The historian Arsène Saparov explains that due to Karabakh's location as a peripheral borderland within the region in relation to local historical empires, as well the specific economic relations between its peoples, "an extremely complex palimpsest-type toponymic landscape in Karabakh" was formed. There are four main toponymic layers in Karabakh; Turkic, Armenian, Iranian and Russian. In addition, there are a large number of mixed toponyms which contain elements from more than one language. Lastly, there has been a complexicity of simultaneous existence of two overlapping toponymic landscapes belonging to different languages. These two toponymic systems overlap, as Saparov explains, in space and time, and cover the same territory, but are used concurrently by two groups. One toponymic landscape was used by the sedentary Armenians of Karabakh, whereas the Turkic (later known as Azerbaijanis) and Kurdish nomads of the area used the other toponymic system for the same territory.
