KARABAKH WITHIN THE AZERBAIJAN SSR
After sovetization of Azerbaijan, Armenia, which remained independent for some time, didn't stop its attempts to annex Karabakh and other western regions of Azerbaijan. The XI Red Army was engaged more in disarmament of Azeris and reprisals over the protesters against the Bolshevik violence, rather than in protecting the civilian population from dashnaks. In summer 1920, the dashnak troops having benefited from the extremely difficult political situation that arose in Azerbaijan as a result of anti-Bolshevik riots in a number of regions, including Karabakh, attacked Zangezur, Karabakh, Nakhichevan and southern parts of the Kazakh district again. Self-defence forces with support of the XI Red Army expelled them only by the end of 1920. However, the most part of Zangezur remained under occupation. The head of the Azerbaijan SSR (chairman of the Sovnarkom) N. Narimanov informed in his telegram to Moscow in June 1920: «...As to the allegedly contested Zangezur and Karabakh, which are already part of the Soviet Azerbaijan, we categorically state, that these territories are indisputable and must remain within Azerbaijan in the future»1. Another telegram sent by Orjonikidze, the chairman of the Kavburo (the Caucasus section) of the Russian Communist Party (RCP(b)) and addressed to Lenin and to the minister (narkom) of foreign affairs of the Soviet Russia Chicherin informed: «the Soviet authority is declared in Karabakh and Zangezur and both mentioned territories consider themselves a part of the Azerbaijan Soviet Republic»2.
With sovetization of Armenia on November 30, 1920 the hostilities between the parties ended but the territorial claims of Armenia to Azerbaijan gained further momentum. The December 1, 1920 declaration of the head of the Azerbaijanian Soviet leader Narimanov proclaimed that «from now on no territorial disputes can be a reason for bloodshed of two centuries-long neighboring peoples: Armenians and Muslims»3 [i.e. Azeris]. According to the same declaration, «as a jest of revolutionary solidarity» under pressure from Moscow, Zangezur was transferred to Armenia. Azerbaijan lost more than 10 thousand km2 of its territory and direct link with Nakhichevan, while Armenia increased its own territory as much as twice.
Armenia laid claims also to Nakhichevan, which was occupied by the Turkish troops at that time. However, according to the Moscow Treaty signed in 1921, Turkey withdrew its troops from Nakhichevan only with condition that Nakhichevan remained a part of Azerbaijan. But Armenian territorial clams didn't ended yet.
The communist leadership of Armenia demanded transfer of the mountainous part of Karabakh to Armenia and conducting a territorial demarcation based, exceptionally, on the national division. On June 27, 1921 the joint session of the Politbureau and Orgbureau of the Central Committee of the Azerbaijan Communist Party (CC AzCP) having considered these demands made a decision stating that «the suggestion to separate the territories with Armenian and Turk [i.e. Azeri] population, respectively, to Armenia and Azerbaijan from the view of the administrative and economic expediency...to consider unacceptable» and decreed: {[The only solution to the issue can be broad involvement of the Armenian and the Muslim masses to the process of the Soviet reconstruction»4. The final solution of this issue was to be discussed in the plenum of the Kavburo.
On July 4, 1921 the session of the Kavburo began discussing the «Karabakh issue». In the session participated the members of the Kavburo Orjonikidze, Makharadze, Narimanov, Kirov, Myasnikov, Nazaretyan, Figatner and the member of the Central Committee of the RuCP, the commissar on the nationalities Stalin. The eighth member of the Kavburo Orakhelashvili was absent. Kavburo had to decide whether to leave Karabakh within Azerbaijan or whether to transfer it to Armenia. Narimanov, Makharadze and Nazaretyan voted in favor of Karabakh remaining a part of Azerbaijan; Orjonikidze, Myasnikov, Kirov and Figatner voted against this decision. Nazaretyan also joined the last four, when voting for conducting a plebiscite only among Armenians. According to this voting the Kavburo adopted a decision «On inclusion of the Mountainous Karabakh to the Armenian SSR». Thus, the Mountainous Karabakh was transferred to Armenia and considered its territory for almost 24 hours. But discussion didn't end here. This Kavburo decision triggered the head of the Azerbaijan SSR Narimanov's decisive protest. Having pointed out that this decision is fraught with political instability in the region, he proved it to be unjustified and demanded the transfer of the discussion to the Central Committee of the RuCP- the highest instance of the Soviet government.
