again nk never existed as a region before s while nagorno translates as mountainous it was never a separate region and nk as a region is separated from armenia by kelbajar lachin and other districts of azerbaijan the sources above do not say that nk existed as a stand alone region historically even russian imperial administrative divisions such as jevanshir and shusha uyezds included both mountainous and lowland parts of the region so we need to clarify that nk as a region did not border armenia if we are talking about geographic region of karabakh then its mountainous part extends right to the border with armenia however upper and lower karabakh historically formed a single region and geographic concept of karabakh includes both highlands and lowlands the history of nk as a historical and political notion starts in s when it was artificially carved out of karabakh to become an autonomy for armenians it was purely a soviet invention master