On May 9, immediately after the elections, newly elected Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan went to Karabakh. At a press conference in Khankendi, the Prime Minister did not correctly respond to the journalist who asked him about the Karabakh war and the status of its territories.
"Dear journalist, I do not know what country you represent, but you say "negotiations regarding these territories". We, apparently, for a long time were sure that the essence of the Karabakh conflict is clear to the international community, so we did not consider it necessary to represent this essence. I think it is important to present the true inwardness of the problem to the international community," said Nikol Pashinyan. Moreover, this should be done after the April war, when, according to him, Azerbaijani forces committed inhuman barbarism. This, in his opinion, is the essence of the Karabakh conflict.
"The conflict began with the fact that the people of Karabakh began to seek protection from these barbarities. And there is nothing to do with the territory," Pashinyan said.
He noted that the negotiations should be continued in the format of the OSCE Minsk Group. And within the framework of this mandate, Karabakh should be a full-fledged party to the negotiations.
We should note some facts and respond the newly elected prime minister about his statements, since apparently the new head of the Armenian government either does not know all the events of the Karabakh war and its history, or deliberately distorts the facts.
One thing is clear: Armenia and Armenians will manipulate the world community by telling a fairy tale about the belonging of the historical and primordial Karabakh land to Armenia and Armenians.
Pashinyan states that the world community does not grasp the essence of the Karabakh problem, that during the April war, he said, Azerbaijani forces were carrying out inhuman barbarities.
So Pashinyan, the world community knows the history of Karabakh perfectly, as it is a historical territory of Azerbaijan, unlike Armenians, who were resettled there in 1828 under the auspices of Russia.
The resettlement of Armenians from Iran and Turkey to the territories occupied by Russia was not a contingency; it was a natural result of the Armenian-Russian relations, which continue to this day. The victory of Russia in the Russo-Iranian war of 1804-1813, splitting Azerbaijan by the "Turkmenchay Treaty", was sharply demonized by the issue of resettlement and unification of Armenians. This plan began after the capture of Iravan during the Russo-Iranian war. After the signing of the Turkmenchay Treaty between Iran and Russia, a mass migration of Armenians to the territory of northern Azerbaijan and the South Caucasus began, including Karabakh.
In 1923, when the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Republic was established, historical injustice was allowed: the Lowland and Upper Part of Karabakh, known as Nagorno Karabakh were artificially separated from each other. Thus, favorable conditions were created for the consolidation of the Armenian population, and the demographic positions of Azerbaijan suffered a severe blow.
Nagorno-Karabakh from ancient times has become a disputed territory thanks to this "non-indigenous population of" Armenians "who tried their best to become owners of the territories and the only population there.
Conflicts in Karabakh erupted twice - in 1905-1907 and in 1918-1920, the conflicts were bloody and accompanied by the destruction of property. And at the end of the 20th century, with the beginning of perestroika operation, which led to the collapse of the USSR, the Armenian-Azerbaijani confrontation broke out with renewed vigor.
Armenians living in Karabakh began demanding sovereignty and unification of Karabakh with Armenia. The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh began to develop into a full-scale military clash, which led to the outbreak of the Karabakh war between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Talking about the barbarity of Azerbaijanis, Pashinyan forgets about the Khojaly genocide, about the tragedy that became one of the most horrendous crimes of the 20th century that was committed against the Azerbaijani people and all of humanity. This cannot be called any other way, like the seizure and expulsion of Azerbaijanis from their ancestral lands by Armenians by the authors of the chauvinistic policy of creating "Great Armenia" and a mono-ethnic state. As a result of all this, the city of Khojaly was completely destroyed: 613 people were killed, 70 of them old, 106 women, and 63 children.
Azerbaijan is an aggrieved side that is only trying to return its lands peacefully and is always ready to negotiate in the format of the OSCE Minsk Group and adhere to all the conditions it has accepted.
Ramiya Mamedova
Political scientist