Narimanov's position played a crucial role in further events. On July 5 the session returned to the discussion of the «Karabakh issue». The new session made decision: «Proceeding from the necessity of national peace between the Muslims and Armenians, and economic links of the upland and lowland Karabakh, its constant link with Azerbaijan, to leave the Mountainous Karabakh within the Azerbaijan SSR, having granted it a broad regional autonomy with the administrative center in the town of Shusha included in the autonomous region»5. Definition of the concrete questions and forms of the autonomy was entrusted to the CC AzCP, stipulated with its consequent approval in the Kavburo.
Today the Armenian historians write a lot that, ostensibly, the Kavburo decided to «annex» Karabakh to Azerbaijan «under pressure from Stalin». This is a substantial mistake, since the question was not about annexing Karabakh to Azerbaijan at all. The question was posed as following: to leave Karabakh within Azerbaijan or to transfer it to Armenia, and, as seen from the Kavburo's decision, it voted to «leave» (and not to «annex») Karabakh within Azerbaijan.
As to the Kavburo's first decision on July 4, it should be noted that it gave no argument in favor of Karabakh's transfer to Armenia. Most probably, the Kavburo members voting in favor of Karabakh's transfer to Armenia were guided by two arguments: firstly, Armenians constituted the majority in Karabakh's mountainous part, and secondly, after war with Turkey in September 1920 the territory of Armenia considerably decreased and was not more than 10 thousand km2. Some people even noted, that by the size of its territory and population Armenia was too small to fit under the notion of not only a state, but even of a union republic. Thus some soviet leaders thought about expanding the territory of Armenia on the expense of the Azeri lands of Zangezur, eastern bank of the Gekcha lake (present-day Sevan), Karabakh and Nakhichevan. And as history showed, Armenians considerably succeeded in achieving these goals.
And finally, as to Stalin and his alleged role in the Kavburo, it's not a secret that he had sympathized neither Azerbaijan, nor its leader Narimanov. Simply, he, as well as other members of the Kavburo, didn't want prolongation of the discussion and aggravation of the situation over Karabakh. Transfer of the discussion of the Karabakh problem to Moscow to the Central Committee wouldn't have satisfied many members of the Kavburo, as well as Stalin, who, at that time, had been continuously criticized for his erroneous positions regarding the national problems. All of these, as well as Narimanov's resolute position, predetermined the further discussion of the Karabakh issue.
1. Azerbaijan Central State Archive, reserves 410, inventory 2, folder (delo) 69, lists 181-187 / also: I Aliyev «Nagorno Karabakh» op cit. [20] p. 80;
2. Archive of the MFA of USSR, folder (delo) 54882, list 20 / also: Id. p. 81;
3. The «Communist» newspaper (in Azerbaijan) No 178, December 2, 1920;
4. [Azerbaijan Communist] Party Archive [PAAF IML] reserve 1, inventory 74, folder 123, list 64 / also: J. B. Kouliyev «Regarding the history of the establishment of the MKAR» (Is istorii obrazovaniya NKAO- in Russian) Information bulletin of the Azerbaijan SSR Academy of Sciences (series of history, philosophy and law) No 3, p. 12, 1973;
5. Id. reserves 1, inventory 125, folder 107, list 107 / Id. p. 12;
Mass human rights violation during the deportation of Azerbaijanis from Armenia as well as from Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenian military forces.
The policy of genocide and «ethnic cleansing» that Armenia carries out in relation to Azerbaijani people was reflected in active operations of Armenian separatists, since 1988, which are supported by powerful Armenian lobbies in major Western countries.
