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MUTALIBOV'S REVELATIONS, OR HONESTY WITH INTEREST
http://artsakhtert.com/eng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=992:m utalibovs-revelations-or-honesty-with-interest&catid=3:all&Itemid=4
Friday, 29 March 2013 14:42
Recently, an interview of former First Secretary of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party and ex-President of Azerbaijan Ayaz
Mutalibov to the Azerbaijani service of the Radio Liberty has appeared
in the media space. And what are the motives of the patriarch of the
Azerbaijani policy for such a long interview after more than twenty
years of silence? When familiarizing with Mutalibov's revelations, one
can see at once his desire to justify himself before the Azerbaijani
society, which, to say the least, was ambivalent towards him as a
political figure, accusing him of betraying the national interests.
Secondly, his servility before the current President of Azerbaijan
for the "generosity" of the latter, which enabled him, after two
decades of political exile, to return home.
The interview contains generous compliments for Ilham Aliyev who,
in Mutalibov's opinion, is just the President, whom Azerbaijan needs
today. Answering the question whom he will support at the upcoming
presidential elections in October, Mutalibov was categorical: "I do
not see anyone other than the current power".
But, let us leave to the conscience of the ex-president his praise
of the acting leader of Azerbaijan who has gained the reputation of
strangler of freedom both at home and abroad and whose regime dealt
shortly with his critics on the eve of the presidential elections,
using tough measures. And what we are most interested in is the part
of Mutalibov's conversation related to the Karabakh conflict. And from
this point of view, the interview, perhaps, can be called symbolic.
Trying to score political points after returning to Azerbaijan and
to appear before his own people as a national hero, in the noted
interview Mutalibov made a remarkable for its cynical frankness
acknowledgement. He told that in exchange to a positive result
of the referendum in Azerbaijan on maintaining the USSR he had
managed to obtain Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's consent to
the implementation of the operation of Ring in Nagorno-Karabakh,
which was aimed at the deportation of the Armenian population. "I
knew that the referendum was not of particular importance, the Soviet
Union was collapsing and would collapse. We had to take advantage of
this. A day later, I showed the documents to Gorbachev, saying that
the Azerbaijani people was mad at him, but it still voted for the
maintenance of the USSR. He was glad", Mutalibov recalled the 1991
events. And then comes the classic of the Azerbaijani diplomacy based
on the well known principle of "You do for me, and I'll do for you".
Or, an ordinary auction took place between two political dealers: "The
document on referendum has its price", Mutalibov said to Gorbachev.
"He asked what the price was. I answered it was to cleanse Karabakh".
In other words, the future winner of the Nobel Peace Prize concluded a
dirty political deal with the "father of perestroika and glasnost",
which can be rightfully called a bloody deal. And, according to
Mutalibov, Karabakh was determined as the price for the deal. The price
turned to be too high for the people of Nagorno Karabakh. In April
1991, the Soviet military units stationed in Azerbaijan, together with
the Azerbaijani Interior Ministry riot police, launched the operation
of Ring, which resulted in the killing and wounding of hundreds of
Armenian citizens, the deportation of the population of 24 Armenian
villages, which were exposed to unprecedented destruction and looting.
We believe the revelations of the ex-president of Azerbaijan are very
important today in the context of the Karabakh conflict settlement,
and above all - for the international mediators.
Without knowing, Mutalibov tore the mask and showed the real face
of Azerbaijan. In his interview to the radio Liberty, once again was
revealed the essence of the Azerbaijani policy on Nagorno-Karabakh -
to cleanse it of the native Armenian population. Over the past two
decades, this policy has not undergone any changes, because hasn't
changed the very ideology of Pan-Turkism, which was advocated
twenty years ago and is currently advocated by the ruling regime
in Azerbaijan. To achieve their goals, as already noted, the Baku
authorities use any means, including open deceit. Mutalibov does
not even hide that to obtain the consent for the operation Ring,
he simply winded Gorbachev round his little finger, playing on his
great-power ambitions of arbiter of people's fates. As a result,
thousands of people - both Armenians and Azerbaijanis, became victims
of the two criminal ideologies - communist and pan-Turkic. This should
become a kind of warning to the current international moderators
of the Karabakh conflict, who are at risk of being cheated by the
Azerbaijani authorities, which are accustomed to pull the chestnuts
out of the fire with others' hands.In 1991 and during the war against
Karabakh, it was done by the units of the Soviet troops, later - by
an entire army of mercenaries, and today, relying on petrodollars,
they are staking on international institutions. Pretending as if it
participates in the peace negotiations, the Azerbaijani leadership
actually tries to use the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship for
achieving its anti-Armenian plans aimed at annexing Artsakh.
Well, once Ayaz Mutalibov, guided by selfish interest, in April
1992, in an interview to the Nezavisimaya Gazeta recognized that
the tragedy of the civil population of Khojalu was on the conscience
of the opposition Popular Front of Azerbaijan, which thus tried to
remove him from power. It is not difficult to guess what prompted
the ex-President of Azerbaijan to a new revelation in March 2013
in an interview to radioLiberty. We can only fix the truth, which
is always concrete: in both cases, he demonstrated to the world the
true face of the Azerbaijani fascism. There is no need to be grateful
to him for his honesty after more than twenty years. This "honesty"
has its interest and lacks the acknowledgement of guilt. Let's take
it as a fact. And let's advise the mediators not to create illusions
in their peacemaking activity.
