Causes of the Karabakh armed conflict. Key moments of the confrontation between Azerbaijan and Armenia

London and Ankara prepared the next act of Karabakh bloodshed for exactly 100 days. Everything went like clockwork. On New Year's Eve, the heads of the defense departments of Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan signed a trilateral defense memorandum with pomp, then, a month later, the British staged a scandalous demarche in PACE with the aim of “cutting the Karabakh knot” in favor of Baku, and now - the third act, in which, according to the laws genre, a gun hanging on the wall shoots.

Nagorno-Karabakh is bleeding again, there are more than a hundred victims on both sides, and it seems that a new war is not far away - in the soft underbelly of Russia. What is happening and how should we react to what is happening?

And the following is happening: in Turkey they are extremely dissatisfied with the “pro-Russian”, as they consider, President Ilham Aliyev. They are so dissatisfied that they are even ready to remove him, either by organizing a “Baku spring” for Aliyev, or by inciting frondeurs from the Azerbaijani military elite. The latter is both more accurate and much cheaper. Please note: when the shooting began in Karabakh, Aliyev was not in Azerbaijan. So who gave the order to shoot in the absence of the president? It turns out that the decision to strike at Armenian settlements was made by Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov, big friend Ankara and, one might say, a protégé of Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. The story of Hasanov’s appointment as minister is little known and clearly worth telling. Because, knowing this history, the current aggravation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict can be seen with completely different eyes.

Azerbaijani Defense Minister - Turkey's protégé

So, Hasanov’s predecessor, Safar Abiyev, was appointed by the father of the current Azerbaijani president, Heydar Aliyev. The experience and managerial sense of a seasoned party functionary and a high-ranking KGB officer allowed Aliyev Sr. to avoid military and near-military coups several times. In 1995, Heydar Aliyev had the opportunity to try his luck twice: in March there was a rebellion inspired by the former Minister of Internal Affairs Iskander Hamidov, and in August there was a “case of the generals” that thundered throughout the country. A group of conspirators, which included two deputy defense ministers, intended to shoot down the presidential plane using a portable air defense system. In general, the famous “fad” of Aliyev Sr. regarding the impending military conspiracy had its own clear explanation (also keeping in mind the betrayal of ex-Minister of Defense Rahim Gaziev, which happened a little earlier). Therefore, it is not surprising that, transferring power to his son, Heydar Agha commanded the heir: beware of a military putsch! At the same time, how could he protect Ilham, because since 1995, the military department has been permanently headed by Safar Abiyev, loyal to the Aliyev family.

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Last but not least, it was thanks to the personal participation of Minister Abiyev that the Armenian-Azerbaijani military confrontation in Nagorno-Karabakh. The shrewd and extremely cautious military man did his best to restrain his subordinates, who were constantly trying to show a hot temper in an explosive region. But such a defense minister became extremely disadvantageous for Ankara, which was constantly trying to fan the embers of the former conflagration in the Caucasus. And in 2013, the Turks detonated an information bomb. What is noteworthy is that with the help of the radically “anti-Aliyev” Azerbaijani publication “Yeni Musavat”. They say that an assassination attempt was being prepared on the president and his son-in-law. At the same time, the journalists hinted very “thickly”: the conspiracy was organized by the military. Of course, no evidence was presented, as is usual in such cases. But even this slightest suspicion was enough for Ilham Aliyev to remove the faithful Abiyev from the leadership of the ministry.

Throughout his career, Abiyev fought against the Musavatists in the army - against the “Azerbaijani Turks,” as, deliberately confusing the uninitiated, they call themselves in their publications, such as “Yeni Musavat.” For almost two decades, the Musavatists have been hammering the minister for “harassment and pressure on Azeri Turks in the army,” and now – what luck! – the then Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, an ethnic Crimean Tatar, Ahmet Davutoglu, came to the rescue. It is unknown what he “poured into the ears” of Ilham Aliyev, but Abiyev was replaced in the ministerial post by the very person Ankara nominated – General Zakir Hasanov. Ethnic Azeri Turk. And a fierce hater of Armenians - unlike his predecessor Abiev.

REFERENCE

Washington traditionally remains neutral in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Meanwhile, seven American states - Hawaii, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, Louisiana, Georgia and California - officially recognize Artsakh's independence. It is believed that behind these local recognitions there is a very, very wealthy Armenian diaspora of 2 million.

But London is clearly on the side of Azerbaijan.

And the positions of other European states on the Karabakh issue differ significantly. “For Baku” – Germany and “new Europe” (Poland, the Baltic countries and Romania). “For Stepanakert” – France and Italy.

Ankara and London are provoking the situation in Karabakh, not Baku

Of course, Hasanov’s nomination immediately provoked new clashes in Artsakh-Nagorno-Karabakh. Since the year before last, the situation in the region has deteriorated several times - and each time the Russian president had to resolve it. And it’s an amazing thing! – it was Defense Minister Hasanov who provoked the shooting with his orders, taking advantage of the head of state’s absences from Baku. But if only the activity of the Minister of War was limited to provocations on the borders of Artsakh! Last December, Hasanov, after several bilateral and trilateral meetings in Istanbul between the defense ministers of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia, initiated the signing of a defense pact with Ankara and Tbilisi. Ministers Ismet Yilmaz and Tina Khidasheli agreed that in the event of another escalation on the borders with the Armenian enclave, they undertake to enter into the conflict on the side of the Azerbaijanis. And the document was signed - despite the fact that the North Atlantic Alliance did not stand behind Georgia and Azerbaijan, as in the case of Turkey. Neither Khidasheli nor, of course, Hasanov were embarrassed by this circumstance. Probably, they really counted on the fact that, if something happened, not only Turkey, but the entire NATO bloc was ready to “sign up” for them.

And this calculation, apparently, was not based on speculation and fantasy alone. There were also more compelling reasons to rely on NATO. London guaranteed political support for the Ankara-Baku-Tbilisi military axis. This is confirmed by the January speech of British parliamentarian Robert Walter at the PACE session. There had not yet been any escalation of the conflict in Artsakh, but Walter apparently already knew something like that for sure, proposing that parliamentarians adopt a resolution on the “escalation of violence” in the region. It has always been this way: the British invariably ordered the Turks to set fire to the Caucasus, and they themselves invariably stood behind them. Let us remember Imam Shamil - the Ottomans incited the mountaineers, but the ideologists of what was happening were the politicians of Albion. So, nothing has changed today. That is why Robert Walter from the PACE rostrum demanded “the withdrawal of Armenian forces from Nagorno-Karabakh” and “the establishment of complete control of Azerbaijan in these territories.”

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Recently, economists from the Higher School of Economics compared salaries in dollars in Russia, the CIS countries and Eastern Europe using purchasing power parity (PPP) - this indicator equalizes the purchasing powers of currencies of different countries. The study's authors used World Bank data on 2011 PPP, data on exchange rates and inflation rates in the countries under consideration in subsequent years.

It is unlikely that the reason for Turkey’s intensified actions can be explained solely by the desire to symmetrically respond to Moscow for the actual recognition of Kurdistan. The explanation is most likely different: Ankara is preparing for President Ilham Aliyev “ color revolution"- by the hands of the Azerbaijani military.

In February-March, Turkish military specialists began frequenting trips from Ankara to Baku. Compared to the Armenians, the Azerbaijanis are unimportant fighters. They would not risk attacking themselves. What is noteworthy is that the former Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan and the head of the General Staff unanimously testified: the army in its current form is not able to return Artsakh. Well, with the promised help from the Turks, why not try your luck? Fortunately, the minister is already different. By the way, a most interesting touch: as soon as the conflict in Karabakh escalated, a considerable detachment of Crimean Tatars from the Kherson region of Ukraine came to the aid of the Azerbaijanis. Either 300 bayonets, or more. Of course, this could not have happened without Ankara. It is noteworthy that both Yerevan and Stepanakert were informed in advance about the possible provocation. And it is no coincidence that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, at a meeting with the ambassadors of the OSCE member countries, emphasized that it was not Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev who provoked the bloodshed. The bloody provocation was prepared by the leadership of Turkey and carried out by the Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan in the absence of the country's president.

