The Armenian claims on the historical Azerbaijani
territories: Karabakh, Nakhichevan, Zangezur
Dr.
Vazeh ASKAROV
The Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over
Karabakh officially began in 1986 with the first refugees expelled from the
regions of Gafan and Megri (Armenia). In the previous researchers, we have
discussed many Armenian-Azerbaijani issues that have existed for over a
century. However, starting to study the origins of this conflict from the time
of glasnost does not seem justified. Armenian claims to the historical
Azerbaijani territories (Karabakh, Nakhchivan, Zangezur) were resolved by the
Moscow (March 16, 1921) and Kars (October 13, 1921) treaties. The assignment of
the Zangezur region to Armenia in 1921 ended the territorial continuity between
Azerbaijan and Turkiye. As a result of this transfer, Nakhchivan was separated
from Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani population in these regions had decreased from
51% in 1897 to 6% in 1926. Moscow accepted and proclaimed the Autonomous Soviet
Republic of Karabakh in July 1923 and the Autonomous Soviet Republic of
Nakhchivan in March 1924 (Constant, 2002: 286-296).
Referring to archival documents on the issue
of "Stalin's transfer" in 1921, concerning the mountainous part of
Karabakh to Azerbaijan as well as on the issues related to Zangezur and
Nakhichevan, we must emphasize that according to the Armenians, on July 5,
1921, the Caucasian Bureau of the Soviet Communist Party decided to include the
Nagorno-Karabakh province in the administrative territory of Azerbaijan.
However, how the communist power, in the first years of Sovietization, took
advantage of the conflict zones to establish itself in other regions of the
South Caucasus. N. Narimanov wrote to Lenin that ...the territories that were
Azerbaijani under the Musavat government became contested under the Soviet
regime, and the people saw this and complained. By analyzing the correspondence
between Chicherin, Lenin, Ordzhonikidze, and Narimanov, Hasanli explains that
the regions of Karabakh, Zangezur, and Nakhchivan were used in negotiations
with Armenia. Another reason for this policy was to block all relations between
Azerbaijan and Turkiye.
On
September 23, 1920, Boris Legran sent a coded telegram saying that there should
be no fear in transferring Zangezur and Nakhchivan to Armenia. However, these
territories were necessary for operations in Turkey and Tabriz. The author
specifies that after the establishment of Soviet power in Armenia (November 29,
1920), a declaration was made on December 1, 1920, stating that... from now on,
no territorial issue could be the cause of conflict between the two neighboring
nations... However, the dissemination of this declaration was published
differently in the press of these two countries. In the Bakinskiy rabochiy and
Kommunist newspapers, it was stated that the self-determination of
Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan was acknowledged. In contrast, the Kommunist
newspaper of Armenia published recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh as an integral
part of the Socialist Republic of Armenia. However, after the declaration was
made, the regions of Nakhchivan and Karabakh remained within Azerbaijan.
Nevertheless,
in order to implement the treaty between the Soviets and the Kemalist Turkey
(March 16, 1921), Nakhchivan became a very important autonomous region to
ensure the security of Turkey's eastern borders. On July 4, 1921, the Caucasian
Bureau (Kavburo) discussed the issue of including Karabakh in Armenia, under
the condition of organizing a plebiscite in Nagorno-Karabakh and leaving it
within Azerbaijan. On July 5, 1921, Kavburo decided to leave Karabakh within
Azerbaijan. These two words, "include" and "leave," would
later play their role at the end of the 20th century, at the beginning of this
bloody conflict. When the USSR collapsed, Armenians would present themselves
favorably to the world as victims of Stalin’s regime, in order to gain sympathy
from global opinion. After the decision on July 5, Armenian nationalist
intellectuals raised the question of Nagorno-Karabakh's autonomy. On July 7,
1923, the Central Executive Committee of Azerbaijan issued a decree on the
formation of the Autonomous Region of Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan.
In
the following years, the Karabakh issue would be raised several times by
Armenian nationalists. At that time, the activities of Armenian nationalists
were interrupted. However, the perestroika policy reintroduced nationalist
ideas not only in Azerbaijan but also across the entire USSR. But none of the
former Soviet republics experienced a tragedy as devastating as that which
directly involved two former federated republics.
