In 1990, before the collapse of the Soviet Union, an arm-wrestle with Azerbaijan had very serious consequences.

Although the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan ostensibly support the decision of the Soviet Union Central Committee, the excitement of the people of the two countries has not calmed down.

On the evening of January 13, 1990, a rally attended by 150,000 people was held in the central square of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, a Soviet Union. At the meeting, someone suddenly jumped on the podium and announced a piece of news to the people: just the day before, a group of Armenian extremists took a helicopter and launched an attack on villages in the Nagorno region of Azerbaijan, killing many people. Named Azerbaijani.

The Azerbaijanis who were rallying rushed into the streets without waiting for the rally to end. They brought sticks and Molotov cocktails to the Armenian area of ????Baku, broke into Armenian homes, and threw their furniture and clothes into the street. Some angry Azerbaijanis beat the Armenians with big sticks. People, burning down their houses with Molotov cocktails. The riots that night resulted in the deaths of at least fifty Armenians, and thousands of Armenians fled to Krasnovodsk by boat.

The next day, more than 300,000 Armenians held a rally in the capital Yerevan, demanding that the Armenian government protect Armenians living in Azerbaijan. People surrounded Slunikov, a member of the Political Bureau of the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee, who was inspecting work in Yerevan, demanding that he agree to the establishment of a "Special Self-Defense Committee" in Armenia and the implementation of general mobilization among Armenians.

On January 14, a fierce exchange of fire broke out between the two sides on the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Although the firefighters were not regular troops representing the government, but voluntary militias and armed personnel, the military of both countries provided these armed personnel with armored vehicles, machine guns and rocket launchers. In one day, fifty or sixty people were killed on both sides, and the emotions on both sides became even more intense.

At first, the Armenian government could still obey Slyunnikov’s order and ask people to calm down and exercise restraint; but the residents of Yerevan lost their minds and rushed into police stations and barracks, snatching away police and police equipment. Soldiers' weapons rushed from all over the country to the Nagorno region of Azerbaijan, which is adjacent to their own country, vowing to avenge the dead compatriots. Azerbaijani armed personnel also spontaneously formed a volunteer team, armed with automatic rifles and machine guns, blocking all roads leading to Armenia.

On January 16, the Soviet Union sent 160,000 army and police troops to Azerbaijan. These troops include the special forces of the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs, and their combat effectiveness should be particularly powerful. However, the elite "Dzerzhinsk Division" of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was ambushed after entering Kirovabad, Azerbaijan's second largest city. Azerbaijan's newly established "People's Front Defense Committee" blocked all roads into the city and Seven soldiers of the Dzerzhinsk Division were killed on the way from the airport to the city.

On January 17, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union declared a state of emergency in Baku, and a large number of Soviet reinforcements, supported by tanks, rushed into the capital of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan's new "Popular Front Defense Committee" immediately declared this day to be Azerbaijan's "National Humiliation Day" and demanded that Gorbachev resign immediately and that the Soviet troops "get out" of Azerbaijan.

The development of the situation surprised many people. The Central Committee of the Soviet Union immediately held an emergency meeting and dismissed Vezirov, the first secretary of the Azerbaijani Central Committee. The Soviet army then used artillery and tanks to attack members of the "People's Front Defense Committee" located in Baku, shattering the Their attempt to seize leadership of Azerbaijan.

By January 26, 80 Azerbaijani extremists were killed by the Soviet army and about 500 were arrested; the Soviet army also paid the price of 20 soldiers and 5 policemen. , and 498 people were injured.

The conflict between Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan during the Soviet period broke out on January 18 and subsided at the end of January, causing direct economic losses of approximately 250 million rubles. The riots killed 200,000 Armenians and several Thousands of Azerbaijanis became refugees.

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, a war broke out directly between Armenia and Azerbaijan to compete for the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Although the two sides reached a ceasefire agreement in 1994, skirmishes continued in the area until this time.

The Nagorno-Karabakh region is a microcosm of the ethnic conflicts in the Soviet Union. The ethnic conflicts in the region reflect the Soviet Union's serious mistakes in coordinating the relations between the participating countries and ethnic groups. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict not only triggered bloodshed in Afghanistan and Asia, but also strained the relations between the Baltic countries and the Soviet Union. It also caused a chain reaction in the domestic countries that had joined the Soviet Union. This also added a catalyst for the final disintegration of the Soviet Union.