, Republic of Artsakh(Arm. լեռն ղ հ, հ խ-Lernain Garabagi Anrapeututyun, Anrapetutin Artsakh)-an unrecognized state, proclaimed on September 2, 1991 at a joint session of the Nagorno-Karabakh Regional and Shaumyanovsky District Councils of People's Deputies Azerbaijan SSR within the borders of the Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous region(NKAR) of the Azerbaijan SSR and the adjacent Shaumyanovsky region of the Azerbaijan SSR.

Climate

The climate of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is mild and temperate, over a large area it is dry subtropical. The average annual air temperature is + 10.5 ° C. The hottest months are July and August, average temperature which is + 21-22 ° C.

The average temperature of the coldest months (January-February) is around 0°C.

The lowest temperature in the lowland zone drops to -16°C, in the foothills - to -19°C, in the highlands - from -20°C to -23°C. heat in lowland and foothill areas it reaches +40°C, in mid-mountain and mountainous areas - from +32°C to +37°C.

The average annual amount of precipitation in the belts ranges from 480 to 700 mm. In the highland zone, 560-830 mm of precipitation falls annually. Most of the precipitation falls in May-June. Heavy rains and hail are also frequent during this period.

Nagorno-Karabakh Republic

On December 10, 1991, a referendum on the status of the NKR was held, 99.89% of the participants in which voted for its independence. This percentage was achieved due to the fact that the referendum was boycotted by the Azerbaijani minority of the region. The referendum was not recognized by the international community. On January 6, 1992, the NKR Parliament of the first convocation - the NKR Supreme Council - adopted the Declaration "On the State Independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic". The declaration of independence was preceded by almost four years of Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, which led to a significant number of victims and refugees on both sides, caused by the use of mass violence and ethnic cleansing.

In 1991-1994, a military conflict broke out between the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijan, during which the Azerbaijanis ousted the Armenians from the territory of the former Shahumyan region of the Azerbaijan SSR and part of Nagorno-Karabakh, and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, supported by Armenia, established control over several regions of Azerbaijan adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh and ousted the Azerbaijani population from there, which was qualified in 1993 by the UN Security Council as the occupation of the territory of Azerbaijan by Armenian forces.

According to the administrative-territorial division of Azerbaijan, the territory currently controlled by the NKR occupies the southwestern part of the main territory of Azerbaijan (the territory of the former NKAR and some adjacent territories), adjoins the state borders between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the west and Azerbaijan and Iran in the south and borders with Azerbaijani-controlled territory in the north and east.

Under control armed forces Azerbaijan is located about a third of the Shahumyan region, as well as minor parts of the Martakert and Martuni regions of the NKR.

The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is a member of the informal association CIS-2.

Political life

The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is a presidential republic.

National Assembly of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic

The legislative body is the National Assembly, 33 seats.

In June 2005, elections of deputies to the NKR National Assembly were held. Political parties and associations took part in them:
Party "Free Motherland"
"Democratic Party of Artsakh"
Party "For Moral Revival"
communist party
bloc "ARF Dashnaktsutyun - Movement-88"
Party “Our Home is Armenia”
Party "Social Justice"

The elections were attended by foreign observers invited by the NKR authorities. Among those invited from Russia were State Duma deputies Viktor Sheinis, Konstantin Zatulin and Sergei Grigoriev, as well as Georgy Trapeznikov, chairman of the Academy of Spiritual Unity, who attended the elections as private individuals. In their statement, made after the elections, Russian observers called them "democratic, transparent, free, independent, legitimate, meeting the Electoral Code of the NKR and all high international standards." However, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that "citizens of the Russian Federation, who acted as observers in these elections, were in Nagorno-Karabakh on their own initiative and solely in their personal capacity."

Government of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic

The executive power of the NKR is exercised by the Government of the NKR, whose powers are established by the laws of the NKR. The government consists of the Prime Minister of the NKR, the Vice-premier and ministers. The structure and procedure for the activities of the Government is established by a decree of the President of the NKR in the presence of the Prime Minister.

The prime minister is Arayik Vladimirovich Harutyunyan, and the vice-premier is Spartak Apetnakovich Tevosyan.

