In article <1993May15.021746.9527@seas.smu.edu> pts@seas.smu.edu (Paul Thompson Schreiber) posted:   [PTS]                  ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN: TWO VIEWS [PTS]                  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [PTS]               Washington Report On Middle East Affairs [PTS]                    April/May 1993, Vol. XI, No. 9 [PTS]  [PTS] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [PTS]  [PTS]  [PTS]                    Life Under Blockade In Yerevan [PTS]                    ------------------------------ [PTS]                          By Nancy Najarian   Ms. Najarian wrote on her personal observations. If somebody wishes to counter the reality she described, fine.    [PTS] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [PTS]  [PTS]  [PTS]       The Conflict Over Nagorno-Karabakh: An Azeri Perspective [PTS]       -------------------------------------------------------- [PTS]                            By Alec Rasizade [PTS]  [PTS]   [AR] Western readers have learned of the Nagorno (Upper) Karabakh [AR] controversy through reports from that remote area by Western [AR] correspondents and from commentaries by member of the long-established [AR] Armenian-American community.  Azeri views on this dispute have [AR] appeared rarely if at all in the Western news media.  Therefore let me [AR] present _Washington Report_ readers with some basic truths about the [AR] origins of the conflict.  During the past two years, if one reads all the commentaries on the subject, a small minority of the writers have been Armenia or Azeri.  The following should be interesting.   [AR] Armenian leaders claim that Azerbaijan was the first to oppress and [AR] expel the Armenian minority from the Azerbaijani Republic.  Actually, [AR] the initiative to banish the Azeri minority and convert the Armenian [AR] Republic into a homogeneous state began in the winter of 1987-1988, [AR] when 165,000 Azeris were driven out of Armenia.  Following that move, [AR] there were massacres of Armenians in the Azerbaijani cities of Sumgait [AR]in February 1988 and two years later, in Baku in January 1990.  This not true. Other than simply checking the newspapers, I will quote from an independent human rights report. In the _PAX Cristi Netherlands_, 29 September 1991, page 28, we read:   "By mid-november, many incidents took place in several places in   Azerbaijan. The APF [Azeri Popular Front] challenged the Communist Party   for power. ... After ten days, the authorities came in with tanks to   reimpose their power. In Nakhitchevan, the last Armenian villages were   deported. In Ganja, Armenians were attacked and killed. All 40,000    Armenian inhabitants fled the city..."    Between 22 November and 8 December 1988, refugees from Ganja arrived in   Armenia while all 167,000 Azeris in Armenia were chased away."  In this part of the world February 1988 [start of organized anti-Armenian  pogroms in Azerbaijan] come before November and December of 1988!  [AR] Azeri parliamentary committees have compiled evidence indicating that [AR] both events were inspired from Moscow to secure Russian imperial rule [AR] in the Transcaucasus, according to the Roman principle of "divide and [AR] rule."  Similar conspiracies are evident throughout the five-year [AR] history of the conflict.  It is interesting that the Azeris killed, burnt, raped the Armenians but the perpetrators blame Russians, and Armenians themselves on other occasions.   [AR] Each time the parties have been about to reach an agreement (in [AR] Zheleznovodsk, Moscow, Tehran, Rome, Geneva and Alma-Ata), an [AR] invisible hand provoked further bloodshed.  Those interested in [AR] maintaining the Azeri-Armenian conflict, as well as the Georgian [AR] turmoil, are imperialist forces in Russia, and probably in Iran.  Incorrect! When were the people of Nagorno-Karabakh ever involved in an agreement? Never. Until Azerbaijan sits down with the Armenians of Nagorno- Karabakh there will never be an end to this conflict.   [AR] The Armenian offensive last spring created more than 100,000 new Azeri [AR] refugees from the captured towns of Upper and Lower Karabakh and [AR] adjacent rural districts.  