How did the first interethnic conflict in the USSR begin? Caucasian Knot

1
How did the first interethnic conflict in the USSR begin? Caucasian Knot


First, 1988 of the Nagorno-Karabakh Regional Council of People’s Deputies raised the issue of the withdrawal of Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan and its inclusion in Armenia. This decision triggered a massive ethnic confrontation, which by the end of 1989 had escalated into full-scale fighting.

With the beginning of the “glasnost” period, when expressing demands in a new, more open atmosphere established in the USSR, it became permissible and not prosecuted by the law, the situation changed. Since 1987, the Moscow authorities began to receive one after another various letters demanding the unification of Karabakh and Armenia. The petition prepared in August 1987 by the Academy of Armenia, containing a request for the transfer of the Armenian SSR not only to Nagorno-Karabakh, but also to Nakhichevan (though according to the 1979 census, there were 97% of Azerbaijanis), was signed by many hundreds of thousands of Armenians. In October, the indigenous inhabitants of Cherdakly, populated mainly by Armenians from a settlement in northwestern Azerbaijan, refused to recognize the appointment of an Azerbaijani as director of a state farm. This led to the local party authorities turning their anger at the villagers. According to the statements of the Armenians, the Azerbaijani party authorities intended to primitively oust the Armenian population. The news from Cherdakly instantly reached the capital of Armenia, where mass demonstrations were going on at that time demanding to close production polluting the environment. Ecological rallies soon grew into political, nationalist, demanding the return of the autonomous republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and historical Nakhchivan region as part of Armenia. At this time, the local power departments still met and dispersed the demonstrations. Given that Moscow did not take any retaliatory action, rumors arose that the government in the Kremlin was ready to transfer Nagorno-Karabakh, with particular emphasis on the Armenian origin of a number of high-ranking advisers to Mikhail Gorbachev.

Some time after the tragic events in Cherdakly, ethnic Azerbaijanis in Armenia began to be persecuted more and more often - Armenians frankly began to push them out of their own republic. At the end of January 1988, the 1-I wave of Azerbaijani refugees reached Baku. A significant part of them was placed in Sumgait - an industrial town located not far from the capital. On February 11, a demonstration was held in Nagorno-Karabakh, protesting against the economic and social policy of Baku against the region. And on February 20, the regional council adopted another resolution (1988 votes were “for” and 110 “against”), containing an appeal to the Supreme Soviets of the USSR, Armenia and Azerbaijan to transfer the NKAR to the control of the Armenian SSR.

Between 21 and 25 in February, tensions in Armenia increased because in Yerevan demonstrations started again with irredentist demands. The Armenian diaspora in the West, by any means, exaggerated the number of demonstrators, claiming “a million civilians taking to the streets of Yerevan”, despite the fact that the entire population of the state was only three million. The Nagorny Karabakh Committee was formed in Yerevan, and on February 10, Mikhail Gorbachev held a meeting in Moscow with 26’s committee favorites, Zori Balayan and Silva Kaputikyan, asking for a one-month moratorium on the demonstration in order to assess the situation. In Stepanakert, gossip has spread that Moscow “is almost ready to say yes and the Karabakh Armenians are now only obliged to inform their own demands more fearlessly.”

The discord flared with double power 26 February 1988, when unconfirmed rumors of Armenian atrocities in Stepanakert, leading to the death of 1 Azerbaijani, reached Agdam, an Azerbaijani town literally a few kilometers from the eastern border zone of Nagorno-Karabakh. There was an armed clash between the Agdam indigenous Azerbaijanis and ethnic Armenians from the adjoining town of Askeran. Deputy Prosecutor General Katushev, speaking on the national Azeri radio, reported on the “violent death of two civilians from the Agdam region who became innocent victims of the murderers” - and their Muslim names were broadcast on the air. As might have been expected in response, mass atrocities occurred in Sumgait, where just a few days before a huge number of fierce Azerbaijani refugees settled. Calls for revenge on Armenians for the deaths of peaceful Azerbaijanis began to be heard on all sides. At first, the riots were within certain controllable frameworks, but after that, rumors spread that the Armenians, after meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev, had declared their full victory in Yerevan. For the next three days a total pogrom takes place in the city of Sumgait - hooligans hunt ethnic Armenians, set fire to and destroy their homes. The officially recognized number of civilian casualties over the course of three days of unrest, between 27 and 29 in February, was estimated to be 32 killed (6 by Azeris and 26 by Armenians). Armenian sources, of course, manipulated reports of the number of Armenian victims at least 10 times. The fact that Soviet military units and internal troops were in the area covered by the unrest did not change much of the situation; the military seemed to be only relaxed and indifferently tracked by the unrest and pogrom. According to Nolian, the USSR government not only did not intend to prevent mass bloodshed, but, on the contrary, strongly supported the discord between the 2 ethnic communities. This was done with the help of media control - hyperbolic and provocative messages were spread on both sides. In addition, according to his statement, in order to initiate a pogrom, bandits were deliberately released from places of imprisonment in Sumgait. Like it or not, we do not know. But no matter what the nature and degree of intervention of Moscow might be in reality, it is retrospectively clear that the Armenian-Azerbaijani discord was not worth much to stir up the discord and this discord swiftly rose to a stage at which it could not be regulated by Moscow.

