Definition of "Artsakh"

The historian Movses Khorenatsi (an Armenian source from the fifth century AD according to some, and the eighth century AD, according to others) indicated that the province of Utik (along with Artsakh with which it was contiguous on the south) was part of the Armenian kingdom of the Ervandunis (or Orontids) between the fourth to second centuries BC.

1994, Levon Chorbajian, Patrick Donabédian, Claude Mutafian, The Caucasian Knot: The History & Geopolitics of Nagorno-Karabagh‎, Zed Books, page 53

For the most part, Caucasian Albania (in Armenian, A[ġ]vank—that is Aghvank or Aghouank) only stretched a short way south of the Kura River. If there was a disputed province of ancient Armenia, it was Utik (which contained the town of Partav, at one time Caucasian Albania's capital, and the southern valley of the Kura), and not Artsakh, the more mountainous region corresponding to Karabakh and Shahumianovsk today.

2003 December 16, John Wright, Richard Schofield, Suzanne Goldenberg, Transcaucasian Boundaries‎, Routledge, page 91

Khorenatsi indicated that the province of Utik, together with Artsakh adjoining it to the south, formed part of the Armenian kingdom of the Ervandunis (or Orontids) in the fourth to second centuries BC.

2016 May 13, Ohannes Geukjian, Ethnicity, Nationalism and Conflict in the South Caucasus: Nagorno-Karabakh and the Legacy of Soviet Nationalities Policy‎, Routledge, page 30