The government has 12 ministries, of which 4 (Ministries of Justice, Welfare, Culture and Youth and Urban Development) are headed by women.
Permanent missions of the NKR

• Armenia — Yerevan
• Russia Moscow
• USA - Washington
• France Paris
• Australia - Sydney
• Lebanon — Beirut
• Germany Berlin

Geography

The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is located in the southeastern part of the Lesser Caucasus. The relief of the republic is typically mountainous, covers the eastern segment of the Karabakh plateau and slopes obliquely from the west to the east, merging with the Artsakh valley, which makes up most of the Kuro-Araks lowland. The eastern parts of the Martakert and Martuni regions are relatively low-lying.

Administrative-territorial division

Geographically, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is divided into 7 regions and the capital Stepanakert.

Five of them - Askeran, Hadrut, Martakert, Martuni and Shusha are located both on the territory of the former NKAO and beyond its borders, the declared lands of the Shaumyan region are located on the territory of the former Shaumyan and Kalbajar regions of the Azerbaijan SSR, as well as part of the Khanlar region of the Azerbaijan SSR, the Kashatagh region is located on a part of the territory of the former Lachin region of the Azerbaijan SSR.

Parts of the Martakert, Martuni and Shaumyan regions are under the control of Azerbaijan and are considered by the NKR authorities to be occupied territories.

The territories of the NKR, located outside the borders of the territories of the former NKAO declared in 1991 as the NKR, the Shahumyan and part of the Khanlar regions of the AzSSR, are often called the NKR security belt or zone.
Territorial changes
April - May 1992 - establishing control over the Lachin region.
May 9, 1992 - establishing control over Shusha.
June - July 1992 - loss of control over the Shahumyan region.
March 1993 - establishing control over the Kalbajar region.
June 13-23, 1993 - establishing control over part of the Aghdam, Jabrayil, Fizuli regions.
August 31, 1993 - establishing control over the Kubatly region.
August 23, 1993 - establishing control over the Jabrayil and most of the Fizuli regions.

Population

According to the results of the 2005 census of the population of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the population in the republic was 137,737 people, of which 137,380 people were Armenians (99.74%), Russians - 171 people (0.1%), Greeks - 22 people ( 0.02%), Ukrainians - 21 people (0.02%), Georgians - 12 people (0.01%), Azerbaijanis - 6 people (0.005%), representatives of other nationalities - 125 people (0.1%). In 2006, 2,102 children were born in the NKR, which is 4.9% more than in 2005. 15.3 children were born per 1,000 inhabitants compared to 14.6 in 2005. Natural population growth increased by 16.5% over the same period. In 2006, 241 families, or 872 people, 395 of which were children, moved to the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic from Armenia and other CIS countries for permanent residence. According to estimates for 2009, the population of the republic was 141,100 people.

Status

According to the administrative-territorial division of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the territory controlled by the NKR is part of Azerbaijan. The commitment to the territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan is mentioned in the resolutions of the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly and a number of other international organizations: in 1993, the UN Security Council adopted 4 resolutions relating to the Karabakh conflict, qualifying the Armenian control of territories outside Nagorno-Karabakh as occupation of the territory Azerbaijan by Armenian forces, in March 2008 General Assembly The UN adopted a resolution "The situation in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan", which was supported by 39 UN member states (excluding the United States, Russia, France - member states of the OSCE Minsk Group), in 2009 the US State Department in its annual report on the observance of religious freedom in world called Karabakh "a separatist region of Azerbaijan".

At the moment, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic has not received recognition from the UN member states and is not a member of it; in this regard, certain political categories (president, prime minister, elections, government, parliament, flag, coat of arms, capital) are not used in relation to the NKR in the official documents of the UN member states and the organizations formed by them. To designate the NKR authorities as a party to the conflict, UN and OSCE documents related to the conflict use the expression “Leadership of Nagorny Karabakh”, which, as diplomats emphasize, is not considered as a formal recognition of any diplomatic or the political status of the region. The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is recognized as the partially recognized states of the Republic of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.

Opinions of political scientists regarding the status of the NKR differ. So, according to the German jurist O. Luchterhand, “In exceptional cases, that is, when a national minority is discriminated against in an unbearable form, then the right of self-determination in the form of the right to secession takes precedence over the sovereignty of the state to which it concerns. In the case under consideration, Azerbaijan's right to sovereignty loses weight compared to the right to self-determination (the right of secession)…”.

According to Russian political scientists Sergei Markedonov and Andrei Areshev, it is impossible to deny the fact that the NKR has its own territory, a special organization of power and actual sovereignty, that is, it fits the formal definition of a state. From their point of view, the NKR, not differing from other states in the world in nothing, except for the lack of its recognition, can be called an unrecognized state.