The significance of Sumgait was that for the Armenians this event made the process of escalation of contention irreversible. After Sumgayit, it became clear that there was already no way back, all the more so that the Kremlin showed extreme insecurity and hesitation. And until Sumgait, Armenians expelled all Azerbaijanis from Armenia, but now it was carried out systematically and purposefully, including from the regions of Zangezur and Ararat, where the Azerbaijanis lived in a centuries-old compact group.

In November, 1988, after five months of relative calm, mass rallies resumed in Yerevan and Baku. The riots occurred in Ganja, from where the local Armenians were completely expelled. Flows of refugees rushed en masse to Armenia and back to Azerbaijan. At the beginning of May 1989, after another period of relative lull, which came from the moment the Kremlin introduced a “special form of control,” military tensions in NKAO increased again. In Mardakert (Agder) and Stepanakert, street confrontations began again. By this time, the Armenians who lived in the Goranboy region north of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region had already formed the 1 “spontaneous” military formations. At the same time, in the capital of Armenia, the Karabakh Committee began to unite with other minor political groups, which led to the creation of the Armenian National Movement (ANM). He was headed by the famous Levon Ter-Petrosyan. During the very first multi-party elections in the Armenian Armed Forces in May, 1990 of the ADM was able to become the largest faction in the parliament, surpassing even the Communists in number. 4 August Ter-Petrosyan was unanimously elected chairman of the parliament.

At the same time, the situation in Karabakh itself was getting worse. From the 2 half of 1989, skirmishes and fighting between armed groups became the rule rather than the exception, and the attempts of the Soviet Army to bring peace in the main were in vain. Moreover, military posts were often attacked by armed formations, and an increasing amount of weapons gradually fell into the hands of the militia on one side and the other. 28 November 1989. The direct rule of the center in NKAR was canceled - Moscow recognized its defeat and granted Nagorno-Karabakh to its own fate. As a result of this, the Armenian Armed Forces 1 December 1989 made a historic decision, declaring the inclusion of the autonomous republic of Nagorno-Karabakh into the Armenian SSR.

In January 1990, the main confrontation scene shifted to Azerbaijan. 11 January Armenian settlements in Goranboy (Shahumyan) and Khanlar regions were completely cleared of Armenians. In the 1-th time in the process of large-scale conflict there were involved armored personnel carriers and helicopters. On January 11, the PFA organized a mass rally in the capital of Azerbaijan to protest the inaction of the leadership, and on January 13 and 14, Azerbaijani refugees from dangerous Armenia staged a pogrom on all Armenians, which led to the death of 88 people. The Soviet police acted in exactly the same way as earlier in Sumgait, and did not substantially solve anything. The PFA condemned the atrocities and pogroms, accusing the republican government and the Kremlin of deliberate non-intervention in order to justify in this way the introduction of armed forces in Baku and thus prevent the PFA from taking power in the republic. The veracity of these statements was confirmed literally after 7 days, because on January 20 1990. The Soviet Army in the number of 29 000 soldiers entered Baku. Weak resistance was ruthlessly crushed, with the number of victims exceeding one hundred people, and this is only according to official sources and more than five hundred people according to the NFA. At the same time, a special position was introduced in Nagorno-Karabakh, where a military unit of several thousand fighters was also deployed. On January 26, USSR Minister of Defense Dmitry Yazov openly stated during a press conference that the current military occupation of the capital of Azerbaijan was undertaken in order to prevent a possible overthrow of the communist party.

By April, 1990, the protests in Armenia related to the call to overthrow the military rule in Karabakh became increasingly large-scale. The Armenian government openly accused the Kremlin of inciting ethnic discord because the Soviet army worked closely with the Azerbaijani riot police. Special checkpoints were established in Nagorno-Karabakh with the aim of introducing passport control, as well as for conducting searches and seizing weapons. In late spring, shortly before the celebration of the anniversary of the proclamation of independence of Armenia in 1918, Armenian militants tried to seize army warehouses in Yerevan to gain access to weapons, which subsequently led to the death of 22 civilians. Again, on this issue, the Armenian militants showed much more activity than the opposing Azerbaijanis, who, despite the unseemly January actions in Baku and the increasingly open flow of weapons going from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, continued to rely on the central leadership of the USSR. The growth of the people's militia, first among the Armenians, and their increasing armament made the escalation of military discord irreversible.