Refugee camp
During the period from 1988 till 1989 about 40,897 families (total: 185,519 people) of Azerbaijanis and Kurds were deported from their places of permanent residence in Armenia. 218 Azerbaijanians were killed during the deportation, 45 of them froze to death, trying to escape in the mountains, 43 died as a result of cruel beating, 34 were killed after cruel tortures, 19 were burned, 16 were shot, 13 persons died of heart attacks after tortures; 6 were killed by Armenian doctors in hospitals, 2 were drowned; 1 person was hung, 2 committed suicide in a protest against tortures, 1 was killed after he was subjected to electric shock-treatment, 1 was beheaded, 18 were killed after being run over by car, 5 persons, being at the hospital, were reported lost and 12 were reported missing.
Obviously there is no hope that those who are missing are still alive. Most of the killed are children, women and elderly people.
21 children died at that period, three of them were under 1 year old. Nabiyeva Zohra, a 7-year-old girl, was burned. A 3-year-old boy Rahman Mamedov was denied medical care, as a result of which he died. Seven children froze to death; two died after cruel beating, 2 more were shot. A 3-year-old Elman Aliyev died after heart attack. Four children died not enduring the tortures, 3 children were run over by a car.
28 women were killed in Armenia. Seven of them were beaten to death, 5 were frozen, 4 died of tortures, 3 died for infarct, 2 died under wheels of the car, 1 was, beheaded, 1 woman was throttled in the water, 1 was burned. Two women died as a result of gunshot wound denied medical care, and doctors at the hospital killed 1. Novruzova Banovsha was reported missing. Taking into account the fact that there has been no news from her for nearly 6 years, she is supposed to be dead.
During the deportations, from Armenia, 60 elderly persons died. There are 40 men and 20 women among them. Most of them died as a result of torture, bullet wounds, heart attacks beatings, and frostbite's. The following cases are most remarkable:
Aliyeva Ciulsum (76 years old), Isgandarova Khanum (73 years old), Alivev Mehrali (68 years old), Bairamov Garih (67 years old) and Huseynova Leila (63 years old) were burned. The doctor at the hospital killed Hassan Ellazov, of 68 years old. The crudest acts of brutality were marked in the Ghukark region, 22 persons were killed there and 13 among them were burned to death.
Hundreds of centuries old Azerbaijani monuments on the territory of Armenia, where Azerbaijanis had lived in 89 populated areas inhabiting 171 villages were either destroyed or Armenized.
Azerbaijan received approximately 50 thousand Meskhetian Turks, refugees from the Central Asia. The total amount of damages caused to people, who'd left their homes in Armenia and Central Asia, is 255 billion roubles.
In order to obliterate from history the evidence of Azerbaijanians' residence in Armenia, about 94 villages were renamed on Armenian territory by a Supreme Soviet Decree of the Republic of Armenia, dated April 9, 1991. Having realized its plan of «ethnic cleansing», Armenian politicians have begun to put into practice the next phase that directed at the immediate seizure by force of Azerbaijani territories.
As a result of this large-scale aggression by the Armenians part about 20 percent of the territory of Azerbaijan have been annexed by the regular Armenian military units and those of Mountainous Karabakh Armenians and foreign hirelings. More than 700 populated centers are plundered, destroyed and burned, and only 170 of them are situated in Mountainous Karabakh.
The total number of the refugees and displaced persons is over 1 million people (about 200 thousand are Azerbaijanians, exiled from Armenia; 50 thousand are originally from Central Asia - Meskhet Turks). The number of those who left their places of residence as a result of the capture of the part of the territory of Azerbaijan is about 800.000 people.
Considerable areas of cultivated land have become unfit for agricultural purposes. More than 4.000 of industrial objects, commercial enterprises, and public catering centers, about 80.000 places of residence, more than 2.000 objects of social and cultural purpose, including 541 secondary schools, 230 pre-school and 250 medical institutions have been destroyed. The total number of women, old men and children killed has reached 16.000 people the number of wounded is over 30,000 people, more than 50.000 people became disabled, the number of those taken into hostage and missing is 4.000.
Among those who were taken hostages there are 320 women, 73 of them are old aged (older than 61 years old) and 71 children, who are kept in different places, many were committed to custody in Khankendi and 1 in the Ministry of National Security of Armenia, and private houses. The price for one hostage was about 3 to 15 mln. roubles. The price for corpses that Armenia selled, reached 1 mln. roubles and more. In this connection, we would like to quote some facts of murders, capture and keeping of hostages. One of the most monstrous crimes against Azerbaijani people is the tragedy in Khojaly, a town that was seized by Armenian troops in February 1992. On February 25 and 26 Armenian Army by support of the 336th guards regiment of the Russian Federation has destroyed Azerbaijani town Khojaly in Karabakh. Inhabitants of the town have pressed to the fighting infantry machines and tanks. Old men, women and children have been fired at close, pulled out their nails, put out their eyes and cut out of their ears. Only, sole their guilt was on being them Azerbaijanians. Thousands of people of Khojaly have been mercilessly killed or taken into hostage.
Khojaly - Azerbaijan settlement, occupying a strategically location in roads Aghdam-Shusha, Khankendi(Stepanakert)-Askeran. Population of the town: more than 7.000 according to growth of population it became as town. Here found shelter refugees from Uzbekistan-Meskhetian Turks and Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia.
The number of inhabitants of Khojaly, killed and frozen to death is about 1.000 people, as a result of barbarous actions of vandalism. Among the killed are many children from 2 to 15 years old, women and old men. The position of the corpses demonstrates the fact that people were killed cruelly without compassion.
Some were killed one at a time, after being led away, and some - in family groups, all at once. Several corpses showed the sign of several wounds, one of which was in the head. It points to the fact that the wounded were finished off. A number of the children killed were found with the cut-off ears; the skin from the left side of the face of one old woman was cut out, men were scalped. According to the testimony of one inhabitant of Khojaly Sarya Talibova, about 4 Meskhet Turks, refu-gees from the Central Asia and 3 Azerbaijanis were beheaded, their children were tortured and killed under their very eyes, the eyes of 2 Azerbaijanis in the National Army's uniform were put out by means of screwdriver. According to the inhabitants of Khojaly, who returned from captivity, they were regularly subjected to brutal tortures and beatings, a number of woman and minors were raped.
A lot of Russian and western newspapers and magazines wrote about crimes of Armenian aggressors from the 1-th till the 16-th of March 1992. Among them are: «Sunday Times», «Times», «Guardian», «Financial Times», «Le Monde», «Le Croix», «Valeurs Actuels», «Corriera della Serra», «Time», «Newsweek», «Izvestiya», «Pravda», «Nezavisimuva gazeta», etc.
On March 31, 1993, when Armenian troops were taking the city of Kelbajar, 11 persons, trying to break away from town, were captured as hostages. 7 women were among them, 4 of them were wounded. Karimova Samaya who was born in 1967, committed suicide, since she couldn't bear the outrage. Her 2-year-old daughter left after her, was bought back for 1,5 mln. roubles. But the child, who had the head injury after she spent 4 months in prison, lost its eyesight. As for the others, there's no news about them. According to our information, they are kept in the city of Khankendi. On July 2, 1993, the family of Nuriyev, the inhabitants of Fizuli, (19 persons on the whole), was taken into hostage.
Among them are: 8 women, 2 of them are of old age and 7 children. On the part of International Read Cross Committee, 47 people, kept in Khankendi, were discovered. Among them are: 8 women, 7 persons of old age and 10 children, also 10-month-old child Ilyasov Babek, helped out later of the Armenian captivity with the help of IRCC. According to medical expertise, he wasn't rendered help in captivity after getting severe shellburst shrapnel eye wound, as a result of that it's impossible now to preserve the child's eyesight.
