An overwhelming majority of Armenians want Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) to be formally made part of the Republic of Armenia, according to polling conducted between February-March 2020 and recently published. Overall, eighty-six percent of Armenians favor such an outcome in latest poll, compared to 73 percent who would also accept Artsakh’s recognition as an independent state.

The poll also found little acceptance for Artsakh’s inclusion into Azerbaijan, whether with or without autonomy, with only one percent of respondents agreeing to such outcomes “under certain circumstances.” At the same time some five percent of respondents found acceptable a model in which Artsakh would be jointly governed by Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The polling is part of the Caucasus Barometer project conducted by the Caucasus Research Resource Center (CRRC), established by the Eurasia Partnership Foundation (EPF) with funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

In other findings, the share of people expecting “a solution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict within the next 5 years [to be reached] through peaceful negotiation” declined from 61 percent in 2011 to 54 percent in 2013 and to 43 percent in 2020.

At the same time, the share of people expecting “a solution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict within the next 5 years [to be reached] through force” has reached 37 percent in 2020 compared to 20/21 percent in 2013 and 2011.

CRRC has been unable to conduct surveys in Azerbaijan since 2013.