1985年時任蘇聯總書記戈爾巴喬夫發起的政治和經濟改革代表蘇聯當局開始把權利下放。在亞美尼亞和納卡地區的亞美尼亞人把戈爾巴喬夫的改革計劃視之為合并兩地的一個機會。在1988年2月20日,成千上萬的亞美尼亞人在斯捷潘納克特的列寧廣場(現文藝復興廣場)聚集,要求納卡地區加入亞美尼亞。同一時間納卡地區的最高蘇維埃也已經投票加入亞美尼亞蘇維埃社會主義共和國,但此舉遭到蘇維埃阿塞拜疆當局的反對。戈爾巴喬夫反對並援引蘇聯憲法第78條,指出各共和國未經事先同意不得改變其邊界。蘇聯的國營媒體也譴責納卡議會的投票以及持續不斷的示威。然而,這些行爲在阿塞拜疆人之中引起更大的共鳴。就像記者托馬斯·德瓦爾(英语:Thomas de Waal)在他2003年關於衝突的著作所寫道,在理事會上訴後,整個情況是緩慢地展開武裝衝突開始的第一天。[12]
^Vaserman, Arie; Ginat, Ram. National, territorial or religious conflict? The case of Nagorno‐Karabakh. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. 1994, 17 (4): 348. doi:10.1080/10576109408435961. These events contributed to the anti-Armenian riots of February 28–29 in Sumgait near Baku. According to official data, 32 Armenians were killed during the riots, but various Armenian sources claimed that more than 200 people were killed.
^Hovhannisyan, Mari. The Collective Memory of the Armenian Genocide(PDF). Budapest: Central European University: 21. 2010. (原始内容存档(PDF)于2014-11-29). The posters carried by the Armenians on April 24, 1988 were verifications of the fact that Armenians saw the Sumgait massacres as the continuation of the genocide.
^Pheiffer, Evan. A Place to Live For. Jacobin. 2016-06-01. (原始内容存档于2016-09-19). Complicating matters, Armenians seem incapable of separating the 1988 pogroms from the 1915 Ottoman atrocities — mention of one immediately triggers talk of the other.
^Glasnost: : Vol. 2, Issue 1, Center for Democracy (New York, N.Y.) – 1990, p. 62, cit. 'The massacre of Armenians in Sumgait, the heinous murders in Tbilisi—these killings are examples of genocide directed by the Soviet regime against its own people.', an announcement by USSR Journalists' Union
^Time of change: an insider's view of Russia's transformation, Roy Medvedev, Giulietto Chiesa – 1991 – p. 209