Leonid MARTIROSSIAN
Editor-in-Chief of Azat Artsakh newspaper
From: Baghdasarian
http://artsakhtert.com/eng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=992:m utalibovs-revelations-or-honesty-with-interest&catid=3:all&Itemid=4
Friday, 29 March 2013 14:42
Recently, an interview of former First Secretary of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party and ex-President of Azerbaijan Ayaz
Mutalibov to the Azerbaijani service of the Radio Liberty has appeared
in the media space. And what are the motives of the patriarch of the
Azerbaijani policy for such a long interview after more than twenty
years of silence? When familiarizing with Mutalibov's revelations, one
can see at once his desire to justify himself before the Azerbaijani
society, which, to say the least, was ambivalent towards him as a
political figure, accusing him of betraying the national interests.
Secondly, his servility before the current President of Azerbaijan
for the "generosity" of the latter, which enabled him, after two
decades of political exile, to return home.
The interview contains generous compliments for Ilham Aliyev who,
in Mutalibov's opinion, is just the President, whom Azerbaijan needs
today. Answering the question whom he will support at the upcoming
presidential elections in October, Mutalibov was categorical: "I do
not see anyone other than the current power".
But, let us leave to the conscience of the ex-president his praise
of the acting leader of Azerbaijan who has gained the reputation of
strangler of freedom both at home and abroad and whose regime dealt
shortly with his critics on the eve of the presidential elections,
using tough measures. And what we are most interested in is the part
of Mutalibov's conversation related to the Karabakh conflict. And from
this point of view, the interview, perhaps, can be called symbolic.
Trying to score political points after returning to Azerbaijan and
to appear before his own people as a national hero, in the noted
interview Mutalibov made a remarkable for its cynical frankness
acknowledgement. He told that in exchange to a positive result
of the referendum in Azerbaijan on maintaining the USSR he had
managed to obtain Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's consent to
the implementation of the operation of Ring in Nagorno-Karabakh,
which was aimed at the deportation of the Armenian population. "I
knew that the referendum was not of particular importance, the Soviet
Union was collapsing and would collapse. We had to take advantage of
this. A day later, I showed the documents to Gorbachev, saying that
the Azerbaijani people was mad at him, but it still voted for the
maintenance of the USSR. He was glad", Mutalibov recalled the 1991
events. And then comes the classic of the Azerbaijani diplomacy based
on the well known principle of "You do for me, and I'll do for you".
Or, an ordinary auction took place between two political dealers: "The
document on referendum has its price", Mutalibov said to Gorbachev.
"He asked what the price was. I answered it was to cleanse Karabakh".
In other words, the future winner of the Nobel Peace Prize concluded a
dirty political deal with the "father of perestroika and glasnost",
which can be rightfully called a bloody deal. And, according to
Mutalibov, Karabakh was determined as the price for the deal. The price
turned to be too high for the people of Nagorno Karabakh. In April
1991, the Soviet military units stationed in Azerbaijan, together with
the Azerbaijani Interior Ministry riot police, launched the operation
of Ring, which resulted in the killing and wounding of hundreds of
Armenian citizens, the deportation of the population of 24 Armenian
villages, which were exposed to unprecedented destruction and looting.
We believe the revelations of the ex-president of Azerbaijan are very
important today in the context of the Karabakh conflict settlement,
and above all - for the international mediators.
Without knowing, Mutalibov tore the mask and showed the real face
of Azerbaijan. In his interview to the radio Liberty, once again was
revealed the essence of the Azerbaijani policy on Nagorno-Karabakh -
to cleanse it of the native Armenian population. Over the past two
decades, this policy has not undergone any changes, because hasn't
changed the very ideology of Pan-Turkism, which was advocated
twenty years ago and is currently advocated by the ruling regime
in Azerbaijan. To achieve their goals, as already noted, the Baku
authorities use any means, including open deceit. Mutalibov does
not even hide that to obtain the consent for the operation Ring,
he simply winded Gorbachev round his little finger, playing on his
great-power ambitions of arbiter of people's fates. As a result,
thousands of people - both Armenians and Azerbaijanis, became victims
of the two criminal ideologies - communist and pan-Turkic. This should
become a kind of warning to the current international moderators
of the Karabakh conflict, who are at risk of being cheated by the
Azerbaijani authorities, which are accustomed to pull the chestnuts
out of the fire with others' hands.In 1991 and during the war against
Karabakh, it was done by the units of the Soviet troops, later - by
an entire army of mercenaries, and today, relying on petrodollars,
they are staking on international institutions. Pretending as if it
participates in the peace negotiations, the Azerbaijani leadership
actually tries to use the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship for
achieving its anti-Armenian plans aimed at annexing Artsakh.
Well, once Ayaz Mutalibov, guided by selfish interest, in April
1992, in an interview to the Nezavisimaya Gazeta recognized that
the tragedy of the civil population of Khojalu was on the conscience
of the opposition Popular Front of Azerbaijan, which thus tried to
remove him from power. It is not difficult to guess what prompted
the ex-President of Azerbaijan to a new revelation in March 2013
in an interview to radioLiberty. We can only fix the truth, which
is always concrete: in both cases, he demonstrated to the world the
true face of the Azerbaijani fascism. There is no need to be grateful
to him for his honesty after more than twenty years. This "honesty"
has its interest and lacks the acknowledgement of guilt. Let's take
it as a fact. And let's advise the mediators not to create illusions
in their peacemaking activity.
Leonid MARTIROSSIAN
Editor-in-Chief of Azat Artsakh newspaper
From: Baghdasarian