From: dbd@urartu.sdpa.org (David Davidian)
Subject: To Blame the Victim -- Armenians in Azerbaijan, Part 6
Summary: 1977 letter to Brezhnev regarding conditions in Nagorno Karabakh 
Keywords: Talaat Pasha, Lipsits's denail of genocide, Halide Edip 
Organization: S.D.P.A. Center for Regional Studies
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 03:54:58 GMT

In article <1992Dec13.060610.16054@mail.cornell.edu> Mark Lipsits <ml12@cornell
.edu wrote:

[ML] The Karabach conflict was nothing more than a
[ML] political intrigue.  And anyone would agree with me that whoever were the
[ML] people who started this were smart enough to be able to predict the
[ML] cosequences.  So, weren't the Armenians who lived in Azerbaijan virtually
[ML] sacrificed?  And in whose interests?  In the interests of those who died
[ML] in that pointless war?  Or in the interests of those who lack the food
[ML] and medication now?  And then Mr. Davidian, (who doesn't even have enough
[ML] intelligence to conduct a discussion without personally insulting his
[ML] opponent with obscenities) is trying to tell me that it was done in the
[ML] interests of the enire nation!  And don't give me that historical or
[ML] statistical b.s. !  I have heard it from all the angles.  You might as
[ML] well demand the restoration of Rech Pospolitaya, or better yet, why don't
[ML] we give some of the parts of the Texas or California heavily populated by
[ML] Latinos back to Mexico.  

You do what you think is best for you, Mr. Lipsits, Armenians in Karabakh are
fighting for life and dignity. Again, Mr Lipsits, let's look at another
protest letter from Karabakh Armenians, this time written to Leonid Brezhnev, 
in 1977, FIFTEEN YEARS AGO. You talk about events that are neither backed up 
by facts nor history!

October 15, 1977

	Letter on Mountainous Karabagh addressed to Leonid E. Brezhnev, 
	General Secretary of the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R.

Dear Leonid Ilyich,

During the March plenary session of the Mountainous Karabagh Communist Party
Regional Committee (1975) everything was done to demean the successes and
achievements of socialist Armenia. Things got to the point of such desecration 
that the professed and violent enemy of Soviet Russia--the massacrer of 
millions of Armenians, Russians, Greeks, Bulgarians, and Assyrians, Talaat 
Pasha was characterized in the Soviet press (Sovetakan Karabagh, March 23, 
1975) merely as an "unpleasant personality." Such an evaluation was given to 
the enemy of many peoples and to the person who [more than any other] incited 
and organized the genocide of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire .

During that same period many representatives of Soviet Armenia, insulted in 
their human and national feelings, addressed themselves to you and other 
responsible authorities, requesting strongly that you condemn the activities 
of the leadership of the Autonomous Region of Mountainous Karabagh and punish 
the guilty. As it became clear to us and it became known to us, the Central 
Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union communicated instructions 
to the party organization in the Autonomous Region with regard to the mistakes 
that have been tolerated.

Passions were eased, particularly when the Central Committee of Armenia's 
Communist government conducted informational work among the party 
organizations trying to avoid all kinds of incidents.

Personally, I have met after the plenary session with the leaderships of the 
Azerbaijani S.S.R. and Mountainous Karabagh. The main purpose of my mission 
was to avoid all kinds of undesirable reactions which were possible in that 
extremely heated atmosphere. We were all convinced that similar incidents 
could no longer occur in or about Mountainous Karabagh.

However, all of us were extremely surprised when again today in the current 
issue of Problems of Peace and Socialism (number 6, 1977), the most widely 
distributed monthly in the world, considered to be the theoretical and 
informational publication of the world's Communist and workers' parties, 
published in 32 languages and distributed in 145 countries, I found a 
discussion of Karabagh, again in the name of the leadership of the Autonomous 
Region, in which insults are addressed to Soviet Armenia. To the natural
question as to "why is Mountainous Karabagh under the jurisdiction of
Azerbaijan and not Soviet Armenia from which it is separated by a narrow strip 
of land?" they answer that although the Karabagh Autonomous Region is close to 
the Armenian Soviet Republic, nonetheless, the two are separated by high 
mountains. Such an argument, allow me to say, is not only ridiculous in our 
century of technology but is also incorrect.

Throughout the century, the historically Armenian Karabagh region has never 
been separated from the Armenian motherland by these mountains, (which are no 
different from mountains all over the Caucasus; but that is not the most 
important point. To the question as to whether everyone has consciously 
accepted this kind of argument as a reason why a historically Armenian region 
is cut off from the Armenian motherland and incorporated into a newly 
established Azerbaijani S.S.R. Armenians answer in the following manner: "I 
would prefer to have a bad life but be attached to Armenia."