A
number of Azerbaijani territories were also annexed to Armenia during the
Soviet era. The process began in 1922 with the transfer of Azerbaijani regions
such as Dilidjan and Goytche to Armenia. In 1923, nine districts of Nakhchivan
were annexed to Armenia. In 1929, the annexation of several villages from the
regions of Gazakh, Zengilan, and Ordubad to Armenia led to the creation of the
Meghri region. In 1946, 4,000 hectares of forest, and in 1969, large
territories from the regions of Gadabay, Gazakh, Tovuz, and Sederek were
transferred to Armenia, although this was only completed in 1984. While in
1918, the area of independent Armenia, according to the Treaty of Batumi on
June 4, 1918, was 9,000 km², by 1988, it reached 29,743 km². To this figure,
one can add another 20,000 km² from Karabakh and seven Azerbaijani regions
occupied by the Armenian army. In contrast, the area of Azerbaijan between 1918
and 1920 was 114,000 km², while the current area of the country is 86,600 km², including
the territories occupied by Armenian forces (Arzumanli, Mustafa, 1998, 129).
The Karabakh Liberation Organization (KLO) published a brochure in 2009 in
three languages about the consequences of the Armenian aggression. In the
brochure, it presents the chronology of Armenian aggression from 1918 to the
latest Karabakh conflict (Organization of Liberation of Karabakh, 2009).
The
first ethnic clashes during the Soviet era shook Azerbaijan in 1963 in Baku and
Sumgait, and in 1968 in Karabakh. In early 1965, one of the first events of
Armenian propaganda began in the USSR. That year, under the influence of the
Armenian diaspora, Armenians managed to organize the celebration of the 50th
anniversary of the "Armenian genocide" in the USSR. A year earlier, all
the media and publishing houses were occupied with anti-Turkish propaganda. It
was during this period that the Dashnaktsutyun Party (Armenian
nationalist-socialist party), which had been underground for many years, began
to operate openly. Thanks to Anastas Mikoyan, the party simultaneously
succeeded in celebrating the 100th anniversary of Andranik Ozanian. Even
Azerbaijani newspapers published articles about him, portraying him as a hero
of the Armenian people. At a rally organized on April 23, 1965, in Yerevan,
there were posters with the following slogans: "Western Armenia must
belong to Armenia," "Nagorno-Karabakh is ours, Nakhchivan is Armenian
land," "Armenians, the time for revenge for 1915 has come,
unite!" Here, we can easily see that the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and
the Karabakh movement are not recent, and during the Soviet era, they had
calmed down but operated in secrecy for a long time (Asadov, 1998).
Artificially
created at the end of 1987, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was, from the very
beginning, perceived by the Azerbaijani people as an attempt against the
territorial integrity of the country and a violation of the constitutional
rights of its citizens. The decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of
the USSR on January 12, 1989, concerning the introduction of a special regime
in the autonomous region, demonstrated Moscow’s idea of removing
Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan’s administration.
The
first 400 Azerbaijani refugees deported from Armenia settled in Sumgait, the
third-largest city in the country. After the anti-Turkish rally organized on
February 19, 1988, in Yerevan, the actions of Armenian nationalists escalated
even further. The next locations for protests were set in Karabakh. The goal
was to show the world, with the help of the Armenian diaspora, that the
Armenians of Karabakh, deprived of their rights, wanted to be annexed to
Armenia. Subsequently, they prepared a scenario for a tragedy in Sumgait,
involving refugees who had settled there two years earlier from Armenia. On
February 29, 1988, interethnic violence erupted in Sumgait, resulting in 32
deaths (26 Armenians and 6 Azerbaijanis) and several injuries after three days
of conflict. Two things particularly stood out: one of the individuals
responsible for these events, Pasha Grigoryan, was of Armenian descent, and
15-20 days before these events, the Armenian population of Sumgait had closed
their savings accounts (Ismayilov, Hesenov, Qafarov, 1995, 310-318).
Ariel
Kyrou and Maxime Mardoukhaïev (1989: 266) in Le Haut-Karabakh, vu du côté
Azerbaïdjan, write: "Three men were judged in a semi-trial after a
mock investigation: two Azerbaijanis and one Armenian, Grigorian, who allegedly
killed five Armenians".