Anatoly NESMIYAN, orientalist:

– Militarily, Baku has no chance of returning Karabakh. But Azerbaijani generals have the opportunity to move forward locally in a short period of time - in the hope that external players will stop the war at the moment when Azerbaijan can no longer advance further. The maximum that the Azerbaijanis can achieve with this is to establish control over a couple of villages. And this will be presented as a victory. Baku is not able to return all of Karabakh in its entirety. It is not possible to cope even with the army of Karabakh, and yet there is also the army of Armenia. But Baku is not afraid to lose, knowing full well that it simply will not be allowed to lose - the same Moscow, which will immediately intervene. In my opinion, the current aggravation of the situation is caused by the fact that the West and Turkey have finally decided on the future fate of Ilham Aliyev - they are preparing a “Baku revolution” for him with original script. This “revolution” will have four stages: the conflict in Karabakh, the defeat of Azerbaijan, recognition of Artsakh by Washington (seven states have already been decided) and a coup in Baku. The first step has already been completed, the second is almost completed. Half the journey has been completed in just a few days. Aliyev should have been more careful.

How will Moscow respond to Ankara’s provocations?

What are you waiting for? Some military experts, such as Franz Klintsevich, believe that the escalation in Artsakh will develop further. Moreover, the situation, in his words, is this: Armenia, they say, is part of the CSTO, but Azerbaijan is not, and this means that Russia will inevitably have to take the Armenian side in the conflict. In reality, it's not that simple. Armenia – like Russia – is not a party to the Karabakh conflict. Its sides are Azerbaijan and the Republic of Artsakh, although not recognized even by Yerevan, but a completely independent state the size of half of Armenia. Artsakh is not represented in the CSTO. So one should hardly make hasty conclusions that, if the conflict escalates, Russia will have to send troops into the unrecognized republic. You won't have to.

And one more important point. There is a myth that if Nagorno-Karabakh is “pushed” back into Azerbaijan, the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict will inevitably be settled. Alas, this is not true. Take a look at the map. Azerbaijan has an exclave in the south - Nakhichevan Autonomy. It is shared with Azerbaijan not only by Artsakh, the emergence of which after the collapse of the USSR, they say, is the whole essence of the conflict. Between Nakhichevan and the rest of the country there is a large piece of Armenia. Should it also be given to Baku - for the final settlement of the peace process, because, as follows from the Azerbaijani agenda, the conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijanis will be settled only if Azerbaijan is finally completely reunited? Thus, today there is no geopolitical solution that could bring the conflict to naught.

However, it should be recognized that neither the President of Armenia, nor his Azerbaijani counterpart, nor the leadership of Artsakh are ready to start a big war in the Caucasus. Only the Turkish lobby in Baku, headed by Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov, is ready to shed blood. By the way, Turkey, which through Prime Minister Davutoglu promised to certainly come to the rescue if the situation on the borders worsened, somehow never showed up on the battlefield, leaving the Azerbaijanis to die there alone.

In general, Moscow, as always, will have to resolve the situation. Using not weapons at all, but diplomacy alone. Even more rudely - using the hundredfold criticized, but perfectly working “telephone right”. President Putin, as always in such cases, will call the heads of Armenia and Azerbaijan, and then the Armenian leader will call his counterpart from Artsakh. And the firing will subside, albeit for a short time. And the fact is that Russian President will find the right words to reason with his Azerbaijani colleague Ilham Aliyev, there is no doubt. It will be much more interesting to watch than Russian leadership"will thank" the Turks. You can dream up a lot here. And about the beginning of the supply of humanitarian supplies to the areas of Syria bordering Turkey. The experience of Donbass suggests that the bodies of Russian trucks with humanitarian aid are much more voluminous than is commonly thought. There will be a place there for all sorts of things that the Kurds cannot do without. Today Ankara is unsuccessfully trying to pacify the Kurdish cities on its territory - tanks and attack aircraft are being used. Against practically unarmed Kurds! And if the Kurds are lucky enough to find some useful tool among the cans of stew and medicine - purely by chance, of course? Will Erdogan cope? Very, very doubtful. Turkey will not get away with tomatoes now, Putin correctly warned them. And England will not help them - however, this has always been the case.

It happens that Artsakh politicians continue their careers in the “metropolis,” so to speak. For example, the first president of Nagorno-Karabakh, Robert Kocharyan, became the second president of Armenia. But often outright political adventurers are brought into the echelons of power in Stepanakert - to the complete misunderstanding of official Yerevan. Thus, in 1999, the government of Artsakh was headed by the odious Anushavan Danielyan, a politician who had fled from Crimea the day before and was convicted of collaborating with the organized criminal group Salem. In Stepanakert, he surfaced together with his Simferopol accomplice Vladimir Shevyev (Gasparyan), and this couple ruled the economy of the unrecognized republic for eight years. Moreover, the then President of Artsakh Arkady Ghukasyan was informed in detail about the criminal background of Danielyan’s activities with Shevyev in Crimea. Thus, some of the statements of official Baku that crime bosses are in charge of Stepanakert actually have certain grounds.

TBILISI, April 3 - Sputnik. The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan began in 1988, when the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region declared its secession from the Azerbaijan SSR. Negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict have been ongoing since 1992 within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a historical region in Transcaucasia. The population (as of January 1, 2013) is 146.6 thousand people, the vast majority are Armenians. The administrative center is the city of Stepanakert.

Background

Armenian and Azerbaijani sources have different points of view on the history of the region. According to Armenian sources, Nagorno-Karabakh (the ancient Armenian name is Artsakh) at the beginning of the first millennium BC. was part of the political and cultural sphere of Assyria and Urartu. It was first mentioned in the cuneiform writing of Sardur II, king of Urartu (763-734 BC). IN early middle ages Nagorno-Karabakh was part of Armenia, Armenian sources claim. After most of this country was captured by Turkey and Persia in the Middle Ages, the Armenian principalities (melikdoms) of Nagorno-Karabakh maintained a semi-independent status. In the 17th-18th centuries, Artsakh princes (meliks) headed liberation struggle Armenians against the Shah's Persia and Sultan's Turkey.

According to Azerbaijani sources, Karabakh is one of the most ancient historical regions of Azerbaijan. According to the official version, the appearance of the term “Karabakh” dates back to the 7th century and is interpreted as a combination of the Azerbaijani words “gara” (black) and “bagh” (garden). Among other provinces, Karabakh (Ganja in Azerbaijani terminology) was part of the Safavid state in the 16th century, and later became the independent Karabakh Khanate.

In 1813, according to the Gulistan Peace Treaty, Nagorno-Karabakh became part of Russia.

At the beginning of May 1920, Soviet power was established in Karabakh. On July 7, 1923, the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region (AO) was formed from the mountainous part of Karabakh (part of the former Elizavetpol province) as part of the Azerbaijan SSR with an administrative center in the village of Khankendy (now Stepanakert).

How the war started

On February 20, 1988, an extraordinary session of the regional Council of Deputies of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Okrug adopted a decision “On a petition to the Supreme Councils of the AzSSR and the Armenian SSR for the transfer of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Okrug from the AzSSR to the Armenian SSR.”

The refusal of the Union and Azerbaijani authorities caused protest demonstrations by Armenians not only in Nagorno-Karabakh, but also in Yerevan.

On September 2, 1991, a joint session of the Nagorno-Karabakh regional and Shahumyan district councils was held in Stepanakert, which adopted a Declaration on the proclamation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic within the borders of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, the Shahumyan region and part of the Khanlar region of the former Azerbaijan SSR.

December 10, 1991, a few days before the official breakup Soviet Union, a referendum was held in Nagorno-Karabakh, in which the overwhelming majority of the population - 99.89% - spoke in favor of complete independence from Azerbaijan.

Official Baku recognized this act as illegal and abolished the autonomy of Karabakh that existed during the Soviet years. Following this, an armed conflict began, during which Azerbaijan tried to hold Karabakh, and Armenian troops defended the independence of the region with the support of Yerevan and the Armenian diaspora from other countries.

Victims and losses

The losses of both sides during the Karabakh conflict amounted, according to various sources, to 25 thousand people killed, more than 25 thousand were wounded, hundreds of thousands of civilians fled their places of residence, more than four thousand people were listed as missing.

As a result of the conflict, Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and, in whole or in part, seven adjacent regions.

Negotiation

On May 5, 1994, through the mediation of Russia, Kyrgyzstan and the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, representatives of Azerbaijan, Armenia, the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Nagorno-Karabakh signed a protocol calling for a ceasefire on the night of May 8-9. This document went down in the history of the Karabakh conflict settlement as the Bishkek Protocol.

The negotiation process to resolve the conflict began in 1991. Since 1992, negotiations have been ongoing on a peaceful resolution of the conflict within the framework of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France. The group also includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland and Türkiye.

Since 1999, regular bilateral and trilateral meetings between the leaders of the two countries have been held. The last meeting of the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan, within the framework of the negotiation process to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh problem took place on December 19, 2015 in Bern (Switzerland).