I think this statement could be made by every person who has pride, every 
Russian, Czech, Slovak, Frenchman; every man who loves his fatherland would 
say that. Every man can state with pride that he has not chosen his 
fatherland, that he agrees to everything as long as he is attached to his 
fatherland. The leadership of Autonomous Region of Mountainous Karabagh 
consider such people "backward" and "people who do not understand" but even 
that is still nothing. Ultimately, each person understands and interprets his 
own love toward the fatherland in his own way. Consider that such a statement, 
"Let me live badly but be attached to Armenia," applies to Soviet Armenia. It
is alleged that it is good for an Armenian to live in Azerbaijan and it would
be bad for him to live in Soviet Armenia and this is said after the fact that 
you, dear Leonid, noting the flourishing and rebirth of Armenia, stated: "The 
people, Communists, non-party members, workers, peasants, and intelligencia 
of Armenia have wonderfully brought together the spirit of patriotism with 
another, no less valued characteristic, the internationalism of the Soviet 
man."

I am convinced deeply that they have misled the editorial collective of the 
monthly Problems of Peace and Socialism, which includes representatives of 
Communist and workers' organizations from 53 countries just as they have 
misled the authors of the article "We Saw the Brotherhood of Nations." There 
is one thing that is not comprehensible. Who benefits from the propaganda of 
such pan-Islamic ideas in our country and in our community? It is 
incomprehensible that on the eve of the sixtieth anniversary of the 
establishment of Soviet rule to say throughout the world: "Let me be poor but 
be part of Soviet Armenia." Does such a statement correspond to the title of
the article published in the monthly, "We Saw the Brotherhood of Nations"?

At a time when we are examining the draft of the new constitution for the 
U.S.S.R., how is it possible to write in 38 languages and to distribute in 15 
countries a statement such as: "The Armenian people of Mountainous Karabagh 
have obtained statehood within Azerbaijan and that fate they have accepted 
willingly." This is a grotesque distortion of historical facts.

Second, the Armenian population of Mountainous Karabagh has never accepted 
willingly its destiny of today which has meant its separation from the 
motherland; and such a "destiny" is, in itself, an injustice which must be 
liquidated because as the great Lenin has said, "Nothing so corrupts or 
perverts the development and solidification of proletarian class harmony as 
national injustice."

Dear Leonid Ilich, this is not the first time that the unresolved problem of 
Karabagh is disturbing the friendship between the two peoples. You are our 
hope. We are all hoping that you will finally resolve a question which for 
more than half a century has embodied injustice.

The Armenian region with its over 80 percent Armenian population, Armenian 
schools, and official Armenian language that is within the boundaries of our 
great state must be under the jurisdiction of Soviet Socialist Armenia.

The just solution of this question will be appreciated by peoples as a new 
victory of the Leninist nationalities policy.

Sincere Respects,

Sero Khanzadian
Member of the Central Committee of Soviet Union, 1943
Writer and Member of Executive Committee of the Writers' Union of the Union 
of Soviet Socialist Republics


[ML] And don't tell me about the genocide.  First, it
[ML] is very questionable against whom the genocide took place, and second,
[ML] and most important is that it all is nothing but an international
[ML] vendetta!  And because of people like you, Mr. Davidian & Co. this
[ML] vendetta will not end soon.  

Initially, I stated I should have called you an ignorant slut, but didn't. I 
have now admit my mistake! You are also a Turkish Genocide Apologist! Well,
Mr. Lipsits...Oyle bir yere sokun bir gunes gormesin! 

In the words of Halide Edip, the foremost Turkish female national wrote in her
memoirs:

	"There are two factors which lead man to the extermination of his
	 kind: the principles advocated by the idealists, and the material
	 interest which the consequences of doing so afford certain classes.
	 The idealists are the more dangerous, for one is obliged to respect
	 them even of one cannot agree with them. Talaat [the architect of the
	 Turkish genocide of the Armenians] was of that kind. I saw Talaat 
	 very rarely after the Armenian deportations. I remember well one
	 day when he nearly lost his temper in discussing the question and
	 said in a severe tone: 'Look here Halide Hanum. I have a heart as
	 good as yours, and it keeps me awake at night to think of human 
	 suffering...I have the conviction that as long as a nation does
	 the best for its own interests, and succeeds, with world admires it
	 and thinks it moral. I AM READY TO DIE FOR WHAT I HAVE DONE, AND I
	 KNOW I SHALL DIE FOR IT.: In 1922 he was shot by an Armenian in 
	 Berlin."

				_Memoirs of Halide Edip_, The Century Co.,
				 1926, page 387
-- 
David Davidian dbd@urartu.sdpa.org "It has been ever thus in all things, son, 
SDPA Center for Regional Studies    Whatever we thrash we give to the wind, 
P.O. Box 382761                     We too have been blown by the world's wind
Cambridge, MA 02238                 The chaff is gone but the grain remains." 
Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet