Law on Abolishment of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast is the Resolution No. 279-XII passed by the National Assembly of Azerbaijan and signed into law by the President of Azerbaijan Ayaz Mutalibov on November 26, 1991. The law had been prompted by a vote of National Assembly of Nagorno-Karabakh in favor of uniting itself with Armenia on 20 February 1988. The vote was followed by a referendum in 1988 which was boycotted by the Azerbaijani population of the Oblast; most voted in favor of independence. While these votes and elections had mainly been conducted in a relatively peaceful manner, in the following months, as the Soviet Union disintegrated, it gradually grew into an increasingly violent conflict between ethnic Armenians and ethnic Azerbaijanis. Both sides claimed that ethnic cleansing was being carried out. The declaration of secession from Azerbaijan was the final result of a territorial conflict regarding the land.