Despite the confidentiality surrounding the negotiation process, it is known that their basis is the so-called updated Madrid principles, transmitted by the OSCE Minsk Group to the parties to the conflict on January 15, 2010. The basic principles for resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, called the Madrid Principles, were presented in November 2007 in the capital of Spain.

Azerbaijan insists on maintaining its territorial integrity, Armenia defends the interests of the unrecognized republic, since the NKR is not a party to the negotiations.

The history of the Karabakh conflict is a small episode in the almost 200-year chronicle of contact between the Armenian ethnic group and the Caucasian peoples. Dramatic changes in the South Caucasus are associated with the large-scale resettlement policy of the 19th-20th centuries. started by Tsarist Russia and then continued by the USSR, until the collapse of the Soviet state. The resettlement process can be divided into two phases:

1) XIX-early XX centuries, when the Armenian people moved from Persia, Ottoman Turkey, the Middle East to the Caucasus.

2) During the 20th century, when intra-Caucasian migration processes were carried out, as a result of which autochthons (local population) were forced out from territories already inhabited by Armenians: Azerbaijanis, Georgians, and small Caucasian peoples, and thereby an Armenian majority was created on these lands, with the aim of further substantiation of territorial claims to the peoples of the Caucasus.

To clearly understand the causes of the Karabakh conflict, one should make a historical and geographical excursion into the path traversed by the Armenian people. The self-name of the Armenians is Hay, and their mythical homeland is called Hayastan.

N and the current geographical area of ​​their residence is the South Caucasus, the Armenian (Hai) people fell due to historical events and the geopolitical struggle of world powers in the Middle East, Asia Minor and the Caucasus. In today's world historiography, most academic researchers Ancient East They agree that the initial homeland of the Hai people was the Balkans (Southeastern Europe).

“The Father of History” - Herodotus, pointed out that the Armenians are the descendants of the Phrygians who lived in the south of Europe. The Russian Caucasus scholar of the 19th century I. Chopin also believed that “Armenians are aliens. This is a tribe of Phrygians and Ionians that moved to the northern valleys of the Anatolian mountains."

The famous Armenian scholar M. Abeghyan pointed out: “it is assumed that the ancestors of the Armenians (Hays) long before our era lived in Europe, near the ancestors of the Greeks and Thracians, from where they crossed to Asia Minor. During the time of Herodotus in the 5th century BC. they still clearly remembered that the Armenians came to their country from the west.”

The ancestors of the current Armenian people, the Hays, migrated from the Balkans to the Armenian Highlands (East of Asia Minor), where the ancient Medes and Persians who lived in the neighborhood called them by the name of their former neighbors - the Armenians. The ancient Greeks and Romans began to call the new people and the territory they occupied in the same way, through whom these names - the ethnonym “Armenians” and the toponym “Armenia” - spread in modern historical science, although the Armenians still continue to call themselves Hays, which further confirms them arrival in Armenia.

Russian Caucasus expert V.L. Velichko noted at the beginning of the 20th century: “Armenians, a people of unknown origin, with undoubtedly a significant admixture of Jewish, Syro-Chaldean and Gypsy blood...; not everyone who considers themselves Armenian belongs to the indigenous Armenian tribe.”

From Asia Minor, Armenian settlers began to arrive in the Caucasus - in present-day Armenia and Karabakh. In this regard, researcher S.P. Zelinsky noted that the Armenians who appeared in different time in Karabakh, did not understand each other's language: “The main difference between the Armenians of different areas of Zangezur (which was part of the Karabakh Khanate) is the dialects they speak. There are almost as many dialects here as there are districts or individual villages.”.

From the above statements of Russian Caucasus scholars of the 19th and early 20th centuries, several conclusions can be drawn: the Armenian ethnos could not be autochthonous not only in Karabakh or Azerbaijan, but also in the South Caucasus as a whole. Arriving in the Caucasus at different periods of history, the “Armenians” did not suspect each other’s existence and spoke different dialects, that is, at that time there was no concept of a single Armenian language and people.

Thus, gradually, the ancestors of the Armenians found their homeland in the South Caucasus, where they occupied the ancestral lands of the Azerbaijanis. Massive e The migration of Armenians to the South Caucasus was marked by the friendly attitude of the Arab Caliphate towards them , who was looking for social support in the conquered territories, and therefore treated the resettlement of Armenians favorably. The Armenians found shelter in the Caucasus on the territory of the state of Caucasian Albania, but very soon such hospitality cost the Albanians (the ancestors of today's Azerbaijanis) dearly. With the help of the Arab Caliphate in 704, the Armenian Gregorian Church tried to subjugate the Albanian Church, and the library of the Albanian Catholicos Nerses Bakur, which passed into the hands of Armenian church dignitaries, was destroyed. The Arab caliph Abd al-Malik Umayyad (685-705) ordered the merger of the Aftocephalous Albanian Church and Albanian Christians who had not converted to Islam with the Armenian Gregorian Church. But at that time it was not possible to fully implement this plan, and the Albanians managed to defend the independence of their church and statehood.

At the beginning of the 15th century, the situation of the Armenians in Byzantium worsened, and the Armenian Church turned its gaze to the loyal Caucasus, where it set the goal of creating its own statehood. Armenian high priests made a number of trips and wrote a large number of letters to the Albanian patriarchs with a request to give them refuge in the Caucasus “as Christian brothers in distress.” The Armenian Church, forced to wander through the cities of Byzantium, eventually lost most of the Armenian flock, who converted to Catholicism, thereby threatening the very existence of the Armenian Church. As a result, with the permission of the Albanian Patriarch, some of the Armenian dignitaries, around 1441, moved to the South Caucasus, to the monastery of Etchmiadzin (Three Muezzins) - Uchkilise: on the territory of present-day Armenia, where they received long-awaited peace and a place to implement further political plans.

From here, Armenian settlers began to move to Karabakh, which they now decided to call Artsakh, thereby trying to prove that these were Armenian lands. It is worth noting that the toponym ARTSAKH, as Nagorno-Karabakh is sometimes called, is of local origin. In the modern Udi language, which belongs to one of the languages ​​of Caucasian Albania, Artsun means “to sit, to sit down.” From this verb form is derived artsi - “sedentary; people leading a sedentary lifestyle." In Azerbaijan and the North Caucasus, dozens of geographical names with formants such as -ah, -eh, -uh, -oh, -ih, -yuh, -yh are known. In Azerbaijan, place names with the same formants are preserved to this day: Kurm-uh, Kokhm-uh, Mamr-uh, Mukhakh, Jimdzhim-ah, Sam-uh, Arts-ah, Shad-uh, Az-ykh.

In the fundamental academic work “Caucasian Albania and the Albanians,” a specialist in ancient Armenian language and history, Albanian scholar Farida Mamedova, who in Soviet times studied medieval Armenian manuscripts and revealed that many of them were written 200-300 years ago, but are presented as “ancient.” Many Armenian chronicles are collected on the basis of ancient Albanian books that fell into the hands of the Armenians after the Russian Empire abolished the Albanian Church in 1836 and transferred all its heritage to the Armenian Church, which collected the “ancient” Armenian history on this basis. In fact, the Armenian chroniclers, having arrived in the Caucasus, hastily scribbled the history of their people literally on the grave of Albanian culture.

During the XV-XVII centuries, during the times of the powerful Azerbaijani states of Ak-Koyunlu, Gara-Koyunlu and Safavids, Armenian Catholicoses wrote humble letters to the rulers of these states, where they swore allegiance and begged for help with the resettlement of Armenians to the Caucasus for the sake of salvation from “the yoke of the treacherous Ottomans." Using this method, taking advantage of the confrontation between the Ottoman and Safavid empires, a large number of Armenians moved to the Safavid territories bordering these states - present-day Armenia, Nakhchivan and Karabakh.

However, the period of power of the Azerbaijani Safavid state changed by the beginning of the 18th century feudal fragmentation, as a result of which 20 khanates were formed, where there was practically no single centralized power. The heyday has arrived Russian Empire, when, during the reign of Peter I (1682-1725), the Armenian Church, which had high hopes for the Russian crown in restoring Armenian statehood, began to expand its contacts and ties with Russian political circles. In 1714, the Armenian vardaped Minas submitted to Emperor Peter I “a proposal, in the interests of the proposed war between Russia and the Safavid state, to build a monastery on the shores of the Caspian Sea, which could replace a fortress during hostilities.” The main goal of the vardaped was for Russia to accept into its citizenship the Armenians scattered around the world, which the same Minas asked Peter I to do later, in 1718. At the same time, he interceded on behalf of “all Armenians” and asked “free them from the infidel yoke and accept them into Russian citizenship.” However, the Caspian campaign of Peter I (1722) was not completed due to its failure, and the emperor did not have time to populate the Caspian coast with Armenians, whom he considered « the best remedy“to secure the territories acquired in the Caucasus for Russia.”

