I remember when Nagorno Karabakh was in the news some years ago—I thought the idea was to be united with Armenia, not to be a separate country. Ironically many of the conflicts in the former USSR and the former Yugoslavia revolve around decisions made by Stalin or Tito over whether a particular region would have the status of “republic” (when that was almost meaningless—everything being under the control of the Communists) or some lower status such as “autonomous region.” Those which were “republics” gained international recognition fairly quickly.