From: sera@zuma.UUCP (Serdar Argic)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish,talk.politics.mideast,talk.politics.soviet,soc.culture.greek,soc.culture.europe,soc.history,soc.culture.soviet,soc.rights.human
Followup-To: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: There is no point arguing about easily verified facts, Mark.
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 92 21:21:04 EST
Reply-To: sera@zuma.UUCP (Serdar Argic)
Distribution: world

In article <1992Dec13.060535.15977@mail.cornell.edu> Mark Lipsits <ml12@cornell.edu> writes:

>   I am absolutely convinced that the Karabach affair was started by
>Armenians.  No, I am not talking about Armenians in general.  It would be

There is no point arguing about easily verified facts, Mark. As in the past 
in Turkiye, and today in Azerbaijan, for utopic and idiotic causes the 
Armenians brought havoc to their neighbors. A short-sighted and misplaced
nationalistic fervor with a wrong agenda and anachronistic methods
the Armenians continue to become pernicious for the region. As usual,
they will be treated accordingly by their neighbors. Nagorno-Karabag 
is a mountainous enclave that lies completely within Azerbaijan with 
no border or history whatsoever connected to x-Soviet Armenia. Besides 
the geographical aspect, Nagorno-Karabag is the historic homeland and 
the 'cradle' of the artistic and literary heritage of Azerbaijan, which 
renders the Armenian claims preposterous, even lunatic. Early in this 
century the Armenians pulled the same trick on the Turks as well. They 
claimed that they were a majority in the six Eastern provinces of Turkiye 
while they accounted for only one-fifth. In this stunt, they relied on the
Christian solidarity against Islam. No one in his or her mind could
have imagined that one day such a devious turn of event could have 
plagued the Azeris. One cannot even imagine the reverse case to occur, 
for the Armenians either would have slaughtered the Azerbaijanis, or 
put them to forced exile to maintain their own majority. As usual, 
the Armenian government will receive what it deserves. The Armenians 
should get one thing through their heads: they are condemned to get along 
well with the people of Turkiye and Azerbaijan, and that is the only hope 
for x-Soviet Armenia. Turkiye does not want to annihilate or crush Armenia, 
because the Turks do not share their custom of approaching others and then 
waiting for the opportunity to backstab and slaughter. The people of Turkiye 
keep their word, including the one given in 1921. But they are neither stupid 
nor are they used to bowing their heads. They are determined to protect 
their national and territorial integrity established by the international 
treaties. And the history speaks for itself.

Now what would you do? 

Source: 'The Sunday Times,' 1 March 1992 (a British Weekly, written by 
        Thomas Goltz, from Agdam, Azerbaijan.)

    ARMENIAN SOLDIERS MASSACRE HUNDREDS OF FLEEING FAMILIES.

    The spiralling  violence gripping the  outer republics of  the former
Soviet Union gained new impetus  yesterday with cold-blooded slaughter of
hundreds of women and children in war-racked Nagorno-Karabakh.
    Survivors  reported that  Armenian soldiers  shot and  bayoneted more
than 450  Azeris, many of  them women and  children, who were  fleeing an
attack  on their  town. Hundreds,  possibly thousands,  were missing  and
feared dead.
    The attackers  killed most of  the soldiers and  volunteers defending
the women  and children.  They then  turned their  guns on  the terrified
refugees. The few  survivors later described what  happened:" That's when
the real  slaughter began," said  Azer Hajiev,  one of three  soldiers to
survive. "The  Armenians just shot and  shot. And then they  came in and
started carving up people with their bayonets and knives."
    " They were shooting, shooting, shooting", echoed Rasia Aslanova, who
arrived in Agdam with other women and children who made their way through
Armenian lines. She said her husband, Kayun, and a son-in-law were killed
in front of her. Her daughter was still missing.
    One boy who arrived in Agdam had an ear sliced off.

    The survivors  said 2000  others, some of  whom had  fled separately,
were still missing in the gruelling terrain; many could perish from their
wounds or the cold.
    By late  yesterday, 479 deaths had  been registered at the  morgue in
Agdam's morgue,  and 29 bodies  had been buried  in the cemetery.  Of the
seven corpses  I saw awaiting  burial, two  were children and  three were
women, one shot through the chest at point blank range.
    Agdam hospital was  a scene of carnage and terror.  Doctors said they
had 140 patients who escaped slaughter, most with bullet injuries or deep
stab wounds.
    Nor were they safe in Agdam. On friday night rockets fell on the city
which  has a  population  of 150,000,  destroying  several buildings  and
killing one person.


            M A S S A C R E  I N  K H O J A L Y

Hostilities between  Armenia and Azerbaijan boil  over after some
200 civilians are slaughtered in a disputed enclave

While the details are argued, this much is  plain: something grim
and unconscionable  happened in  the Azerbaijani town  of Khojaly
two weeks ago.  So far, some 200 dead Azerbaijanis,  many of them
mutilated, have  been transported out  of the town  tucked inside
the Armenian-dominated enclave of  Nagorno-Karabakh for burial in
neighboring  Azerbaijan.  The  total   number  of  deaths  -  the
Azerbaijanis claim 1,324 civilians have been slaughtered, most of
them women and children - is unknown. But the explanation offered
by the  attacking Armenians,  who insist  that no  innocents were
deliberately killed, is hardly convincing.

The assault represents an  alarming escalation in the hostilities
that are rapidly pushing  Christian Armenia and Muslim Azerbaijan
toward all-out  war. With  increasing belligerence over  the past
four  years, the  two  republics have  pressed their  territorial
claims to Nagorno-Karabakh, a  4,400-sq.-km piece of turf located
within Azerbaijan's boundaries but home mainly Armenians.

Videotapes  circulated  by  the Azerbaijanis  include  images  of
defaced civilians, some of them scalped, others shot in the head.
Armenians claim the footage is fake. They insist that they left a
corridor open for civilians to flee Khojaly, but that Azerbaijani
soldiers led  a group 200 civilians  into harm's way. The  use of
surface-to-air missiles, artillery rockets  and armor proves that
both sides  are equipped with state-of-the-art  weapons that were
bequeathed  by,  sold by  or  stolen  from disintegrating  Soviet
units.

Although  Nagorno-Karabakh  is  small, the  implications  of  the
violence  are large.  Officials from  other republics  regard the
outcome  as a  test for  the  future prospects  of the  patchwork
Commonwealth   of  Independent   States.  Nursultan   Nazarbayev,
President  of Kazakhstan,  warns  that the  burgeoning clash  may
"create  a precedent  for uncontrolled  development of  conflicts
within  the C.I.S."  Late  last week  Azerbaijani President  Ayaz
Muttalibov resigned under heated criticism that he had mishandled
the  Khojaly crisis.  But the  dispute with  Armenia is  far from
settled.

By Jill SMOLOWE

-Reported by Yuri ZARAKHOVICH/Moscow

SOURCE: TIME March 16, 1992

Serdar Argic

                     'This war quickly developed into one of extermination. 
                      We closed the roads and mountain passes that might 
                      serve as ways of escape for the Tartars [Turks] and 
                      then proceeded in the work of extermination.'
                                                       (Ohanus Appressian)