But the Armenians did not lose hope and sent numerous appeals to Emperor Peter I and continued to cry out for intercession. Responding to these requests, Peter I sent the Armenians a letter according to which they could freely come to Russia for trade and “it was ordered to reassure the Armenian people with imperial mercy, to assure them of the sovereign’s readiness to accept them under his protection.” At the same time, on September 24, 1724, the emperor gave instructions to A. Rumyantsev, who was sent to Istanbul, to persuade the Armenians to move to the Caspian lands, on the condition that the local residents “will be expelled, and they, the Armenians, will be given their lands.” The policy of Peter I in the “Armenian question” was continued by Catherine II (1762-1796), “having expressed consent to the restoration of the Armenian kingdom under the auspices of Russia.” That is, the Russian Empire decided to “restore” at the expense of the Caucasian lands the Armenian state of Tigran I that once existed in Asia Minor (now Turkey) for only a few decades.

The dignitaries of Catherine II developed a plan, which indicated “in the first case, you should establish yourself in Derbend, take possession of Shamakhi and Ganja, then from Karabakh and Sygnakh, having collected a sufficient number of troops, you can easily take possession of Erivan.” As a result, already at the beginning of the 19th century, Armenians in noticeable numbers began to move to the South Caucasus, since the Russian Empire had already taken possession of this region, including Northern Azerbaijan.

During the 17th - early 19th centuries, the Russian Empire waged eight wars with the Ottoman Empire, as a result of which Russia became the mistress of three seas - the Caspian, Azov, Black - took possession of the Caucasus, Crimea, and gained advantages in the Balkans. The territory of the Russian Empire expanded further in the Caucasus after the end of the Russian-Persian wars of 1804-1813 and 1826-1828. All this could not but affect the change in the orientation of the Armenians, who, with each new victory of Russian weapons, leaned more and more towards Russia.

In 1804-1813. Russia negotiated with the Armenians of the Ottoman Erzerum Vilayet in Asia Minor. The talk was about their resettlement to the South Caucasus, mainly to Azerbaijani lands. The Armenians’ answer read: “When by the grace of God Erivan will be occupied Russian troops, then all Armenians will certainly agree to enter into the patronage of Russia and live in the Erivan province.”

Before continuing to describe the process of resettlement of Armenians, we should dwell on the history of Yerevan, so named after the capture of the Irevan Khanate and the city of Irevan (Erivan) by Russian troops. Another fact of the arrival of Armenians to the Caucasus and in particular to modern Armenia is the history of the celebration of the founding of the city of Yerevan. Seems, many have already forgotten that until the 1950s of the last century there were Armenians, and did not know how old the city of Yerevan was.

Making a slight digression, we note that according to historical facts, Irevan (Yerevan) was founded at the beginning of the 16th century as a stronghold of the Safavid (Azerbaijani) Empire on the border with the Ottoman Empire. To stop the advance of the Ottoman Empire to the east, Shah Ismail I Safevi in ​​1515 ordered the construction of a fortress on the Zengi River. The construction was entrusted to the vizier Revan-guli khan. Hence the name of the fortress - Revan-kala. Subsequently, Revan-kala became the city of Revan, then Iravan. Then, during the weakening of the Safavid Empire, over 20 independent Azerbaijani khanates were formed, one of which was Iravan, which existed until the invasion of the region by the Russian Empire and the capture of Iravan at the beginning of the 19th century.

However, let us return to the artificial ancientization of the history of the city of Yerevan that took place in Soviet times. This happened after the 1950s. Soviet archaeologists found a cuneiform tablet near Lake Sevan (the former name of Goycha). Although the inscription mentions three cuneiform characters "RBN" (in ancient times there were no vowels), this was immediately interpreted by the Armenian side as "Erebuni". This is the title Urartian fortress of Erebuni, supposedly founded in 782 BC, which immediately became the basis for the authorities of the Armenian SSR to celebrate the 2750th anniversary of Yerevan in 1968.

Researcher Shnirelman writes about this strange story: “At the same time, there was no direct connection between the archaeological discovery and the celebrations that took place later (in Soviet Armenia). Indeed, the magnificent national holiday was organized not by archaeologists, but by the Armenian authorities, who spent huge amounts of money on it. ... And what does the capital of Armenia, Yerevan, have to do with the Urartian fortress, whose connection with the Armenians still requires proof? The answer to the questions posed is no secret to those who know recent history Armenia. We must look for it in the events of 1965, which, as we will see below, shook up the whole of Armenia and gave a powerful impetus to the rise of Armenian nationalism.” (Memory Wars, Myths, Identity and Politics in Transcaucasia, V.A. Shnirelman).

That is, if there had not been an accidental and incorrectly deciphered archaeological find, the Armenians would never have known that their “native” Yerevan is now over 2800 years old. But if Yerevan is part of ancient Armenian culture, then this would be preserved in the memory, history of the Armenian people, and the Armenians would have to celebrate the founding of their city all these 28 centuries.

Returning to the process of resettlement of the Armenian people to the Caucasus, Armenia and Karabakh, let us turn to famous Armenian scientists. In particular, the Armenian historian, professor at Columbia University George (Gevorg) Burnoutyan writes: “A number of Armenian historians, speaking about statistics after the 1830s, incorrectly estimate the number of Armenians in Eastern Armenia (by this term Burnoutyan means present-day Armenia) during the years of Persian rule (i.e. before the Turkmenchay Treaty of 1828), citing a figure from 30 to 50 percent of the total population. In fact, according to official statistics after the Russian conquest, Armenians barely reached 20 percent of the total population of Eastern Armenia, while Muslims made up more than 80 percent... Thus, there is no evidence of an Armenian majority in any district during the Persian era. administration (before the conquest of the region by the Russian Empire) ... only after the Russian-Turkish wars of 1855-56 and 1877-78, as a result of which even more Armenians arrived in the region from the Ottoman Empire, even more Muslims left, did Armenians finally reach the majority of the population here . And even after this, until the beginning of the 20th century, the city of Iravan remained predominantly Muslim.». The same data is confirmed by another Armenian scientist Ronald Suni. (George Burnoutian, article “The Ethnic Composition and the Socio-Economic Condition of Eastern Armenia in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century”), in the book “Transcaucasia: nationalism and social change" (Transcaucasua, Nationalism and Social Change. Essays in the History of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia), 1996,ss. 77-80.)

Regarding the settlement of Karabakh by Armenians, Armenian scientist, University of Michigan professor Ronald G. Suny, in his book “Looking Toward Ararat,” writes: “From ancient times and in the Middle Ages, Karabakh was part of the principality (in the original “kingdom”) of the Caucasian Albanians. This independent ethno-religious group, no longer existing today, was converted to Christianity in the 4th century and became close to the Armenian Church. Over time, the upper layer of the Albanian elite became Armenian... These people (Caucasian Albanians), who are the direct ancestors of today's Azerbaijanis, spoke a Turkic language and accepted Shiite Islam, widespread in neighboring Iran. The mountainous part (of Karabakh) remained predominantly Christian, and over time, the Karabakh Albanians merged with the (settled) Armenians. The center of the Albanian church, Gansasar, became one of the bishoprics of the Armenian Church. Echoes of the once independent national church were preserved only in the status of the local archbishop, called the Catholicos.” (Prof. Ronald Grigor Suny, “Looking Towards Ararat”, 1993, p. 193).

Another Western historian, Svante Cornell, drawing on Russian statistics, also gives the dynamics of the growth of the Armenian population in Karabakh in the 19th century: « According to the Russian census, in 1823 Armenians made up 9 percent of the total population of Karabakh(the remaining 91 percent were registered as Muslims), in 1832 - 35 percent, and in 1880 they already reached the majority - 53 percent."(Svante Cornell, “Small Nations and Great Powers: A Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict in the Caucasus”, Routledge Curzon Press), 2001, p. 68).

At the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, the Russian Empire, pushing out the Persian and Ottoman empires, expanded its possessions to the south into the territory of the Azerbaijani khanates. In this complex geopolitical situation, the further fate of the Karabakh Khanate, which became a struggle between the Russian and Ottoman Empires and Persia, developed interestingly.

A particular danger for the Azerbaijani khanates was Persia, where in 1794 Agha Muhammad Khan Qajar of Azerbaijani origin, becoming Shah, decided to restore former greatness Safavid power, based on the idea of ​​unifying the Caucasian lands with an administrative and political center in Southern Azerbaijan and Persia. This idea did not inspire many khans of Northern Azerbaijan, who gravitated toward the rapidly growing Russian Empire. In such a responsible and difficult time, the initiator of the creation of the anti-Qajar coalition was the ruler of the Karabakh Khanate, Ibrahim Khalil Khan. Bloody wars began on Karabakh soil, the Persian Shah Qajar personally led campaigns against the Karabakh khan and his capital, the city of Shusha.

