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STEPAN GRIGORYAN ON KREMLIN'S INABILITY TO RESOLVE KARABAKH ISSUE
Tert.am
22:56 06.09.11
RIA Novosti has interviewd Stepan Grigoryan, an active participant
in the Karabakh national-liberation movement, member of the Karabakh
Committee at the Yerevan Physics Institute, deputy of the Armenian
Supreme Soviet in 1990-1995, one of Armenia's most prominent political
scientists and head of the Analytical Centre on Globalisation and
Regional Cooperation.
Question: Why was the independence of the NKR proclaimed in September
1991?
Answer: To answer this question we should recall what happened in
the late 1980s. Perestroika intensified democratic attitudes in major
Soviet cities and evoked hopes for the restoration of justice regarding
the many national minorities in the country's outskirts.
Thus, Armenians who were in the majority in the NGAR demanded its
return to the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) and the
restoration of usurped political, economic, and social rights.
These demands were strong enough in Armenia to produce a powerful
Armenian national movement in February 1988. This political force
broke the Armenian Communist Party's long-standing monopoly on power.
Since its birth, the Karabakh movement carried a powerful democratic
impetus. Armenia was the first Soviet republic to adopt a new law on
elections in the middle of 1989. It allowed every Armenian citizen to
run for the elections to the Armenian Supreme Soviet by collecting
signatures of other citizens (before, the monopoly to nominate
candidates belonged to the Armenian communists) and have their own
elected representatives at all constituencies.
In May 1990, Armenia held free democratic elections to its Supreme
Soviet (now the National Assembly of Armenia) that allowed it to form
a multi-party parliament. It was this parliament that adopted laws
on the freedom of the media, on parties and public organizations,
and freedom of religion. It also endorsed a package of laws for the
transition to the market economy.
Regrettably, the communist Kremlin reacted negatively to all
initiatives set forth by Armenia and Nagorny Karabakh. The Kremlin
fully controlled the media and used it to flare up ethnic hate in the
South Caucasus. Many remember reports on the Karabakh conflict in the
Vremya TV program and articles in the newspapers Pravda and Izvestia.
It was impossible to understand anything from them except that
"extremists are staging rallies and marches" and that "people of
different nationalities were killed" during clashes. This was reported
at the time when peaceful rallies of several hundred thousand people
gathered on Freedom Square in Yerevan in 1988-1990. Apart from the
Nagorny Karabakh issue, they discussed the democratization of Armenian
society, freedom of speech, human rights, and fair and free elections.
According to the established Soviet, or rather imperial tradition,
the Kremlin decided to control the situation by turning different
ethnic, religious, and social groups against each other. When the
extraordinary session of the NGAR Soviet of People's Deputies made
a political decision on February 20, 1988 to request the region's
withdrawal from the Azerbaijan SSR and inclusion into the Armenian
SSR, it was the Kremlin personified by the CPSU Central Committee
Politburo rather than Azerbaijan that had a sore reaction to it and
later resorted to force. It is enough to recall Operation Ring that
special units of the Soviet Interior Ministry forces held with the
use of armor under the pretext of fighting illegal armed formations in
May-August 1991 in Armenian villages in the north of Nagorny Karabakh,
the Shaumyan district and the Getashen sub-region of Azerbaijan. This
operation led to the deportation of Armenians from these villages.
These actions consolidated the positions of the forces in Armenia and
Nagorny Karabakh that did not believe in the communist government's
ability to resolve the Karabakh issue in a peaceful and fair way or
to reform the political system. Therefore, the Supreme Soviet of
Armenia adopted a declaration of independence on August 23, 1990,
a year before the State Committee on the State of Emergency (GKChP)
staged a coup. Its neighbors in the Caucasus passed similar documents
a year later.
The GKChP coup could not change anything in the position of the new
Armenian political elite with modern democratic views. Moreover,
the events around the Nagorny Karabakh issue led to the exodus of
Armenians from Azerbaijan after 1988. They showed the Kremlin's
inability and likely reluctance to resolve the extremely serious
issues facing the nation.
There was a demonstrative difference in the approach of Armenia and
Nagorny Karabakh. Stepanakert linked more hopes with the central power
but after the Operation Ring and the end of the coup spearheaded by
the Karabakh leaders with hopes that Moscow will resolve the Nagorny
Karabakh issue.
Nagorny Karabakh decided to secede from the Azerbaijan SSR in full
conformity with the Soviet Constitution. I'd like to mention one
important fact that Baku wants to keep silent about. On August 30,
1991, the Azerbaijan Supreme Soviet adopted a resolution on restoring
the political independence of the Azerbaijan Republic based on the
proclamation of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR), on May 28,
1918. The resolution makes modern Azerbaijan the legal successor of
the ADR. But at that time Nagorny Karabakh was not part of the ADR. I
think it wold be logical to assume that having proclaimed itself the
legal successor of the ADR, Azerbaijan thereby agreed to Karabakh's
cessation. It's important to also take into account the fact that
the League of Nations declared Nagorny Karabakh a disputed territory
in 1918.
Armenia was the only Soviet republic to gain its independence according
to Soviet laws (a republic wishing to secede had to make notice about
the start of the procedure a year in advance). During the coup, the new
leaders of Armenia had their concerns but they were bent on holding a
referendum on independence. It took place as planned on September 21,
1991, and 94% of Armenia's population voted for its independence.
On December 10, 1991, in two months and a half and just a few days
before the Soviet Union's official disintegration, the overwhelming
majority of the population in Nagorny Karabakh - 99.89% -- voted at a
referendum for its complete independence from Azerbaijan. This event
was followed by large-scale military actions, which, as a result,
paved the way for Nagorny Karabakh's independence, but this is a
whole different story.