Today 500,000 Azeri refugees throng the [AR] city of Baku and environs, providing more problems for the newly [AR] elected Popular Front government, which is opposed by the rigidly [AR] nationalistic National Independence Party.   It's called war. If the Azerbaijanis didn't try to deport and allow the  Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to live in their ways, keep their Armenian culture, these Armenians would not have had to defend their existence. The Azeris should not have assumed that Armenians were going to roll over and play dead.   [AR] How can a Western-style democracy survive in a small Muslim country [AR] where 1 million of the 7 million inhabitants are unemployed?  In the [AR] absence of any international effort to help Azeri refugees, as Kurdish [AR] and Bosnian refugees have been helped, how can the Azeri government [AR] reject the demand of these exiles to recapture their lands, homes and [AR] possessions?  The Azeri government should have thought about such thnings before they attempted to deprive Armenians of "lands, homes, and possessions".   [AR] Such simple realities must be understood in the West. [AR] Misunderstanding Caucasian politics leads both Western and Russian [AR] public opinion to imagine a permanent, and therefore irreversible, [AR] ethnic and religious rivalry in the Caucasus.  True, and you, Dr. Alec Rasizade, should practice what you preach!   [AR] I think Western reluctance to interfere derives from this idea. [AR] Meanwhile, continuation of the war could draw both Eastern and Western [AR] states into the conflict through activation of various security [AR] alliances.  These include, on the Armenian side, the Moscow-led [AR] Commonwealth forces under the Tashkent mutual security pact, signed [AR] May 15, 1992.  On the Azeri side, should Turkey get involved as the [AR] guarantor of the Nakhichevan autonomy through the Kars Treaty of Oct. [AR] 13, 1921, these include the North Atlantic Treaty forces.  Western interference! Turkish intervention! The moment Turkey dares step into this conflict it will close the doors of any chance of Turkey being part of  Europe (as if it ever will) and will destroy the eastern third of Anatolia! Dr. Rasizade, international realpolitik is not as simple-minded as you would have us believe.   [AR] Upper Karabakh generally is described in Western press reports as an [AR]"Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan."  The truth is that the Armenians [AR] began to appear there only in the middle of the last century.  Incorrect once again. A brief scan of history addresses such a foolish claim.   Armenians today, refer to the area of Nagorno-Karabakh as "Artsakh", which  comes from the Urartian term "Urtekhe-Urtekhini". NO Azeris yet!   Ancient Greeks referred to Artsakh as "Orkhistena". NO Azeris yet!  In the first half of the 6th century B.C., Artsakh, as part of Ervandid Armenia of Media. NO Azeris yet!  From the end of the 4th century B.C., Artsakh was part of the Armenian Kingdom of Ervan. NO Azeris yet!  Artsakh was still part of the Armenian Empire of Tigran. Orkhistena, or  Artsakh is refereed to by Strabo, as part of Armenia. NO Azeris yet!  After Armenia was divided between the Persian and Byzantine Empires in 387  A.D. until 428, Artsakh was part of Armenia. NO Azeris yet!  End of the 5th century, Utik and Artsakh became principalities of the  Aranshakhiks. NO Azeris yet!  By the 7th century an Artsakh dialect of Armenian formed. NO Azeris yet!  Emperor Konstantin (913-959) addressees a letter to the Prince of Khachen "To Armenia". Khachen was the central principality of Artsakh. NO Azeris yet!  In the decree of Paul I (1797), the number of Armenian families in this area was stated as 11,000.  It was from the 16th to the 18th centuries that non-Armenians from Central Asia, Asia Minor, and Kurdistan first began to be exercise political influence in the planes of Artsakh. Caucasian Muslims around Karabakh!  In 1813 Karabagh becomes part of Russia. Officiallt part of Russia 1828. Some  Muslims in Karabakh!  In 1914, the number of Armenian churches in Nagorno-Karabagh was 224, 188 priests, 206,768 parishioners in 224 Armenian towns and villages. The Armenian percentage of the population was over 90%. MAX: 10% Azeris in Karabakh -- assuming no Kurds!  