But all the attempts of the Persian Shah to conquer these lands were unsuccessful, and in the end, despite the successful capture of the Shusha fortress, he was killed here by his own courtiers, after which the remnants of his troops fled to Persia. The victory of Karabakh Ibrahim Khalil Khan allowed him to begin final negotiations on the entry of his possessions under the citizenship of the Russian Empire. On May 14, 1805 it was signed Treatise between the Karabakh Khan and the Russian Empire on the transition of the Khanate to Russian rule, which connected future fate these lands with Tsarist Russia. It is worth noting that in the treatise signed by Ibrahim Khan of Shusha and Karabakh and the Russian general, Prince Tsitsianov, consisting of 11 articles, the presence of Armenians is not mentioned anywhere. At that time, there were 5 Albanian melikates subordinate to the Karabakh Khan, and there is no talk of Armenian political entities, otherwise their presence would certainly have been noted in Russian sources.

Despite the successful end of the Russian-Persian War (1826-1828), Russia was in no hurry to conclude a peace treaty with Persia. Finally, on February 10, 1828, the Turkmenchay Treaty was signed between the Russian Empire and the Persian state, according to which, including the Iravan and Nakhchivan khanates, went to Russia. According to its terms, Azerbaijan was divided into two parts - North and South, and the Araz River was designated as a demarcation line.

A special place was occupied by Article 15 of the Turkmenchay Treaty, which gave“All residents and officials of the Azerbaijan region have a one-year period for free transition with their families from the Persian regions to the Russian ones.” First of all, it concerned "Persian Armenians". In pursuance of this plan, the “highest decree” of the Russian Senate was adopted on March 21, 1828, which stated: “By virtue of the treaty with Persia concluded on February 10, 1828, we command that the Khanate of Erivan and the Khanate of Nakhichevan, annexed to Russia, be called the Armenian region in all matters from now on.”

Thus, the foundation of the future Armenian statehood in the Caucasus was laid. A Resettlement Committee was created, which controlled the migration processes, settling the resettled Armenians in new places in such a way that the residents of the established settlements did not come into contact with existing Azerbaijani villages. Not having time to settle the huge flow of migrants in the Iravan province, the Caucasian administration decides to persuade most of the Armenian migrants to settle in Karabakh. As a result of the mass resettlement of Armenians from Persia in 1828-1829, 35,560 migrants ended up here in Northern Azerbaijan. Of these, 2,558 families or 10,000 people. stationed in Nakhichevan province. Approximately 15 thousand people were stationed in the Garabagh (Karabakh) province. During 1828-1829, 1,458 Armenian families (about 5 thousand people) were settled in the Iravan province. Tsatur Aghayan cited data for 1832: then in the Armenian region there were 164,450 residents, of which 82,317 (50%) were Armenians, and, as Tsatur Aghayan noted, of the indicated number, local Armenians were 25,151 (15%) of all residents , and the rest were immigrants from Persia and the Ottoman Empire.

In general, as a result of the Turkmenchay Treaty, 40 thousand Armenian families moved from Persia to Azerbaijan within a few months. Then, relying on an agreement with the Ottoman Empire, in 1830 Russia resettled another 12,655 Armenian families from Asia Minor to the Caucasus. In 1828-30, the empire resettled another 84,600 families from Turkey to the Caucasus and settled some of them on the best lands of Karabakh. During the period 1828-39. 200 thousand Armenians were resettled to the mountainous parts of Karabakh. In 1877-79, during the Russian-Turkish War, another 185 thousand Armenians were resettled to the south of the Caucasus. As a result, significant demographic changes occurred in Northern Azerbaijan, which were further intensified due to the departure of the indigenous population from the territories inhabited by Armenians. These counter-flows were completely “legal” in nature, since the official Russian authorities, relocating Armenians to Northern Azerbaijan, did not prevent the Azeri Turks from leaving here for the Iranian and Ottoman borders .

The largest resettlement took place in 1893-94. Already in 1896, the number of Armenians who came reached 900 thousand. Due to the resettlement in Transcaucasia in 1908, the number of Armenians reached 1 million 300 thousand people, 1 million of whom were resettled by the tsarist authorities from foreign countries. Due to this, in 1921, the Armenian state appeared in Transcaucasia. Professor V.A. Parsamyan in “History of the Armenian people - Ayastan 1801-1900.” writes: “Before the union with Russia, the population of Eastern Armenia (Iravan Khanate) was 169,155 people - of which 57,305 (33.8%) were Armenians... After the capture of the Kars region of the Armenian Dashnak Republic (1918), the population increased to 1 million 510 thousand people. Of these, 795 thousand were Armenians, 575 thousand Azerbaijanis, 140 thousand were representatives of other nationalities.”

By the end of the 19th century, a new phase of activation of the Armenian community began, associated with the national awakening of peoples, a phenomenon that migrated from Europe to Asia. In 1912-1913 The Balkan Wars began between the Ottoman Empire and the Balkan peoples, which directly affected the situation in the Caucasus. During these years, Russia dramatically changed its policy towards the Armenians. On the eve of the First World War, the Russian Empire began to withdraw Ottoman Armenians the role of its ally against Ottoman Turkey, where the Armenians rebelled against their state, hoping, with the support of Russia and European countries, to create an Armenian state on Turkish lands.

However, victories in 1915-16. The Ottoman Empire on the fronts of the First World War prevented these plans: mass deportation of Armenians began from the war zone in Asia Minor towards Mesopotamia and Syria. But the bulk of the Armenians - more than 300,000 - fled along with the retreating Russian army to the South Caucasus, mainly to Azerbaijani lands.

After the collapse of the Russian Empire in Transcaucasia in 1917, the Transcaucasian Confederation was formed and the Seim was created in Tiflis, in which Georgian, Azerbaijani, and Armenian parliamentarians played an active role. However, disagreements and the difficult military situation did not allow maintaining the confederal structure and, following the results of the last meetings of the Sejm in May 1918, independent states appeared in the South Caucasus: Georgian, Ararat (Armenian) and Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR). On May 28, 1918, the ADR became the first democratic Republic in the East and in the Muslim world with a parliamentary form of government.

But the leaders of Dashnak Armenia began the massacre of the Azerbaijani population of the former Erivan province, Zangezur and other regions that now make up the territory of the Republic of Armenia. At the same time, Armenian troops, made up of detachments deserting from the fronts of the First World War, began to advance across the territory in order to “clear the way” for the creation of the state of Armenia. At this difficult time, trying to stop the bloodshed and massacre of civilians committed by Armenian troops, a group of representatives of the leadership of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic agreed to cede the city of Yerevan and its surroundings to create an Armenian state. The condition of this concession, which still causes great controversy in Azerbaijani historiography, was that the Armenian side would stop the massacre of the Azerbaijani population and would no longer have territorial claims to the ADR. When in June 1918 Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia signed, each separately, “treaties of peace and friendship with Turkey,” the territory of Armenia was defined as 10,400 sq. km. The undisputed territory of the ADR was about 98 thousand sq. km. (together with the disputed areas 114 thousand sq. km.).

However, the Armenian leadership did not keep its word. In 1918, some Russian and Armenian soldiers were withdrawn from the Turkish front, and as a result, detachments consisting of Armenians deserting from the fronts of the First World War were skillfully directed towards Azerbaijan and its oil capital Baku. Along the way, they used scorched earth tactics, leaving behind the ashes of Azerbaijani villages.

The hastily formed Armenian militia consisted of those who agreed, under Bolshevik slogans, to carry out the orders of the Dashnak leaders led by Stepan Shaumyan, sent from Moscow to lead the Baku communists (Baksovet). Then, on their basis, Shaumyan managed in Baku to staff and fully arm a 20,000-strong group consisting of 90% Armenians.

Armenian historian Ronald Suni, in his book “The Baku Commune” (1972), described in detail how the leaders of the Armenian movement, under the auspices of communist ideas, created the Armenian national state.

It was with the help of a shock and well-armed group of 20 thousand, consisting of soldiers and officers who served on the fronts of the First World War, that in the spring of 1918, the Dashnak leaders, under the guise of the ideas of Bolshevism, managed to carry out an unprecedented massacre of the civilian population of Baku and the regions of Azerbaijan. In a short period of time, 50-60 Azerbaijanis were killed, in total, 500-600 thousand Azerbaijanis were massacred in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Persia.