Tert.am
22:56 06.09.11
RIA Novosti has interviewd Stepan Grigoryan, an active participant
in the Karabakh national-liberation movement, member of the Karabakh
Committee at the Yerevan Physics Institute, deputy of the Armenian
Supreme Soviet in 1990-1995, one of Armenia's most prominent political
scientists and head of the Analytical Centre on Globalisation and
Regional Cooperation.
Question: Why was the independence of the NKR proclaimed in September
1991?
Answer: To answer this question we should recall what happened in
the late 1980s. Perestroika intensified democratic attitudes in major
Soviet cities and evoked hopes for the restoration of justice regarding
the many national minorities in the country's outskirts.
Thus, Armenians who were in the majority in the NGAR demanded its
return to the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) and the
restoration of usurped political, economic, and social rights.
These demands were strong enough in Armenia to produce a powerful
Armenian national movement in February 1988. This political force
broke the Armenian Communist Party's long-standing monopoly on power.
Since its birth, the Karabakh movement carried a powerful democratic
impetus. Armenia was the first Soviet republic to adopt a new law on
elections in the middle of 1989. It allowed every Armenian citizen to
run for the elections to the Armenian Supreme Soviet by collecting
signatures of other citizens (before, the monopoly to nominate
candidates belonged to the Armenian communists) and have their own
elected representatives at all constituencies.
In May 1990, Armenia held free democratic elections to its Supreme
Soviet (now the National Assembly of Armenia) that allowed it to form
a multi-party parliament. It was this parliament that adopted laws
on the freedom of the media, on parties and public organizations,
and freedom of religion. It also endorsed a package of laws for the
transition to the market economy.
Regrettably, the communist Kremlin reacted negatively to all
initiatives set forth by Armenia and Nagorny Karabakh. The Kremlin
fully controlled the media and used it to flare up ethnic hate in the
South Caucasus. Many remember reports on the Karabakh conflict in the
Vremya TV program and articles in the newspapers Pravda and Izvestia.
It was impossible to understand anything from them except that
"extremists are staging rallies and marches" and that "people of
different nationalities were killed" during clashes. This was reported
at the time when peaceful rallies of several hundred thousand people
gathered on Freedom Square in Yerevan in 1988-1990. Apart from the
Nagorny Karabakh issue, they discussed the democratization of Armenian
society, freedom of speech, human rights, and fair and free elections.
According to the established Soviet, or rather imperial tradition,
the Kremlin decided to control the situation by turning different
ethnic, religious, and social groups against each other. When the
extraordinary session of the NGAR Soviet of People's Deputies made
a political decision on February 20, 1988 to request the region's
withdrawal from the Azerbaijan SSR and inclusion into the Armenian
SSR, it was the Kremlin personified by the CPSU Central Committee
Politburo rather than Azerbaijan that had a sore reaction to it and
later resorted to force. It is enough to recall Operation Ring that
special units of the Soviet Interior Ministry forces held with the
use of armor under the pretext of fighting illegal armed formations in
May-August 1991 in Armenian villages in the north of Nagorny Karabakh,
the Shaumyan district and the Getashen sub-region of Azerbaijan. This
operation led to the deportation of Armenians from these villages.
These actions consolidated the positions of the forces in Armenia and
Nagorny Karabakh that did not believe in the communist government's
ability to resolve the Karabakh issue in a peaceful and fair way or
to reform the political system. Therefore, the Supreme Soviet of
Armenia adopted a declaration of independence on August 23, 1990,
a year before the State Committee on the State of Emergency (GKChP)
staged a coup. Its neighbors in the Caucasus passed similar documents
a year later.
The GKChP coup could not change anything in the position of the new
Armenian political elite with modern democratic views. Moreover,
the events around the Nagorny Karabakh issue led to the exodus of
Armenians from Azerbaijan after 1988. They showed the Kremlin's
inability and likely reluctance to resolve the extremely serious
issues facing the nation.
There was a demonstrative difference in the approach of Armenia and
Nagorny Karabakh. Stepanakert linked more hopes with the central power
but after the Operation Ring and the end of the coup spearheaded by
the Karabakh leaders with hopes that Moscow will resolve the Nagorny
Karabakh issue.
Nagorny Karabakh decided to secede from the Azerbaijan SSR in full
conformity with the Soviet Constitution. I'd like to mention one
important fact that Baku wants to keep silent about. On August 30,
1991, the Azerbaijan Supreme Soviet adopted a resolution on restoring
the political independence of the Azerbaijan Republic based on the
proclamation of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR), on May 28,
1918. The resolution makes modern Azerbaijan the legal successor of
the ADR. But at that time Nagorny Karabakh was not part of the ADR. I
think it wold be logical to assume that having proclaimed itself the
legal successor of the ADR, Azerbaijan thereby agreed to Karabakh's
cessation. It's important to also take into account the fact that
the League of Nations declared Nagorny Karabakh a disputed territory
in 1918.
Armenia was the only Soviet republic to gain its independence according
to Soviet laws (a republic wishing to secede had to make notice about
the start of the procedure a year in advance). During the coup, the new
leaders of Armenia had their concerns but they were bent on holding a
referendum on independence. It took place as planned on September 21,
1991, and 94% of Armenia's population voted for its independence.
On December 10, 1991, in two months and a half and just a few days
before the Soviet Union's official disintegration, the overwhelming
majority of the population in Nagorny Karabakh - 99.89% -- voted at a
referendum for its complete independence from Azerbaijan. This event
was followed by large-scale military actions, which, as a result,
paved the way for Nagorny Karabakh's independence, but this is a
whole different story.