In the, time of seizure of Aghdam by the Armenian troops, passenger-car, with help of which, the family of Aliyev, including 6 persons, trying to get away from the town was fired on. Among them were 2 women; one of them is of old age, old man and 2 children - 2 and 3 years old. The old man and the child were killed while they were under the fire. The rest of them got the wounds of different degree. Aliyev Shovghi, the 3-year-old boy, got the shoulder trauma. After medical interference of Armenian doctors in Khankendi the boys shoulder middle third was extracted. Later on, with the efforts of IRCC, his badly wounded mother and grandmother were returned to their land. According to the results of medical investigation in Baku, doctors said that there was no necessity in extracting his bone and his wound didn't need such medical actions. According to the opinion of specialists, such gunshot wounds don't require extraction of large fragments that are bones of growth zone.
In a majority of world press publications, concerning the transplantation of human organs, Armenia is the principal supplier of this kind of «goods». One can't help mentioning the fact that this child has become a victim of a criminal business. It's wrong to except that this kind of business is one of the principal reason for taking the hostages in a mass order on occupied Azerbaijanian lands. Numerous facts point to the use of the Azerbaijani captives. According to the brief extract from the case history of Mamedov Mayil, born in October 4, 1971, he was taken by the Armenian combatants into captivity in the district of Khankendi and imprisoned, where he had tried systematic derisions, was beaten with the gun and the hammer, the result of it was fracture of left foot bones, left forearm bones and shoulder bones. On October 7, 1992 he was put a scorching metal cross on the chest. In February, 1993 he was intravenously injected violently some kind of fluid, after that the symptoms of allergy appeared on his body.
Mamedov Mayil was set free on May 9, 1993 in exchange with Armenian captive combatant.
According to medical conclusion, Mamedov Abdulazim, 27-year-old, was wounded in the left leg and was taken in Armenian combatant's captivity. Besides, he had gunshot punctured wound of left shank tissues and numerous shrapnel injures. According to Mamedov's words, after one-hour interrogation, he and 8 soldiers of National Army, taken in captivity with him, began to be beaten with rubber cudgel on the head, back, hands and then they made an injection in the neck with some kind of medicine, and after it he was imprisoned.
Since then he was daily dragged out on the yard and was beaten with the soldier boots' heels on the head and with rubber cudgels. Once, having tired his wound, they drew the bloody cross on his forehead. Under the temperature below zero he was doused with cold water in his cell, on New Year day. Also took place the facts of hounding of the watchdogs on him, after that numerous scratches, abrasions and bites left its traces on his body. They almost didn't give him any food and made him injections with drugs daily, and he fainted momentarily.
According to Mamedov's words, before the captivity his weight was 79 kilos, and after the release - 55 kilos. But majority of the captives are exterminated physically. According to the conclusions of forensic medical expertise, the following injures are found on the corpse of Atakishiyev F. R.:
a) pressed fracture of the coronal bone, internal fracture of both the forearm and shank bones, fractures of nose bones, traumatic extraction of the incisive of the both jaws, 61 internal bruises of the head, trunk and extremities;
b) stab punctured stomach wound with the internal organs' injures, 8 dotted wounds (i.e. traces of injections) of the backside of the neck and left hand injures;
c) 2 punctured gunshot wounds of thigh.
The injures, indicated in (a) group, are made with blunt tools. The wounds of hand and forearm might have appeared because of dogs' bites.
The injures, numerated in (b) group, are made with prickly tools and those in the (c) group-with the firearms shots.
In the war that was imposed on Azerbaijan, had already died 9 representatives of mass media. 4 of them are: Osman Mirzayev, Press Secretary of President of the Azerbaijani Republic, Ali Mustafayev - TV journalist, Fakhraddin Shahbazov - TV cameraman, Arif Huseyn-zadeh - the cameraman's assistant, had died in an air catastrophe of Armenian terrorists' rocket.
Armenian snipers killed five journalists. They are:
Chingiz Mustafayev, TV cameraman (national hero, posthumously) (Azerbaijan)
Salatin Askerova, the reporter of a newspaper «Molodezh Azerbaijana» (Azerbaijan)
Leonid Lazarevitch, the special correspondent of «Mayak» radio station (Russia)
Valery Dementyev, the editor of a newspaper «Milostivye gosudari» (Russia)
Kazimaga Karimov, the journalist (Azerbaijan)
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