The Dashnak groups then decided for the first time to try to seize the fertile lands of Karabakh from Azerbaijan. In June 1918, the 1st congress of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians took place in Shusha, and here they declared themselves independent. The newly formed Armenian Republic, sending troops, committed unprecedented pogroms and bloodshed in Azerbaijani villages in Karabakh. Objecting to the Armenian unfounded demands, on May 22, 1919, in the information given to V. Lenin by the Baku communist Anastas Mikoyan, it was reported: “The agents of the Armenian leadership, the Dashnaks, are trying to annex Karabakh to Armenia. For the Karabakh Armenians, this would mean leaving their places of residence in Baku and uniting their destinies with nothing that binds them to Yerevan. The Armenians at their 5th congress decided to accept Azerbaijani power and unite with it.”

Then the efforts of Armenian nationalists to conquer Nagorno-Karabakh and annex it to Armenia were unsuccessful. On November 23, 1919, in Tbilisi, thanks to the efforts of the Azerbaijani leadership, it was possible to conclude a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan and stop the bloodshed.

But the situation in the region continued to remain tense, and on the night of April 26-27, 1920, the 72 thousandth 11th Red Army, crossing the borders of Azerbaijan, headed to Baku. As a result of the military assault, Baku was occupied by troops Soviet Russia, and Soviet power was established in Azerbaijan, under which the positions of the Armenians were further strengthened. And during these years, the Armenians, without forgetting their plans, continued the fight against Azerbaijan. The issue of Nagorno-Karabakh was discussed many times at the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), the Transcaucasian branch of the RCP (b), at the bureau of the Central Committee of the ACP (b).

On July 15, 1920, at a meeting of the Central Committee of the Azerbaijan Communist Party (b), a decision was made to annex Karabakh and Zangezur to Azerbaijan. But the situation did not turn out in favor of Armenia, and on December 2, 1920, the Dashnak government transferred power to the Military Revolutionary Committee, headed by the Bolsheviks, without resistance. Soviet power was established in Armenia. Despite this, the Armenians again raised the issue of dividing Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan. On July 27, 1921, the political and organizational bureau of the Central Committee of the AKP(b) considered the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh. This bureau did not agree with the proposal of the representative of Soviet Armenia A. Bekzadyan and stated that dividing the population by nationality and annexing part of it to Armenia and the other to Azerbaijan was unacceptable, both from an administrative and economic point of view.

Regarding this adventure, the Dashnak leader, leader of Armenia Hovhannes Kachaznuni wrote in 1923: « From our very first day state life we understood very well that such a small, poor, ruined and cut off from the rest of the world country as Armenia cannot become truly independent and independent; that support is needed, some kind of external force... There are two real forces today, and we must take them into account: these forces are Russia and Turkey. By coincidence, today our country is entering the Russian orbit and is more than sufficiently protected from the invasion of Turkey... The issue of expanding our borders can only be resolved by relying on Russia.”

After the establishment of Soviet power in the Caucasus in 1920-1921, Moscow decided not to redraw the existing borders between the former independent local states that were formed as a result of Armenian aggression in the region.

But this did not dampen the appetites of the ideologists of Armenian national separatism. In Soviet times, the leaders of the Armenian SSR repeatedly in the 1950-1970s. addressed the Kremlin with requests and even demands to transfer the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region (NKAO) of Azerbaijan to Armenia. However, at that time the Union leadership categorically refused to satisfy the baseless claims of the Armenian side. Changes in the position of the USSR leadership occurred in the mid-1980s. during the era of Gorbachev's "perestroika". It is no coincidence that it was with the beginning of perestroika innovations in the USSR in 1987 that Armenia’s claims to the NKAO gained new impetus and character.

Appearing like mushrooms after the “perestroika rain,” the Armenian organizations “Krunk” in the NKAO itself and the “Karabakh” Committee in Yerevan began implementing the project of the actual rejection of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Dashnaktsutyun party became active again: at its XXIII Congress in 1985 in Athens, it decided to consider “the creation of a united and independent Armenia” as its priority task and to implement this slogan at the expense of Nagorno-Karabakh, Nakhchivan (Azerbaijan) and Javakheti (Georgia). As always, the Armenian Church, nationalistically minded layers of the intelligentsia and the foreign diaspora were involved in the implementation of the idea. As Russian researcher S.I. Chernyavsky later noted: « Unlike Armenia, Azerbaijan did not have and does not have an organized and politically active diaspora, and the Karabakh conflict deprived the Azerbaijanis of any support from leading Western countries, taking into account their traditionally pro-Armenian positions.”

The process began in 1988 with the deportation of new groups of Azerbaijanis from Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. On February 21, 1988, the Regional Council of the NKAO announced its secession from the Azerbaijan SSR and annexation to Armenia. The first blood was shed in the Karabakh conflict on February 25, 1988 in Askeran (Karabakh), when two young Azerbaijanis were killed. Later, in Baku, in the village of Vorovskoye, an Armenian killed an Azerbaijani police officer. On July 18, 1988, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR confirmed that Nagorno-Karabakh should be part of Azerbaijan and no territorial changes are possible.

But the Armenians continued to distribute leaflets, threatened the Azerbaijanis and set fire to their houses. As a result of all this, on September 21, the last Azerbaijani left administrative center Nagorno-Karabakh city of Khankendi (Stepanakert).

An escalation of the brewing conflict followed, accompanied by the expulsion of Azerbaijanis from Armenia and the entire Nagorno-Karabakh. In Azerbaijan, power was paralyzed, refugees flowed, and anger grew Azerbaijani people inevitably should have led to massive Armenian-Azerbaijani clashes. In February 1988, a tragedy-provocation occurred in the city of Sumgayit (Azerbaijan), as a result of which Armenians, Azerbaijanis and representatives of other nations died.

Anti-Azerbaijani hysteria was organized in the Soviet press, where they tried to present the Azerbaijani people as cannibals, monsters, “pan-Islamists” and “pan-Turkists.” Passions around Nagorno-Karabakh were heating up: Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia were placed in 42 cities and regions of Azerbaijan. Here are the tragic results of the first phase of the Karabakh conflict: About 200 thousand Azerbaijanis, 18 thousand Muslim Kurds, and thousands of Russians were expelled from Armenia by force, at gunpoint. 255 Azerbaijanis were killed: two had their heads cut off; 11 people were burned alive, 3 were cut into pieces; 23 were crushed by cars; 41 were beaten to death; 19 froze in the mountains; 8 were missing, etc. Also, 57 women and 23 children were brutally killed. After this, on December 10, 1988, modern Dashnaks declared Armenia a “republic without Turks.” The books of a Baku Armenian tell about the nationalist hysteria that gripped Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh and the difficult fate of the Armenians who moved here. Roberta Arakelova: “Karabakh notebook” and “Nagorno-Karabakh: The perpetrators of the tragedy are known.”

After the Sumgait events initiated by the Soviet KGB and emissaries from Armenia in February 1988, an open anti-Azerbaijani campaign began in the Soviet press and television.

The Soviet leadership and the media, which were silent when Armenian nationalists expelled Azerbaijanis from Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, suddenly “woke up” and raised hysteria about “Armenian pogroms” in Azerbaijan. The leadership of the USSR openly accepted the position of Armenia and sought to blame Azerbaijan for everything. The main target of the Kremlin authorities was the growing national liberation movement of the Azerbaijani people. On the night of January 19-20, 1990, the Soviet government, led by Gorbachev, committed a criminal act in Baku that was terrible in its cruelty. As a result of this criminal operation, 134 civilians were killed, 700 people were injured, and 400 people went missing.

Perhaps the most terrible and inhumane action of Armenian nationalists in Nagorno-Karabakh was the genocide of the population Azerbaijani city Khojaly. From February 25 to February 26, at night 1992, the most great tragedy 20th century - Khojaly genocide. First, the sleeping city, with the participation of the 366th motorized rifle regiment of the CIS, was surrounded by Armenian troops, after which Khojaly was subjected to massive shelling from artillery and heavy military equipment. With the support of armored vehicles of the 366th regiment, the city was captured by the Armenian occupiers. Everywhere, armed Armenians shot fleeing civilians, mercilessly dealing with them. Thus, on a cold, snowy February night, those who were able to escape from the ambushes set up by the Armenians and escape to nearby forests and mountains, most died from the cold and frost.

