<P> Most weaponry was Russian - made or came from the former Eastern bloc countries; some improvisation was made by both sides . Azerbaijan received substantial military aid and provisions from Turkey, Israel and numerous Arab countries . The Armenian Diaspora donated a significant amount of aid to Armenia through the course of the war and even managed to push for legislation in the United States Congress to pass a bill entitled Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act in response to Azerbaijan's blockade against Armenia, placing a complete ban on military aid from the United States to Azerbaijan in 1992 . While Azerbaijan charged that the Russians were initially helping the Armenians, it was said that "the Azerbaijani fighters in the region (were) far better equipped with Soviet military weaponry than their opponents ." </P> <P> With Gorbachev resigning as Soviet General - Secretary on 26 December 1991, the remaining republics including Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, declared their independence and the Soviet Union ceased to exist on 31 December 1991 . This dissolution gave way to any barriers that were keeping Armenia and Azerbaijan from waging a full - scale war . One month prior, on 21 November, the Azerbaijani Parliament had rescinded Karabakh's status as an autonomous region and renamed its capital "Xankandi ." In response, on 10 December, a referendum was held in Karabakh by parliamentary leaders (with the local Azerbaijani community boycotting it), whereby the Armenians voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence . On 6 January 1992, the region declared its independence from Azerbaijan . </P> <P> The withdrawal of the Soviet interior forces from Nagorno - Karabakh in the Caucasus region was only temporary . By February 1992, the former Soviet states were consolidated as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). While Azerbaijan abstained from joining, Armenia, fearing a possible invasion by Turkey in the escalating conflict, entered the CIS, which brought it under the organization's "collective security umbrella ." In January 1992, CIS forces established their new headquarters at Stepanakert and took up a slightly more active role in peacekeeping, incorporating old units, including the 366th Motorized Rifle Regiment and elements of the Soviet 4th Army . </P> <P> The sporadic battles between Armenians and Azerbaijanis had intensified after Operation Ring recruited thousands of volunteers into improvised armies from both Armenia and Azerbaijan . In Armenia, a recurrent and popular theme at the time compared and idolized the separatist fighters to historical Armenian guerrilla groups and revered individuals such as Andranik Ozanian and Garegin Nzhdeh, who fought against the Ottoman Empire during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries . In addition to the government's conscription of males aged 18--45, many Armenians volunteered to fight and formed jokats, or detachments of about forty men, which, combined with several others, came under the command of a lieutenant colonel . Initially, many of these men chose when and where to serve and acted on their own behalf, rarely with any oversight, when attacking or defending areas . Direct insubordination was common as many of the men simply did not show up, looted the bodies of dead soldiers and commodities such as diesel oil for armored vehicles disappeared only to be sold in black markets . </P>

What are the two countries involved in the nagorno karabakh crisis