Wars in the Caucasus, 19901995

As Soviet Communism dissolved it was replaced in the Caucasus by nationalism enabling the Republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia to obtain independence: Chechenya is still fighting on. War between Armenia and Azerbaijan started immediately over the Azeri administered Nagorno-Karabakh and Nakhicheven enclaves within Armenia, which has already cost over 30,000 lives, and displaced a million people. Warlord-ridden Georgia erupted into civil war for central power, while the countryside lay in the grip of ethnic groups and bandit gangs, its Muslim Abkhazia province, aided by Russians, fought a three-year separatist war that remains a stalemate.