Negotiations for a peace settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh, the contested region in Azerbaijan that slipped into war as the Soviet Union collapsed, have gained ground recently after years of stalemate, raising the possibility of an agreement this year, diplomats familiar with the talks say. Fighting between Armenians and Azerbaijanis in Nagorno-Karabakh killed at least 18,000 people and displaced more than one million others in the early 1990’s. The region, an ethnic-Armenian enclave within the borders of Azerbaijan and a fortified area around it, has been under military occupation by Armenian-backed forces since a cease-fire in 1994, creating a formidable military front in the western mountains of Azerbaijan. Full Story