According to Western political scientist Dav Lynch, in the case of Nagorno-Karabakh, independence is actually a front that barely hides the fact that it is a region of Armenia - the “independence” of Karabakh only allows the newly emerged Armenian state to avoid the international stigma of an aggressor, despite the fact that Armenian troops took part in the war in 1991-1994 and continue to occupy the front line between Karabakh and Azerbaijan. In 2006, Armenian President Robert Kocharian stated that his country would recognize the independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic if negotiations with Azerbaijan reached an impasse.

International organizations, including the UN, NATO, the European Union, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, the OIC and GUAM, indicate that the opinion of the ethnic Azerbaijani minority in Nagorno-Karabakh, which was forced to leave it as a result of the armed conflict, was not taken into account in the process of expression of will, and consider the elections illegitimate held in the region by the Armenian authorities. In particular, on May 21, 2010, Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for foreign affairs and Security Policy, said that the European Union does not recognize the constitutional and legal framework within which "parliamentary elections" will be held in Nagorno-Karabakh on May 23, 2010" and that "This event should not interfere with the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict."

On May 20, 2010, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the "need for an EU strategy for the South Caucasus", stating that the EU needs to pursue a strategy to support stability, prosperity and conflict resolution in the South Caucasus. The territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh were characterized in the resolution as the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, it expressed the opinion on the need to immediately refuse to include these territories in the NKR. It also noted that the interim status of Nagorno-Karabakh could be a decision until the final status is determined.

Economy

The NKR economy was completely destroyed during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict of 91-94. At the moment, through the efforts of local businesses, businesses in Armenia and the Diaspora, new plants, factories, small and large enterprises are appearing, which significantly revive the growth of the economy. Today in Artsakh there are enterprises of timber processing, jewelry production, Food Industry, light industry, etc. Tourism infrastructure is actively developing, new tours are being built. centers, hotels, routes, etc.
Bridge Artsakh Economic Forum

The forum was organized jointly by the businesses of Armenia, Artsakh and the Armenian Diaspora, appeared relatively recently and today it is visited by many politicians and businessmen, many agreements are signed.

Religion

The vast majority of the population of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic has the Armenian-Gregorian Church as a traditional religion, which has the Artsakh diocese on the territory of the NKR.

In 2010, a ceremony of laying the foundation of a Russian Orthodox church in honor of the Intercession of the Mother of God was held in Stepanakert.

Attractions

• Azykh cave is the most famous cave in the republic. Located in the Hadrut region.
• Ruin ancient city- presumably, Tigranakert - an ancient Armenian city founded by Tigran II in the 1st century BC. e. Located in Askeran region.
• Amaras is an Armenian monastery of the 4th century. Located in the Martuni region.
• Tsitsernavank is an Armenian monastery of the 4th century. Located in the Kashatag region.
• Gandzasar Monastery is an Armenian monastery of the 13th century. Located in the Martakert region.
• Dadivank is an Armenian monastery of the 9th century. It is located in the Shaumyanovsky district.
• Gtchavank Monastery is an Armenian monastery of the 13th century. Located in the Hadrut region.
• Erek Mankunk Monastery is an Armenian monastery of the 17th century. Located in the Martakert region.
• Kagankatuyk - the ruins of an ancient Armenian settlement. Located in the Martakert region.
• Shusha fortress is one of the most famous fortresses in Karabakh. Located in Shusha.
• Askeran fortress is one of the most famous fortresses of historical Artsakh. Located in Askeran region.
• Hokhanaberd (fortress) - one of the best fortresses of Medieval Khachen, built by Gasan-Jalal Dola. It was the center of the Khachen principality.
• "We are our mountains" - a monument on top of a hill at the entrance to Stepanakert.
• Andaberd (fortress)
• Andaberd (monastery)
• Tigranakert (fortress) - the fortress of the city of Tigranakert
• Kachaghakaberd (fortress)
• Karmiravan (monastery) - Armenian monastery of the early 13th century
• The princely palace of the melikdom of Dizak - in the village. Togh, Hadrut region.

[Application]

Application

This document and its annex were distributed to the United Nations on September 2, 1997 by the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Armenia to the United Nations in New York.

(unofficial translation)

Your Excellency,

Over the past few years, the Azerbaijani government has been actively disseminating fabricated and false information about Nagorno-Karabakh and the consequences of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The information provided by Azerbaijan about the occupied territories, refugees and displaced persons does not correspond to the existing reality.
We are confident that providing inaccurate and unreliable information about Nagorno-Karabakh and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to mediators and the international community leads to wrong decisions and conclusions.
The attached document, which was prepared on the basis of an unbiased analysis and official sources, clarifies a number of issues and thus contributes to a better understanding of the existing reality, facts and the general situation around the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
I am at your disposal to provide any additional information.

