Karabakh People’s Revolt Prevented Another Genocid

[MosJan]

Artsax PEOPLE’S REVOLT PREVENTED ANOTHER GENOCIDE OF ARMENIAN POPULATION

 

The speech of Artashes Geghamian, chairman of the National Unity Party, delivered at the PACE sitting on January 27 dealt with the report of Mats Einarsson (United Left).

 

Mr. President and dear colleagues,

 

It is very symbolic that the discussion of creating a European center for commemoration of the victims of ethnic cleansing is going on in current year, the year that the Armenians commemorate the 90th anniversary of Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey. The political and intellectual elite of the Armenian nation, more than 600 people, living in Constantinople was arrested on the night of April 24, 1915. That put the beginning to annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians and their exodus throughout the world. That was the time when Bruno Jasenski wrote one of the pages of his "Plot of the Indifferent". Europe kept silent. And that wasn’t an accident that after a quarter of a century, in the August of 1939, Hitler stated in his speech held for the commanders of his troops the following: "I ordered my "Dead Heads" detachments to annihilate all the men, women and children speaking Polish and having Polish origin. Only this will help us conquer the vital territories we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" Later, the Jews shared the tragic fate of the Polish people. Holocaust took place.

 

Ethnic cleanings were resumed in the late 80s and early 90s, when hundreds, thousands of Armenians were massacred in Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad and Dashqes. Over 450 thousand of Armenians had to flee from Soviet Azerbaijan. The Armenians of Nagorno Artsax could survive only after many people perished as heroes in the war.

 

Unfortunately, two days ago, Mr. Mercan, our Turkish colleague, was blaming in his speech the Artsax people that they averted the danger of being killed in the genocide. His draw to make parallels between the Nagorno Artsax issue and the cases of separatism in some of the European countries are doomed to failure. These cases of separatism are always strictly criticized by the majority of the population of these very European countries.

 

In fact, Mr. Mercan called for the Belgians, the French, the English, the Polish, the Russian and Italian to save themselves from themselves. It is a luck that Canada isn’t represented in the CE, otherwise the Turks would never forgive this country for the opportunity it gave to the people of Quebec to decide their future fate through a referendum. Mercan has preserved the traditions of the Byzantine notorious policy. It seems that the Ottomans have learned some lessons after burning Constantinople and killing its residents in 1453. Let’s be just and say that they adopted not the best things from the Byzantine civilization. We wonder why our Turkish colleague didn’t mention the July events of 1974, when the Turkish troops invaded Cyprus and occupied 40 percent of this independent state’s territory. The 82 percent of Cyprus population are the Greeks. The Armenians and the Maronits live there, too. He didn’t mention that thousands of Cyprus Greeks were killed as a result of Turkey’s attack, while over 200 thousand Christian residents of Cyprus had to leave their homes and became refugees in their own country.

 

I came to remind the following verses from the Bible: "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye"(Mathew, 7:3-4).

 

We should begin the establishment of the European center for the victims of ethnic cleansings by restoring our own historic memory. In "Mea Culpa" confession of 2000 Pope John Paul II asked forgiveness from God and the Humanity for the activities the Catholic Church carried out against the heretics and free-minded people, for the intolerance, for the religious wars and the expeditions of the crusaders, as well as the hostility and mistrust that many Christians feel against the Jews.

 

I think that before establishing the European Center, the PACE should make "Mea Culpa" statement-confession, as the political figures and not the people are guilty for all the victims of ethnic cleansings in Europe. While the people are waiting for the penance of the political figures, of our penance.

 

By Artashes Geghamian, Strasburg, January 27, 2005

[Armat]

Although the speech is heart felt personal style I think it comes across amateurish. I had hoped that in the future such speeches were polished and delivered without references to bible and such. Point to point rebuttal and building one’s arguments works better.

[Ludwig9]

Although the speech is heart felt personal style I think it comes across amateurish. I had hoped that in the future such speeches were polished and delivered without references to bible and such. Point to point rebuttal and building one’s arguments works better.

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Actually the speech was was direct and to the point. I particulary like bible references when it presented to a Godless organization, gives a special kick.

[Arvestaked]

I have to be honest. I do not know much about the separatist conflict. What is Armenia's justification for occupying Kharapagh? It seems to me that it was wrong to do but I just do not know. I would like to believe that the actions of the Armenians are not as hypocritical and immoral as some believe they are. I would like to leave that to the Jews and take a higher ground.

[phantom]

I have to be honest. I do not know much about the separatist conflict. What is Armenia's justification for occupying Kharapagh? It seems to me that it was wrong to do but I just do not know. I would like to believe that the actions of the Armenians are not as hypocritical and immoral as some believe they are. I would like to leave that to the Jews and take a higher ground.

