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The NKR is hardly the first de facto state to stumble into existence. Bigger names such as Kosovo and Taiwan have done time as de facto states. The Confederate States Of America was a de facto state, and the Republic Of Texas was also one for a period of time. Kosovo and Taiwan are officially recognized as actual countries by 112 and 22 other countries, respectively.

The NKR, on the other hand, is the no-frills version of a de facto state. It was formed as the result of a fight over an Armenian community in Azerbaijan that Armenia wanted back, and because the NKR isn't recognized as an official country anywhere, it's in a near-constant state of war. Bordering countries will use it as a buffer for their own war zones, and it's been like this for about a quarter-century.

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Which is how you end up with a nation with way more landmines than people.

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"If you bring an iPhone there, it will [indicate you're in] Azerbaijan," our source told us. "To make things even a little more bizarre, Nagorno-Karabakh is also known by a ton of other names, such as Artsakh, the Republic Of Artsakh, Karabakh, Karabagh, the Armenian Occupied Territories, Southwest Azerbaijan, the Republic Of Mountainous Karabakh, or the Liberated Territories, all depending on who exactly you ask."