Consider the following statement by the Azerbaijani Revcom on December 1, 1920:   "The Worker-Peasant Government of Azerbaidzan, having been informed of the   proclamation of Armenia a Soviet Socialist Republic, sends its greetings   to the brother people. From this day the previous boundaries between   Armenia and Azerbaidzan are annulled. Nagornyi Karabakh, Zangezur, and   Nakhichevan are recognized as integral parts of the Armenian Socialis   Republic.    Long live the brotherhood and union of the workers and peasants of Soviet   Armenia and Azerbaidzan!  				Chairman of the Revcom of Azerbaidzan 							N. Narimanov  				People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs 							Guseinov"  [AR] A few years ago they celebrated the 150th anniversary of their [AR] resettlement from Persia to Karabakh, after it came under Russian [AR] rule.   No, incorrect. The 1988 celebration was the 150th anniversary of Russian rule in the Caucasus, including Karabakh!  [AR] At the same time the Russian colonial administration also drew [AR] in Russian and German settlers, who were welcomed by Azeris.  How [AR] would Americans react if the large numbers of Armenians living in [AR] southern California suddenly claimed an Armenian homeland, and [AR] demanded separation from California?  Non-sequitur.    [AR] Armenian historians insist that before the Armenian resettlement [AR] Karabakh was inhabited by aboriginal Christians.  That is correct.  Armenian historians don't say this!  [AR] The people of medieval Caucasian Albania adopted Christianity in the [AR] fourth century.  But those ancient residents had no link to and [AR] nothing in common with Armenians.  Considering the Caucasian Albans were of the Armenian Apostolic faith, and their utilization of the Armenian language in their liturgy, makes such an  argument totally invalid!  [AR] Azeris would have a better claim to [AR] be successors of Albania, since Azeris have for centuries inhabited, [AR] dominated, and developed the Karabakh part of the Azeri nation.  Wishing to be part of a people non-existent for nearly a millennium for geo- political advantage is rather outrageous. In addition to such absurdity, Azeris claim to be Turks, Persians, and all the while are Azerizing their minorities, such as the Lezgians, Kurds, Tat, Talish, and a host of other nationalities which may amount to nearly half the population of Azerbaijan.  [AR] Both Armenia and Azerbaijan last year signed the Final Act of the [AR] Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe of 1975, and the [AR] Paris Charter for New Europe of 1990, confirming their mutual [AR] adherence to the principle of inviolability of existing borders.  This [AR] principle means that the borders and territorial integrity of the [AR] Republic of Azerbaijan are to be guaranteed by all of the signatory [AR] nations, not just by Turkey.  Such agreements do not give Azerbaijan the right to de-populate Karabakh of Armenians.   [AR] This is one key to intervention on behalf either of the U.N., the [AR] CSCE, the Commonwealth, NATO or Iran.  The second key to untying the [AR] Caucasian knot is to determine who is the aggressor, according to the [AR] U.N. definition of 1974.  Fine, so why has Azerbaijan refused to allow UN troops into the Armenian enclave? What is Azerbaijan afraid of? Perhaps the fact that the territory is the home of Armenians, the UN, would by definition, support the local population!    [AR] When that is accomplished, the international community can and should [AR] apply to the aggressor in the Caucasus international sanctions such as [AR] those presently being employed against Serbia and Montenegro in the [AR] former Yugoslavia.  Such decisive collective international action can [AR] halt further aggression in Karabakh, and prevent the Armenian-Azeri [AR] conflict from growing and spreading.   Azerbaijan's refusal to allow the Armenians of Karabakh to determine their own future the is issue, not viewing isolating events out of context are  actions that will address the Karabakh conflict. Viewing events in a war in isolation and out of context is like viewing the landing at Normandy as an act of Allied aggression!    [AR] Dr. Alec Rasizade, senior research officer at the Academy of Sciences [AR] of Azerbaijan, is a visiting researcher at the Harriman Institute of [AR] Columbia University in New York.  Ha!