As a result of the atrocities of the criminal Armenian troops, 613 people from among the population of Khojaly were killed, 487 people became crippled, 1275 civilians - old people, children, women - were captured and subjected to incomprehensible Armenian torture, insults and humiliation. The fate of 150 people is still unknown. This was real genocide. Of the 613 people killed in Khojaly, 106 were women, 63 children, 70 old people. 8 families were completely destroyed, 24 children lost both parents, and 130 children lost one of their parents. 56 people were killed with extreme cruelty and mercilessness. They were burned alive, their heads were cut off, the skin of their faces was torn off, the eyes of babies were gouged out, the bellies of pregnant women were opened with bayonets. Armenians even insulted the dead. The Azerbaijani state and its people will never forget the Khojaly tragedy.

The Khojaly events put an end to any previously existing chance of a peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict. Two Armenian presidents - Robert Kocharyan and the current Serzh Sargsyan, as well as Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan, took an active part in military operations in the Karabakh War, in the destruction of the Azerbaijani civilian population, in particular in Khojaly.

After the Khojaly tragedy of February 1992, the just anger of the Azerbaijani people at the atrocities and impunity of the Armenian nationalists resulted in the open phase of the Armenian-Azerbaijani military confrontation. Bloody military operations began using aviation, armored vehicles, rocket launchers, heavy artillery and large military units.

The Armenian side used prohibited weapons against the civilian Azerbaijani population chemical weapon. In an environment of virtual absence of serious external support from world powers, Azerbaijan, as a result of a series of counter-offensives, was able to liberate most of the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh.

In this situation, Armenia and the separatists of Karabakh several times, through the mediation of world powers, achieved a ceasefire and sat down at the negotiating table, but then, treacherously violating ongoing negotiations, unexpectedly launched a military offensive at the front. So, for example, on August 19, 1993, on the initiative of Iran, negotiations between the Azerbaijani and Armenian delegations were held in Tehran, but it was at that moment that the Armenian troops, having thwarted all agreements, treacherously went on the offensive on the Karabakh front in the direction of the Aghdam, Fuzuli and Jabrayil regions . The blockade of Nakhchivan by Armenia also continued with the aim of subsequently separating it from Azerbaijan.

On June 4, 1993, in Ganja, the rebellion of Suret Huseynov began, who turned his troops from the Karabakh front line to Baku, with the aim of seizing power in the country. Azerbaijan is on the threshold of a new civil war. In addition to Armenian aggression, Azerbaijan faced open separatism in the south of the country, where the rebel field commander Alikram Gumbatov announced the creation of the “Talysh-Mugan Republic”. In this difficult situation, June 15, 1993, the Milli Majlis (Parliament) of Azerbaijan elected Heydar Aliyev as the head of the Supreme Council of the country. On July 17, President Abulfaz Elchibey resigned his presidential powers, which the Milli Majlis transferred to Heydar Aliyev.

In the north of Azerbaijan, separatist sentiments arose among Lezgin nationalists, who also intended to seize the Azerbaijani regions bordering Russia. The situation became even more complicated as Azerbaijan was also on the brink of civil war between various political and paramilitary groups within the country. As a result of the crisis of power and an attempted military coup in Azerbaijan, where there was a struggle for power, neighboring Armenia went on the offensive and occupied the Azerbaijani lands adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh. On July 23, the Armenians captured one of the ancient cities of Azerbaijan - Agdam. On September 14-15, the Armenians tried to break into the territory of Azerbaijan from military positions in Kazakh, then in Tovuz, Gadabay, Zangelan. On September 21, villages and hamlets of Zangelan, Dzhabrail, Tovuz and Ordubad regions were subjected to massive shelling.

On November 30, 1993, at the OSCE meeting in Rome, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan G. Hasanov stated that as a result of the aggressive policy pursued by Armenia, in the name of creating “Great Armenia”, it occupied 20% of Azerbaijani lands. More than 18 thousand civilians were killed, about 50 thousand people were wounded, 4 thousand people were captured, 88 thousand residential areas, more than a thousand economic facilities, 250 schools and educational institutions were destroyed.

After Azerbaijan and Armenia joined the UN and the OSCE, Armenia, declaring that it would follow the principles of these organizations, captured the city of Shusha. While a group of UN representatives was in Azerbaijan to collect facts indicating Armenian aggression, Armenian troops captured the Lachin region, thereby connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia. During the informal meeting of the Geneva Five, the Armenians occupied the Kalbajar region, and during the visit of the head of the OSCE Minsk Group to the region, they captured the Aghdam region. After adopting a resolution that the Armenians must unconditionally liberate the Azerbaijani territories they had captured, they captured the Fizuli region. And while the head of the OSCE, Margaret af-Iglas, was in the region, Armenia occupied the Zangelan region. After this, at the end of November 1993, the Armenians captured the area near the Khudaferin Bridge and thus took control of 161 km of the Azerbaijani border with Iran.

Finally, on December 23, 1993, through the mediation of Turkmen President S. Niyazov, a meeting took place between Ter-Petrosyan and G. Aliyev. Numerous meetings took place with representatives of Russia, Turkey, and Armenia. On May 11, 1994, a temporary truce was declared. On December 5-6, 1994, at the summit of heads of state in Budapest and on May 13-15 in Morocco, at the 7th summit of Islamic States, Heydar Aliyev in his speech condemned Armenian policy and aggression against Azerbaijan. He also pointed out that they did not comply with UN resolutions No. 822, 853, 874 and 884 in which the aggressive actions of Armenia were condemned and a demand was put forward to immediately liberate the occupied Azerbaijani lands.

Following the results of the First Karabakh War Armenia occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and seven more Azerbaijani regions - Agdam, Fizuli, Jabrail, Zangilan, Gubadli, Lachin, Kelbajar, from where the Azerbaijani population was expelled, and all these places turned into ruins as a result of aggression. Now about 20% of the territory (17 thousand sq. km): 12 districts and 700 settlements Azerbaijan is under occupation by Armenians. As a result of the struggle of the Armenians for the creation of “Great Armenia”, during the entire period of confrontation they brutally killed 20 thousand and captured 4 thousand people of the Azerbaijani population.

In the occupied territories they destroyed about 4 thousand industrial and agricultural facilities with a total area of ​​6 million square meters. m, about a thousand educational organizations, about 180 thousand apartments, 3 thousand cultural and educational centers and 700 medical institutions. 616 schools, 225 kindergartens, 11 vocational schools, 4 technical schools, 1 higher education were destroyed educational institution, 842 clubs, 962 libraries, 13 museums, 2 theaters and 183 cinema devices.

There are 1 million refugees and internally displaced persons in Azerbaijan - that is, every eighth citizen of the country. The wounds inflicted by the Armenians on the Azerbaijani people are innumerable. In total, 1 million Azerbaijanis were killed during the 20th century, and 1.5 million Azerbaijanis were expelled from Armenia.

Armenia organized mass terror on Azerbaijani soil: explosions continued on buses, trains, and the Baku metro. In 1989-1994, Armenian terrorists and separatists carried out 373 terrorist attacks on the territory of Azerbaijan, as a result of which 1,568 people were killed and 1,808 were injured.

Let us note that the adventure of the Armenian nationalists to recreate “Great Armenia” was very costly for the ordinary Armenian people. Nowadays, the population in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh has almost halved. There are 1.8 million left in Armenia, and 80-90 thousand Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, which is half the figure for 1989. The resumption of hostilities on the Karabakh front could lead to the fact that the Armenian population will eventually almost completely leave the South Caucasus region and, as statistics show, will move to the Krasnodar and Stavropol regions of Russia and to the Ukrainian Crimea. This will be the logical result of the mediocre policy of nationalists and criminals who usurped power in the Republic of Armenia and occupied Azerbaijani lands.

The Azerbaijani people and leadership are making every effort to quickly restore the territorial integrity of the country and liberate the territories occupied by the Armenian side. To this end, Azerbaijan is conducting a comprehensive foreign policy, and is also building its military-industrial complex, modernizing the army, which will restore the sovereignty of Azerbaijan by force if the aggressor country Armenia does not liberate the occupied Azerbaijani lands peacefully.

For the first time in 22 years, the “frozen” conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh has real opportunity result in a full-scale war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. As a result of the war in the early 90s, about 30 thousand people died, almost a million became refugees. Ruposters presents a selection of rare photographs of interethnic conflict in the post-Soviet Transcaucasus.

The territory of modern Nagorno-Karabakh dates back to the 4th century BC. was part of first the Armenian kingdom, then Greater Armenia. After 500 years of being under Arab influence, Karabakh again became part of the Armenian state entities for a long time (from the 9th to the 18th centuries). In 1813, the territory became part of the Russian Empire.

Khojavend, 1993

USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev was criticized by all sides of the conflict: both the Azerbaijanis (and this despite Gorbachev’s statement in July 1990 that “the patience of the Azerbaijani people has no limits”), and the Armenians (local media published “data” about the Turkic origin of the mother of the head of the USSR).

