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MetroWest Daily News, MA
April 27 2013
Putting 1992 massacre in context
MARTIN DEMOORJIAN
Marlborough
MARLBOROUGH - I am responding to a Feb 19 letter by Vugar Mustafayev
citing the 1992 Khojaly Massacre in Nagorno Karabagh Republic (NKR)
that involved Armenians of the area. In recognizing the tragedy there
is a great deal more to the issue. His letter ignores the fact of
earlier incidents of Azerbaijanis warring with Armenians that preceded
and led up to the Khojaly massacre.
In the late 1980's there was the Soviet Union's Perestroika under
President Gorbachev and the Karabakh Movement. Perestroika gave people
of the area hope for democratic change and inspired them to speak out
about problems under Soviet rule that were silenced under Communism.
Karabakh was the first of the Soviet satellite country states to break
that silence by establishing a sovereign democracy. The Nagorno
Karabakh Republic is a legal state via the democratic will of its
people yet Azerbaijan refuses to recognize it in contradiction with
international laws.
In February 1988, the Karabagh legislature's action to reunite with
Armenia was met with a brutal pogrom in Sumgait, Azerbaijan's second
largest city. After which Azerbaijan launched additional pogroms
against the Armenians in the Azerbaijan cities of Kirovabad (Nov.
1988), of unarmed Armenian civilians in Baku (Jan. 1990) and Maragha
(April 1992). These massacres led to wider reprisals against the
Armenians resulting in the disappearance of Azerbaijan's nearly
half-million-strong Armenian community. In 1992 the Azerbaijanis
initiated a war in which it recruited Islamic extremist mujahadeen to
help eliminate Christian Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh that it lost,
the Khojaly Massacre was a part of this.
Since these pogroms authorities in Azerbaijan have attempted to ignore
and cover up these Crimes Against Humanity. For all these pogroms no
one has been brought to justice.
Under the auspices of the Organization for the Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a much-tested ceasefire signed in May
1994 called for the right to self-determination for the people of
Nagorno Karabagh Republic.
While one can sympathize with what Mr. Mustafayev presented, the fact
is Azerbaijani disdain towards Christian Armenians is repeatedly
proven with the belligerent threats by Azerbaijan's President Ilham
Aliyev that follow in the footsteps of his father when he was
president.
The Nagorno Karabagh is a part of historic Armenia. In 1921, Joseph
Stalin put Nagorno Karabagh under the newly formed Soviet Azerbaijani
administration yet giving it autonomous status. During seven decades
of Soviet Azerbaijani rule, the Armenian population of Karabagh was
subjected to discriminatory policies for its destruction aimed at its
removal. This continues today and is taught to their children in
classrooms as part of their history lessons that Armenians kill Azeris
yet omitting their own transgressions. With a purported civility
among Azeris, they teach their children propaganda and hate in
schools. The youth and their future only know what they are taught.
I am sorry to remind Mr. Mustafayev that Azerbaijan's most valuable
ally Turkey, having killed 1.5 million Armenians starting in 1915,
supports Azerbaijan's anti-Christian, anti-Armenian ideology.
Like the Azeri efforts to lobby the US Congress, the Armenians have
been lobbying the United States Congress for many years to pass an
Armenian Genocide Resolution formally acknowledging the 1915 Armenian
Massacres what many today call the Armenian Genocide and some
acknowledge as the first genocide of the Twentieth Century. With
persistence such events will gain justice and eventually pressure the
Turkish government, as Germany recognizes the Holocaust, to accept
their prior governments' responsibilities for Crimes Against Humanity.
The Armenian Genocide and Khojaly Massacre are briefly commemorated
in the US Congress.
If Nagorno Karabagh Republic were to fall into President Aliyev's
grasp the Azeri's hatred might well lead to an all-out drive to
destroy the entire Armenian population of the area. Not unlike the
1915 Armenian Massacres by the Young Turks of the Ottoman Empire who
succeeded in exterminating seventy-five percent of the then Armenian
population.
While regrettable, the Azeri campaign of Mr. Mustafayev's letter to
honor 800 slaughtered people may fall behind continued atrocities of
tens of thousands, as we have in Africa today, among others. His
letter was bringing attention to commemorate the Khojaly Massacre.
April 24, is a solemn day Armenians worldwide commemorate the
beginning of the 1915 Armenian Massacres by the Young Turks of Ottoman
Turkey.