2 September 1991 The Karabakh State Council - the former Council of People’s Deputies of the NKAO - appointed an independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in the territory of the Nagorno-Karabakh independent region and the Geranboy (Shaumyanovskiy) district of the Azerbaijan Republic. Moreover, as a direct result on the Declaration of autonomy, the Azerbaijani parliament 26 of November deprived Nagorno-Karabakh of its autonomy rank, dividing its territory between adjacent areas. Of course, this kind of decision could only have a purely “theoretical” political significance, because Baku was rapidly losing army control over Karabakh. 8 December 1991 in Karabakh was organized a referendum, and, from the fact that the Azerbaijani population boycotted it, it is logical that 99% of votes were cast for autonomy.

The result of full-scale hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh, 1991, the beginning of 1992, was the full or partial seizure, by permanent Armenian units, of 7, of Azerbaijani regions. Following this, combat operations using the most advanced weapons systems spread to internal Azerbaijan and the Armenian-Azerbaijani frontier. Prior to 1994, Armenian troops occupied 20% of the territory of Azerbaijan, captured and sacked 877 settlements, while the death toll is about 18 thousand people, and the number of injured and disabled people is more than 50 thousand.

In 1994, with the help of Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly in the town of Bishkek, Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan signed a protocol, on the basis of which an agreement on a cease-fire was reached. True, the negotiations on the peace-loving settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani discord were conducted with 1991. The 1-I meeting of the attorneys of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan took place in 1993 year, and with the 1999, there are regular meetings of the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Not looking at this, the “degree” of the war is preserved, of course, Azerbaijan is trying with all its might to preserve its former regional integrity, Armenia insists that it protects the interests of Nagorno-Karabakh.
    Our news channels

    Subscribe and stay up to date with the latest news and the most important events of the day.

    1 comment
    Information
    Dear reader, to leave comments on the publication, you must sign in.
    1. Leo848
      0
      13 July 2011 15: 27
      I didn’t read the article, because of a small historical fact which I witnessed myself. 1985 accompanied the team of draftees from the republican recruiting center of Yerevan. 95 future fighters, 90 Armenians, 4 Azerbaijanis and one Tat. It was calm to the border with Georgia, they ate, sang and played in chess, then a paragraph, Azerbaijanis are heavily attacked, so I had to isolate the main team before Moscow itself. I was kind of prepared for a year after school, but I had to learn a lot. The Armenians explained to me that there was no such nation as Azer, they all Turks, which means they must answer for the genocide of the Armenian people. They are 18 years old, this is 1985, the word shock is inappropriate, especially for the year of service, I have not encountered conflicts in units on national soil. All this to the fact that there are two nations ENEMIES from birth, this is my opinion, the USSR held them back, then it went after the fact.

    "Right Sector" (banned in Russia), "Ukrainian Insurgent Army" (UPA) (banned in Russia), ISIS (banned in Russia), "Jabhat Fatah al-Sham" formerly "Jabhat al-Nusra" (banned in Russia) , Taliban (banned in Russia), Al-Qaeda (banned in Russia), Anti-Corruption Foundation (banned in Russia), Navalny Headquarters (banned in Russia), Facebook (banned in Russia), Instagram (banned in Russia), Meta (banned in Russia), Misanthropic Division (banned in Russia), Azov (banned in Russia), Muslim Brotherhood (banned in Russia), Aum Shinrikyo (banned in Russia), AUE (banned in Russia), UNA-UNSO (banned in Russia), Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People (banned in Russia), Legion “Freedom of Russia” (armed formation, recognized as terrorist in the Russian Federation and banned)

    “Non-profit organizations, unregistered public associations or individuals performing the functions of a foreign agent,” as well as media outlets performing the functions of a foreign agent: “Medusa”; "Voice of America"; "Realities"; "Present time"; "Radio Freedom"; Ponomarev; Savitskaya; Markelov; Kamalyagin; Apakhonchich; Makarevich; Dud; Gordon; Zhdanov; Medvedev; Fedorov; "Owl"; "Alliance of Doctors"; "RKK" "Levada Center"; "Memorial"; "Voice"; "Person and law"; "Rain"; "Mediazone"; "Deutsche Welle"; QMS "Caucasian Knot"; "Insider"; "New Newspaper"