Saying
that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict began after the events in Sumgait does not
correspond to the truth. According to Azerbaijanis, the conflict began in the
late 1980s with the expulsion of the Azerbaijani population from Armenia and
the murder of two Azerbaijanis in Askeran (Nagorno-Karabakh). However, neither
the Azerbaijani press nor the central press reported anything about it. Because
this period of the conflict's history remains unknown, until the events of
Sumgait, the tactics of Armenian nationalists were based on threats, blackmail,
and intimidation. On the other hand, regarding the Sumgait incidents, the
central media presented to the world public the aggressiveness and inhumanity
of the Azerbaijani people. For the murder of 26 Armenians in Sumgait, 96 people
were sentenced to death. However, public opinion was not informed of the brutal
deaths of 317 Azerbaijanis in Armenia during this period (Asadov, 1998).
In
May 1989, Ziya Buniyadov, historian and president of the Academy of Sciences of
Baku, proposed a very particular version of the pogroms. In his article titled
"Why Sumgait?", he concluded that the Armenians themselves
orchestrated the Sumgait pogrom with the aim of discrediting Azerbaijan and
stimulating the Armenian nationalist movement, stating: "The tragedy of
Sumgait was carefully planned by Armenian nationalists. A few hours before it
began, Armenian photographers and television crews secretly entered the city,
anticipating the development of the event. The first crime was conceived by a
certain Grigoryan, who presented himself as an Azerbaijani and who had killed
five Armenians in Sumgait" (Bünyadov, 1989).
Ariel
Kyrou and Maxime Mardoukhaïev (1989: 266), while emphasizing other details,
add: "Leaders of the National Self-Determination Union of Armenia, such as
Paruyr Hayrikyan, who was exiled to the United States after being expelled from
the USSR, assured me that they had many pieces of evidence showing that the
first murders were not committed, or at least directed, by Azerbaijanis, but by
KGB agents."
In
his interview, Victor Ilyukhin, the vice-president of the State Duma’s
committee, emphasized that: "The events of Sumgait were provoked by the
Armenians, at the same time as the expulsion of Azerbaijanis from Armenia. A
large number of Azerbaijanis were expelled, without even being allowed to take
documents or essential belongings. It was very cruel." When asked who
benefited from the pogrom against Armenians in Sumgait, he replied: "It
was advantageous for Armenia, for an adventurer like Levon Ter-Petrosyan. They
prepared the 'Sumgait card' at a time when the issue of separating Karabakh
from Azerbaijan was at stake... In short, they staged a grand spectacle of a
great tragedy".
From
1988 onwards, the events were no longer driven by Azerbaijanis, but by Armenian
separatists. In March 1988, a special decree on the socio-economic development
of the Nagorno-Karabakh region was adopted in the USSR. The approach was as
follows: a decree from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, on
January 12, 1989, introduced a special form of governance to strip Azerbaijan’s
authority over the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region (NKAO), and transferred
control to a special administration committee led by a representative of the
Centre, which effectively meant the secession of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Soviet
administration made efforts to create the image of a normalization of the
situation in the region, paying special attention to the issue, while remaining
silent about the great tragedy of the Azerbaijani people. On this issue, the
neutral position of the Azerbaijani administration betrayed its people. In
February 1988, at a meeting of the regional Soviet of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Autonomous Region (NKAO), without the participation of Azerbaijani deputies, a
decision was made to separate the NKAO from Azerbaijan and attach it to
Armenia. On December 1, 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR adopted a
decree on the annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh. This decree contradicted the
constitutions of the USSR and Azerbaijan, according to which the territory of a
Soviet republic could only be modified by mutual agreement between the
interested republics. Moscow's biased policy towards Azerbaijan caused anger
and mass protests. To control the situation, Moscow chose military
intervention. On the night of January 19–20, 1990, the Soviet army, without
declaring a state of emergency, massacred at least 137 people in Baku, and
hundreds of injuries, disappearances, and arrests were reported (Ismayilov,
Həsənov, Qafarov, 1995: 304-326).