Yours sincerely,

Leonard Petrosyan,
Acting President
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic

His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan,
General Secretary UN,
New York.

Copies of the letter:

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
the United Nations High Commissioner for human rights,
International Organization for Migration,
Inter-Parliamentary Union,
Parliamentary Assembly CIS,
OSCE Parliamentary Assembly,
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,
Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the OSCE Minsk Group Member States for
Nagorno-Karabakh.

APPENDIX

DATA ON REFUGEES, DISPLACED PERSONS AND
EMPLOYED IN WAR TERRITORIES
IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH AND AZERBAIJAN

NAGORNO-KARABAKH

Speaking about the occupied territories of Nagorno-Karabakh, refugees and displaced persons in Nagorno-Karabakh, the NKR leadership uses such terms as “Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region” (NKAR), “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic” (NKR) and “Nagorno-Karabakh” (NKR).
The NKAR includes territories that were part of the administrative boundaries of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region.
The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) territorially does not cover the entire Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh in its geographical and historical unity, but the territory of the former NKAR and the Shahumyan region. The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) was proclaimed in these territories in accordance with the legislation of the USSR in force at that time, in particular, Article 3 of the USSR Law “On the procedure for resolving issues related to the secession of a union republic from the USSR” dated April 3, 1990 ., as well as the Declaration of the joint session of the Nagorno-Karabakh regional and Shahumyan district Councils of People's Deputies with the participation of deputies of all levels of September 2, 1991 and the national referendum of December 10, 1991. It was the population of these territories that elected and formed the governing bodies of the NKR, about which the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group of March 1992 refers to “elected and other representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh”.
Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh as a whole is a larger area. It also includes the northern part of Nagorno-Karabakh (whose population was predominantly Armenian until 1988), as well as a number of other regions.

REFUGEES AND DISPLACED PERSONS IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH

In 1918, the number of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh reached 300-330 thousand people. With the normal development of the region, the total number of the Armenian population of NK by 1988 was to be 600-700 thousand people. In 1918-1920. As a result of the Turkish-Azerbaijani aggression aimed at the genocide of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, 20% of the inhabitants of the region died. Only in the capital of the region, the city of Shushi, one of the largest cities in the Transcaucasus of that time, and its environs, in March 1920, Turkish-Azerbaijani troops destroyed almost 20 thousand Armenians. Despite this, during the creation in 1923 of the Autonomous Region of Nagorno-Karabakh - AONK (as the former NKAR was called until 1936), Armenians made up 95% of the population of the autonomy, and Azerbaijanis - only 3%. Over the 75 years of Soviet-Azerbaijani domination, the number of the Armenian population, both in Nagorno-Karabakh as a whole and in the NKAO, remained in absolute terms at the same level due to the discriminatory policy of the authorities, which forced Armenians to emigrate (nowadays over 500 Armenians live in Armenia and the CIS countries). thousands of Armenians with Karabakh roots); As a result, the number of Armenians in the NKAO decreased in relative terms to 77 percent, while the absolute number of Azerbaijanis increased several times as a result of a mechanical increase due to immigrants from Azerbaijan.
According to the official data of the 1989 census, the population of the NKAR was 189 thousand people, of which 145.5 thousand Armenians (76.9%), Azerbaijanis - 40.6 thousand (21.5%). According to the data for the same year, over 17 thousand Armenians (about 80% of the population of the region) and about 3 thousand Azerbaijanis lived in the Shahumyan region. Approximately 23,000 Armenian refugees from Baku, Sumgayit, and a number of other cities remained unaccounted for during the census, who, by the time the census was conducted in January 1989, actually lived in the former NKAO, without having a local residence permit, and therefore, according to the old mark in their passports about registration, were assigned to the places of their former residence.
Thus, the Armenian population of the NKAR and the Shaumyan region, taken together, totaled 185 thousand people, the Azerbaijani population - 44 thousand, another 3.5 thousand people accounted for Russians, Greeks, Ukrainians, Tatars and others.
The northern part of Nagorno-Karabakh, transferred in 1921 by the Russian Bolsheviks to Azerbaijan as part of Nagorno-Karabakh, was not included, like the Shahumyan region, into the Autonomous Region of Nagorno-Karabakh created in 1923 on the territory of the NK (the borders of which Moscow was instructed to determine Azerbaijan). The territories of the northern part of NK, where the Karabakh Armenians compactly lived, were repeatedly redrawn and then included in the newly created administrative regions of the AzSSR in the 1930s and later in order to artificially transform the Armenian population in these territories from an overwhelming majority into a minority of the population. We are talking about the Dashkesan, Shamkhor, Gadabay, and Khanlar regions, on the territory of which the ancient Karabakh city of Ganja (Gandzak in Armenian, former Elisavetpol, Kirovabad in Soviet times) is located. However, until 1988, Armenians still constituted the overwhelming majority of the population in the zone of compact residence in the Northern NK, which covered the mountainous and partly foothill parts of the above-mentioned regions of the former AzSSR. In 1988, Armenians lived in these territories (by region):