The result of the "Grad" shelling of the city of Martakert, 1992

Armenian clergyman

Azerbaijani grandmother and Armenian fighter, 1993

Numerous foreign mercenaries took part in the Karabakh War (1992-1994). Armenia in the war was supported mainly by representatives of the large Armenian diaspora - in particular fighters from the Dashnaktsutyun party.

Chechen field commanders Basayev, Raduyev and Arab Khattab fought on the side of Azerbaijan (an Azerbaijani colonel testifies: “About a hundred Chechen volunteers led by Shamil Basayev and Salman Raduyev provided us with invaluable assistance. But due to heavy losses, they were forced to leave the battlefield and leave"). According to Western sources, Azerbaijan has attracted several hundred mujahideen from Afghanistan and the Turkish “Grey Wolves” to its side.

106-year-old Armenian woman, Teh village, January 1, 1990

The war that broke out in Nagorno-Karabakh in the 90s was not the first armed conflict over the disputed territory between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the 20th century. The largest clashes took place in 1918-1921, when Azerbaijan did not recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh. It all ended only in 1921, with the establishment of Soviet power in the Caucasus. Then the disputed territory was annexed to the Azerbaijan SSR. Unrest in Karabakh flared up every now and then throughout the Soviet period.​

Losses on both sides during the war of 1992-1994 amounted to approximately 30 thousand people. The Azerbaijani authorities estimated their losses at approximately 20 thousand people - military and civilian. Another 1 million people are said to have become refugees.

Grape pickers under guard

Cemetery in Stepanakert, 1994

Boy with a toy gun, Stepanakert, 1994

As a result of the war, Nagorno-Karabakh received de facto independence from Azerbaijan. At the same time, the territorial structure of the unrecognized republic is quite specific: almost 14% of the former Azerbaijan SSR fell into the NKR, and at the same time, Azerbaijan still controls 15% of the declared territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijani writers Shikhli and Semedoglu

The events of February 1992 in the city of Khojaly became one of the darkest pages of the war. After the capture of the city by the NKR self-defense forces, from 180 (data from Humans Rights Watch) to 613 Azerbaijani civilians (according to the Azerbaijani authorities) died. Some sources suggest that these events could have become an “action of retaliation” for the Armenian pogroms in Sumgait (1988) and Baku (1990), the victims of which, according to various estimates, were from several dozen to several hundred people.

Walking to school, 1992

Stepanakert, 1992

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Alexander was detained at the request of Azerbaijan for an allegedly “illegal” (according to the Azerbaijani authorities) visit to Nagorno-Karabakh. Personally, I consider this detention a flagrant violation of international law - Azerbaijan could have blocked Alexander from entering the country, but not put him on the international wanted list for such a minor offense, and especially not brought criminal charges for his blog posts - this is pure political persecution.

And in this post I will tell you how events around Nagorno-Karabakh developed in the late eighties and early nineties, we will look at photographs of that war and think about whether there could be any side “on the right” in the ethnic conflict.

First, a little history. Nagorno-Karabakh has been a disputed territory for a long time and has repeatedly changed hands over its centuries-old history. Azerbaijani and Armenian scientists are still arguing (and, apparently, will never come to an agreement) about who originally lived in Karabakh - either the ancestors of modern Armenians, or the ancestors of modern Azerbaijanis.

By the 18th century, Nagorno-Karabakh had a predominantly Armenian population, and the territory of Karabakh itself was considered “theirs” by both Armenians (due to the fact that a predominantly Armenian population lives in this region) and Azerbaijanis (due to the fact that Nagorno-Karabakh has long been was part of the Azerbaijani territorial entities). This territorial dispute formed the main essence of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

At the beginning of the 20th century, military conflicts in Karabakh broke out twice - in 1905-1907 and in 1918-1920 - both conflicts were bloody and accompanied by the destruction of property, and at the end of the 20th century, the Armenian-Azerbaijani confrontation broke out with new strength. In 1985, Perestroika began in the USSR, and many problems that had been frozen (and, in fact, not resolved) with the advent of Soviet power were “reactivated” in the country.

On the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh, they remembered that local authorities in 1920 recognized Karabakh’s right to self-determination, and the Soviet government of Azerbaijan believed that Karabakh should go to Armenia - but the central government of the USSR intervened and “gave” Karabakh to Azerbaijan. During Soviet times, the issue of transferring Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia was raised from time to time by the Armenian leadership, but did not receive support from the center. In the 1960s, socio-economic tensions in the NKAO escalated into mass unrest several times.

In the second half of the 1980s, calls for the transfer of Karabakh to Armenia began to be increasingly heard in Armenia, and in February-March 1988, the idea of ​​​​transferring Karabakh to Armenia was supported by the official newspaper “Soviet Karabakh”, which has more than 90,000 subscribers. Then there was a long period of late-Soviet confrontation, during which the deputies of Karabakh declared the NKR part of Armenia, and Azerbaijan resisted this in every possible way.

02. In the winter of 1988, Armenian pogroms took place in Sumgait and Kirovobad. The central authorities of the USSR decided to hide the true motives of the conflict - the participants in the pogroms were tried for simple “hooliganism”, without mentioning the motives of national enmity. Troops were sent into the cities to prevent further pogroms.

03. Soviet troops on the streets of Baku:

04. The conflict is growing, including in household level, fueled by both Armenian and Azerbaijani media. At the end of the 1980s, the first refugees appeared - Armenians flee from Azerbaijanis, Azerbaijanis leave Karabakh, mutual hatred only grows.

05. Around the same time, the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh begins to develop into a full-fledged military clash. At first, small groups of soldiers from both the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides took part in the fighting - often the soldiers did not have a single uniform and insignia, the troops looked more like some kind of partisan detachments.

06. At the beginning of January 1990, clashes became more widespread - the first mutual artillery shelling was noted on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. January 15 state of emergency was introduced in Karabakh and in the border areas of the Azerbaijan SSR, in the Goris region of the Armenian SSR, as well as in the border zone along state border USSR on the territory of the Azerbaijan SSR.

Children near a gun at one of the artillery positions:

07. Azerbaijani troops, formation for inspection by officers. It can be seen that the soldiers are dressed differently - some in urban camouflage, some in the landing "mabuta" from the times of the Afghan war, and some simply in some kind of work jackets. Almost exclusively volunteers fight on both sides of the conflict.

08. Registration of Azerbaijani volunteers in the troops:

09. What is most terrible is that the military conflict occurs in close proximity to local cities and villages; almost all segments of the population are drawn into the war - from young children to the very old.

10. Both sides of the conflict perceive the war as “sacred” for themselves; farewell ceremonies for the “heroes fallen during the conflict” gather thousands of people in Baku:

11. In 1991, hostilities intensified - from the end of April to the beginning of June 1991 in Karabakh and adjacent regions of Azerbaijan by forces of units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR and Soviet army The so-called “Operation Ring” was carried out, during which regular Armenian-Azerbaijani armed clashes took place.

12. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, both Armenia and Azerbaijan were left with parts of former Soviet military property. The 4th combined arms army (four motorized rifle divisions), three air defense brigades, a special forces brigade, four air force bases and part of the Caspian naval flotilla, as well as many ammunition depots, passed to Azerbaijan.

Armenia found itself in a worse situation - in 1992, weapons and military equipment of two of the three divisions (15th and 164th) of the 7th Combined Arms Army were transferred to the control of Yerevan former USSR. Of course, all this was used in the blazing Karabakh conflict.

13. Active hostilities were carried out in 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1994, with “variable success” between the Armenians and the Azerbaijanis.

Azerbaijani soldiers at a school that became a military base in the front line:

14. Barracks in a former classroom:

15. Armenian troops in one of the villages:

16. Ruins of a house in the city of Shusha.

17. Civilians killed during the conflict...

18. People are fleeing the war:

19. Life in the front line.

20. Refugee camp in the city of Imishli.

An agreement to end the “hot phase” of the war was reached on May 12, 1994, after which the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh entered a smoldering phase, with fighting by small groups. The military conflict did not bring complete success to any of the warring parties - Nagonny Karabakh separated from Azerbaijan, but did not become part of it. Armenia. During the war, about 20,000 people died, the war destroyed several cities in Nagorno-Karabakh and many monuments of Armenian architecture.

In my opinion, there are no “rights” in the conflict in Karabakh - both sides are to blame to one degree or another. No “piece of land” in the 21st century is worth killed people and mutilated lives - you need to be able to negotiate and make concessions to each other and open borders, and not build new barriers.

Who do you think is right in the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh? Or are there no right people, everyone is guilty?