An analysis of recently declassified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) documents reveals a pattern over the past twenty-five years of official - although confidential - acknowledgement of the fact that Nagorno Karabakh is a historic part of Armenia, reported the Armenian National Committee of America. The declassified documents - some from as back as the 1970s, confirm that successive U.S. Administrations have known that: Nagorno Karabakh is historically Armenian and has always maintained a legitimate claim to be reunited with Armenia. Azerbaijani hostility toward Armenians in the late 1980s and early 1990s was not based on an Azerbaijani claim to Nagorno Karabakh, but, rather, was the outlet for growing domestic Azerbaijani frustrations over political, economic and demographic shifts that increased the gap in living standards between Azerbaijan and Armenia.