During
the years 1987-1991, as part of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a policy of
complete expulsion of the Azerbaijani population from Armenia was implemented;
nearly 200,000 Azerbaijanis were expelled. In the early 20th century, Azerbaijanis
represented almost half of the population of the current territory of Armenia,
but today, according to unofficial statistics, there are no Azerbaijanis left
in the country, except for prisoners. According to Elnur Aslanov, former head
of the Policy Analysis and Information Support Department of the Presidential
Administration of Azerbaijan, the current number of Armenians living in
Azerbaijan is more than 20,000. Once the Armenian territories were emptied, the
next step was Nagorno-Karabakh. Between 1992 and 1994, the bloody
Armenian-Azerbaijani war over Karabakh took place.
One
of the most horrifying tragedies of this conflict occurred during the night of
February 25-26, 1992: the Khojaly massacre. By its population, Khojaly was the
second-largest city in the region after Shusha and had the only regional
airport. During military operations, the city was surrounded by Armenian
soldiers. The residents were forced to leave the city and walk towards Agdam, a
neighboring Azerbaijani city. However, most of them were unable to escape an
attack launched late at night. That night, the Armenian armed forces, supported
by the 366th Russian army regiment, savagely massacred civilians, including the
elderly, women, and children. The city was occupied and completely set on fire.
Equipped with artillery and more modern weapons than the Azerbaijani fighters,
these soldiers carried out the bloodiest massacre in the history of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict (Constant, 2002).
After
the events of February 1988, the militia of Nagorno-Karabakh and the Armenian
armed forces began operations to conquer the region. The Soviet armed forces
stationed in the region joined them. With the strengthening of the National
Movement, in March 1992, A. Mutalibov, the first president of the Republic,
resigned from his position. The chaos and disorder of the government further
weakened the defense capabilities of the Azerbaijani Republic. After two years
of fighting, the Armenian army occupied the entire territory of Nagorno-Karabakh
and seven additional districts surrounding it. In February 1992, a mediation
process began to resolve the conflict, within the framework of the Conference
on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE, now OSCE). The United Nations (UN)
confirmed the injustice of this war against Azerbaijan, the violation of its
territorial integrity, and the territorial occupation of part of Azerbaijan.
The UN demanded, as early as 1993, the immediate, complete, and unconditional
withdrawal of all occupying forces from the Azerbaijani territories occupied,
through four resolutions (Nos. 822, 853, 874, 884). A ceasefire was signed on
May 5, 1994, in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan). During the CSCE summit in Budapest, on
December 5-6, 1994, it was decided that the heads of state and government of
the participating countries would create a co-chair of the Minsk Conference to
coordinate all mediation actions within this framework. Since that date,
dialogue on the peaceful resolution of the conflict has continued, but with no
conclusive results.
From
1988 to 1994, the South Caucasus region was the site of a conflict between
Armenia and Azerbaijan over control of Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory located
within Azerbaijan. The war intensified over the years, culminating in the
Khojaly massacre from February 23 to 26, 1992, where 613 people, including 106
women and 83 children, were killed. After several years of fighting, the war
ended in 1994, but tensions remained high.
The
Second Karabakh War, or "Iron Fist" operation, marked a major turning
point in this long-standing confrontation. It began on September 27, 2020, in
response to a blatant ceasefire violation by Armenian forces. In retaliation,
Azerbaijani armed forces launched a counteroffensive to respond to provocations
and declared martial law across the country. A partial mobilization was
announced in Azerbaijan on the same day.
On
November 8, 2020, the Supreme Commander of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, Ilham
Aliyev, announced the liberation of Shusha, a major strategic city in the
conflict. On November 10, 2020, a ceasefire agreement was signed between the
Azerbaijani president, the Armenian prime minister, and the Russian president,
bringing an end to military operations in the conflict zone.
Thus,
after 30 years of struggle, Azerbaijan was able to end the occupation of its
territories by Armenia and restore its territorial integrity, in line with UN
resolutions (822, 853, 874, 884) adopted in 1993. According to the agreement,
several strategic regions were liberated without combat, such as Aghdam
(November 20), Kelbajar (November 25), and Lachin (December 1). The treaty also
included the construction of new transport infrastructure to connect the
Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and the western regions of Azerbaijan through
Armenian territory.
This
process of liberation and normalization forced Armenia to sign the act of
capitulation, marking the end of the conflict and the military victory of
Azerbaijan.