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/opinions/letters_to_the_editor/x1506801214/Demoorjian-Putting-1992-massacre-in-context?zc_p=1
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
April 27 2013
Putting 1992 massacre in context
MARTIN DEMOORJIAN
Marlborough
MARLBOROUGH - I am responding to a Feb 19 letter by Vugar Mustafayev
citing the 1992 Khojaly Massacre in Nagorno Karabagh Republic (NKR)
that involved Armenians of the area. In recognizing the tragedy there
is a great deal more to the issue. His letter ignores the fact of
earlier incidents of Azerbaijanis warring with Armenians that preceded
and led up to the Khojaly massacre.
In the late 1980's there was the Soviet Union's Perestroika under
President Gorbachev and the Karabakh Movement. Perestroika gave people
of the area hope for democratic change and inspired them to speak out
about problems under Soviet rule that were silenced under Communism.
Karabakh was the first of the Soviet satellite country states to break
that silence by establishing a sovereign democracy. The Nagorno
Karabakh Republic is a legal state via the democratic will of its
people yet Azerbaijan refuses to recognize it in contradiction with
international laws.
In February 1988, the Karabagh legislature's action to reunite with
Armenia was met with a brutal pogrom in Sumgait, Azerbaijan's second
largest city. After which Azerbaijan launched additional pogroms
against the Armenians in the Azerbaijan cities of Kirovabad (Nov.
1988), of unarmed Armenian civilians in Baku (Jan. 1990) and Maragha
(April 1992). These massacres led to wider reprisals against the
Armenians resulting in the disappearance of Azerbaijan's nearly
half-million-strong Armenian community. In 1992 the Azerbaijanis
initiated a war in which it recruited Islamic extremist mujahadeen to
help eliminate Christian Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh that it lost,
the Khojaly Massacre was a part of this.
Since these pogroms authorities in Azerbaijan have attempted to ignore
and cover up these Crimes Against Humanity. For all these pogroms no
one has been brought to justice.
Under the auspices of the Organization for the Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a much-tested ceasefire signed in May
1994 called for the right to self-determination for the people of
Nagorno Karabagh Republic.
While one can sympathize with what Mr. Mustafayev presented, the fact
is Azerbaijani disdain towards Christian Armenians is repeatedly
proven with the belligerent threats by Azerbaijan's President Ilham
Aliyev that follow in the footsteps of his father when he was
president.
The Nagorno Karabagh is a part of historic Armenia. In 1921, Joseph
Stalin put Nagorno Karabagh under the newly formed Soviet Azerbaijani
administration yet giving it autonomous status. During seven decades
of Soviet Azerbaijani rule, the Armenian population of Karabagh was
subjected to discriminatory policies for its destruction aimed at its
removal. This continues today and is taught to their children in
classrooms as part of their history lessons that Armenians kill Azeris
yet omitting their own transgressions. With a purported civility
among Azeris, they teach their children propaganda and hate in
schools. The youth and their future only know what they are taught.
I am sorry to remind Mr. Mustafayev that Azerbaijan's most valuable
ally Turkey, having killed 1.5 million Armenians starting in 1915,
supports Azerbaijan's anti-Christian, anti-Armenian ideology.
Like the Azeri efforts to lobby the US Congress, the Armenians have
been lobbying the United States Congress for many years to pass an
Armenian Genocide Resolution formally acknowledging the 1915 Armenian
Massacres what many today call the Armenian Genocide and some
acknowledge as the first genocide of the Twentieth Century. With
persistence such events will gain justice and eventually pressure the
Turkish government, as Germany recognizes the Holocaust, to accept
their prior governments' responsibilities for Crimes Against Humanity.
The Armenian Genocide and Khojaly Massacre are briefly commemorated
in the US Congress.
If Nagorno Karabagh Republic were to fall into President Aliyev's
grasp the Azeri's hatred might well lead to an all-out drive to
destroy the entire Armenian population of the area. Not unlike the
1915 Armenian Massacres by the Young Turks of the Ottoman Empire who
succeeded in exterminating seventy-five percent of the then Armenian
population.
While regrettable, the Azeri campaign of Mr. Mustafayev's letter to
honor 800 slaughtered people may fall behind continued atrocities of
tens of thousands, as we have in Africa today, among others. His
letter was bringing attention to commemorate the Khojaly Massacre.
April 24, is a solemn day Armenians worldwide commemorate the
beginning of the 1915 Armenian Massacres by the Young Turks of Ottoman
Turkey.
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/opinions/letters_to_the_editor/x1506801214/Demoorjian-Putting-1992-massacre-in-context?zc_p=1
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress