabakh oblast and set up delegations to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Soviet army and internal troops would still remain in the conflict zone and the process would be supervised by Russian and Kazakh officials.

The peace communiqué was discussed with participation of Y. Shaposhnikov, V.Barannikov, S. Voskanyan, M. Gezalov, V. Dzhafarov, R. Kocharian, L. Petrosian, M. Radayev and was signed by Boris Yeltsin (Russian Federation), Ayaz Mutalibov (Azerbaijan), Nursultan Nazarbayev (Kazakhstan) and Levon Ter-Petrosian (Armenia).