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I don't think there is anything hypocritical or immoral about defending yourself from complete annihlation. This is what would have happened to the Armenians of Karabagh had they not fought back and defended themselves. But I don't blame you for not knowing the history of the conflict, what it's about, and how it has been conducted. There was a study done on this conflict a couple of years ago by the New England Center for International Law and Policy, a U.S. think tank. You can read the full report at http://www.nesl.edu/center/pubs/nagorno.pdf if you want to learn about this conflict. It is almost 50 pages long, but for those interested in learning about this conflict, it is a fascinating synopsis.

 

Here's a summary of the report. Armenians had been living in Karabagh for centuries. When the USSR took over the Caucasus after WWI as part of their agreement with the Turks, they separated the Armenians of Karabagh from the Armenians of Armenia. They gave Karabagh to become part of the Republic of Azerbaijan, which was a Turkic republic. So the Armenians of Karabagh became separated from the Armenians of Armenia. Karabagh at that time was almost entirely Armenian.

 

Within the next 75 years, the Azeris repopulated Karabagh with Azeri Turks, thus reducing the percentage of Armenians in that region to about 75% of the population.

 

When the USSR began to disintegrate during the late 80s, the people of Karabagh agitated to reunite with Armenia rather than stay as part of Azerbaijan. They knew that as Christian Armenians, they would be second class citizens once Azerbaijan became its own country and didn't have to conform to the rules of the Soviets. Up until then, the Soviets were able to keep the Azeri Turks under control and keep the peace between the Armenians and the Azeris. But the Armenians realized that without Russian influence, the Armenians would be in great jeopardy under the Azeris. So they began forming political parties and calling for a referendum to cecede from the USSR and from Azerbaijan.

 

The Azeris were deeply offended by this, and began massacring Armenians living in Azerbaijan in the cities of Sumgait, Baku and a few others. It became clear at that time that Armenians living under Azeri control would be severely persecuted and that another ethnic cleansing like what happened to the Armenians during the Genocide of 1915 was imminent.

 

So the people of Karabagh held a referendum and voted to cecede from Azerbaijan, in exactly the same way that the Azeris, Armenians and other former Soviet republics voted to cecede from the USSR. It was a completely lawful action taken without violence. The Azeris responded swiftly by attacking the capital of the new republic of Karabagh, Stepanakert. They began decimating the city. The Armenians of Karabagh had two choices: 1) defend themselves; or 2) give up and live/die under the control of the Azeris. They knew that option number 2 meant annhilation. That was clear from the fact that the Armenians from every other part of Azerbaijan had already been driven out, and no Armenians remained within Azerbaijan, where just recently almost 400,000 Armenians lived in the major cities of Azerbaijan. There are many Armenian refugees from Baku living all over the world, and I know several Armenians families from there living in my community in California.

 

Anyway, the Karabagh Armenians elected to defend themselves and their homeland, and that's what they did. They did it so well, in fact, that they drove the Azeris away and even took some land from the Azeris. At that point, mediators stepped and in and called for a cease-fire. The Azeris broke that cease fire over a dozen times, and each time they broke it, the Armenians took more land. In 1994, a final cease-fire was brokered, and that has been the status quo ever since.

 

The war resulted in approximately 30,000 casualties from both sides, and between 750000 and 1 million refugees from both sides. During the war, both sides committed atrocities against one another.

 

Because the Azeris lost, they would like the world to feel sorry for them and they try to make themselves look like the underdog victims. But the reality is that the Karabagh Armenians were not only the underdogs, but they were the ones who were attacked first. Karabagh has a population of no more than 160,000 people. No doubt that Armenia helped them during this war, but Armenia only has a population of no more than 3,000,000 people. The Azeris have over 8,000,000; they have unlimited supplies of oil; they had help from Turkey who not only trained their soldiers and gave them military equipment, but also instituted a full economic blockade of Armenia. The Azeris will tell you that Russia saved the Armenians, but Russia actually fought for both sides, plus the Azeris also had the help of Muslim Chechen soldiers and Mujahadeen from Afghanistan who were both fighting for the Azeris. And despite all of that, they still lost.

 

If any one group of people deserve freedom in this world, it's the Karabagh people. They tried to gain their freedom peacefully, and when that failed, they defended themselves and shed much blood to gain that freedom. And now when you compare the governments of Karabagh and Azerbaijan, you'll see that Karabagh has demonstrated a propensity for a democratic way of life, while Azerbaijan is one of the least free countries in the world. Karabagh is even more democratic than Armenia, let alone Azerbaijan. This is why they fought and died, so they could live a peaceful, democratic, and prosperous existence.

 

That's a summary. If you want more detail, you can read the report that I've summarized.

[Arvestaked]

Thank you.

[Accelerated]

What is Armenia's justification for occupying Kharapagh?

 

officially, there are/were no Armenian troops in Karabagh it was an Azeri internal matter - sort of like Kosovo, where Albania never became involved. Moreover, Armenia has still not recognised Artsakhs independence!

[Nazarian]

Just imagine if the Azerbaijani government gave Karabagh to Armenia in 1988 without any conflict.

 

There probably would not be a Republic of Armenia as we know it now.