The long-lasting conflict between the Republic of Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region has been on the agenda for more than two decades. The conflict started at the end of the 1980s, when Armenia sought to annex the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) of Azerbaijan, seizing the opportunity created by the collapse of the Soviet Union. The conflict gradually evolved into a full-scale interstate war between Armenia and Azerbaijan as they gained independence in 1991, causing approximately 30,000 fatalities and over a million IDPs and refugees, an overwhelming majority of them Azerbaijanis. The active phase of the bloodiest of the post-Soviet conflicts ended with a ceasefire agreement in 1994, leaving 20% of internationally recognized territories of Azerbaijan under Armenian occupation. Hostilities have continued ever since, with dozens of soldiers and civilians dying each year. The Line of Contact (LoC) between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops has become the most militarized area in the whole post-Soviet space.