Karabakh's separatist government to dissolve

More than half of Nagorno-Karabakh's population now in Armenia; unrecognised republic will cease to exist by year's end 

- 

THE separatist government of Nagorno-Karabakh said Thursday it will dissolve itself and the unrecognised republic will cease to exist by year's end after a three-decade bid for independence, while Armenian officials said half of the region's population has already fled.

The dramatic announcement came moments after it became clear that more than half of the rebel region's population had fled to Armenia in the face of advancing Azerbaijani forces.

It drew the curtain on one of the world's longest and seemingly most irreconcilable "frozen conflicts" - one that successive administrations in