WHAT IF…
news.am
Nov 11 2009
Armenia
Our counterparts in the Azerbaijani 1news.az website, and the member
of the Azerbaijani Parliament Aidiyn Mirzazade, who had an article
entitled "If Armenia had not seized Azerbaijan’s territories…" put on
the website, have "persuaded" us into giving some thought to history
in the Subjunctive. It is not a thing to be done, but the idea of
presenting the situation in the region "but for the Karabakh conflict"
appears to be quite a thrilling one.
Well, if ifs and ans…
Although the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was "an integral part" of the
disintegration processes in the post-Soviet area, and the exacerbation,
no doubt, played into the hands of both internal and external forces
seeking to cause a collapse of the USSR, decades of history actually
lay at the root of the confrontation.
Permanent violations of the native Armenians’ rights in the
Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region were getting graver, taking various
forms. Although Armenians formed the region’s authorities, official
Baku’s "threatening hand" had always been over their heads. After the
1953 "thaw", and after Heydar Aliyev, who has been declared "national
leader", came to power, Azerbaijan launched a consistent policy of
settling the Nagorno-Karabakh region with ethnic Azerbaijanis, which
was stepping up tension in the region. In one of his interviews with
Azerbaijani mass media (at a meeting with editors-in-chief of local
newspapers) Heydar Aliyev was clearly speaking of the measures to
increase the share of Azerbaijanis in the Nagorno-Karabakh population
by opening enterprises that had nothing in common with the region’s
economic set-up and supplying labor force from the other regions
of Azerbaijan.
The Armenian authorities, without informing — or with the tacit
consent of — the USSR Government, had to protect the Armenian
population in Nagorno-Karabakh. Particularly, in early 1970, on the
initiative of Karen Demirchyan, the then leader of Soviet Armenia,
the written-off equipment of the Yerevan TV center was delivered to
Stepanakert. That was the only opportunity for the Nagorno-Karabakh
Armenians to watch programs of the Armenian television. The Armenian
population was encouraged to send their children to Armenian schools,
while Shushi was turned into "a bulwark" of increasing Azeri population
in the region – Heydar Aliyev proved unable to "shoulder the burden"
of settling Stepanakert with Azerbaijanis. The causes of the full-scale
confrontation of 1988 can be listed without end… As an exception
to the rule, let us think about history in the Subjunctive.
What would have happened if the USSR had promptly responded to
the developments, and the Nagorno-Karabakh people’s legal right to
self-determination had evoked an adequate response in Azerbaijan?
– No Armenian pogroms in Sumgait on February 27-28 would have taken
place. For the first time in the Soviet Union’s history the madding
crowd was killing people because of their nationality;
– Armenian public would not have responded by flooding the streets
and demanding the protection of Armenians in the neighboring republic;
– The relations between the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities in
Nagorno-Karabakh would not have worsened;
– The uncontrollable confrontation between the two nations would not
have caused an explosive situation in Armenia and Azerbaijan;
– Larger-scale Armenian pogroms in Baku on January 13-19, 1990,
would not have taken place;
– Hundreds of thousands of Armenians would not have left their homes
to become refugees;
– Armenian volunteers would not have responded to Azerbaijan’s open
military aggression;
– In response to fierce shelling of the borderline settlements of
Armenia, as well as towns and villages of Nagorno-Karabakh, the
Armenian troops would not have established control over the seven
regions neighboring on Nagorno-Karabakh;
– Heydar Aliyev and his successor Ilham would not have to tell
Azerbaijanis tales about Armenians’ being "inhuman monsters", taking
advantage of the anti-Armenian propaganda to support the personality
cult of "Heydar-baba" and his son Ilham, which has been carried to
the point of sheer idiocy;
– In its "struggle" against the Armenian people’s ancient history,
the Azerbaijanis would not have developed an inferiority complex in
their search of "national identity…"
This list could be continued, but our sincere desire is that
the Azerbaijani authorities finally find a fair solution to the
Nagorno-Karabakh problem.