• in Khanlar - 14.6 thousand people,
• in Dashkesan - 7.3 thousand people,
• in Shamkhor - 12.4 thousand people,
• in Gadabay - 1.0 thousand people,
• in the city of Ganja - 48.1 thousand people.
• In total - 83.4 thousand people.

That is, the Armenian population of Northern Nagorno-Karabakh was more than twice the size of the Azerbaijani population in the former NKAO (7,000 more Armenians lived in the city of Ganja alone than Azerbaijanis in the former NKAR as a whole, or four times more than Azerbaijanis lived in city ​​of Shusha).
Thus, by the end of 1988, the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh as a whole (NKAR, Shahumyan region and Northern NK) amounted to 268 thousand people.
The Armenian population of the northern part of NK was forcibly deported in 1988-1991. The deportations began in the autumn of 1988 and were completed after the start of the open armed phase of the conflict. The last Armenian settlements of this zone, Getashen and Martunashen, were devastated in April-May 1991 during the joint operation "Ring" of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan and the internal troops of the USSR, during which 24 settlements in Nagorno-Karabakh were completely deported and captured by Azerbaijan. At present, the vast majority of refugees from the Northern NKR are in Armenia, partly in Russia, and only a small part - in the NKR.
During the fighting in the summer-autumn of 1992, the Azerbaijani army completely occupied the Shahumyan region, about two-thirds of the Mardakert region, parts of the Martuni, Askeran and Hadrut regions of the NKR. As a result, 66,000 Armenians became refugees and displaced persons. After the NKR Defense Army liberated most of the occupied territories (except Shahumyan and parts of the Mardakert and Martuni regions of the NKR), 35,000 refugees returned to the territory of the NKR. However, due to the fact that their villages were either completely destroyed or continue to be under Azerbaijani occupation, most of these people should be classified as displaced persons.
Thus, the total number of Armenian refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh is 114 thousand people, including 83 thousand from the Northern NK and 31 thousand - mainly from the Shaumyan and Mardakert regions of the NKR.
At present there are approximately 30,000 displaced persons in the NKR.
With a total Armenian population of the NKR in 1991 of 185 thousand people, refugees and displaced persons directly from the NKR itself, as of today, there are 61 thousand people, which is 33 percent of the Armenian population of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. That is, a third of the population of the NKR are now refugees or internally displaced persons.
Including refugees from the northern part of Nagorno-Karabakh (see above), the total number of refugees and displaced Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh as a whole reaches, according to 1988 data, 144,000 people, which is 54 percent of the total Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh (NKR and Northern NK).
Thus, since 1988, every second Karabakh Armenian living at that time in their homeland has become a refugee or a displaced person.
Despite the fact that most of the Armenians who lived in Baku, Sumgayit, a number of other cities and regions of Azerbaijan and became refugees as a result of the conflict 2 come from Nagorno-Karabakh, we deliberately limit ourselves to the geographical and demographic boundaries of Nagorno-Karabakh and do not talk about this , the largest category of Armenian refugees, which should be the subject of discussion between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The above figures clearly show that of the two main parties to the conflict - Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan (data for the AR will be given below) - the first has an incomparably more difficult situation with refugees and displaced persons. It should be added to this that, unlike Azerbaijan, the NKR practically does not receive assistance for its refugees and displaced persons through international organizations. At the same time, Azerbaijani refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh receive humanitarian aid from international organizations. Thus, there is also actual discrimination of refugees on the basis of nationality by international organizations.

OCCUPIED TERRITORIES OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH

Speaking of the occupied territories of Nagorno-Karabakh, the NKR authorities are talking about the territories of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic occupied by Azerbaijan, which, as mentioned earlier, do not cover the entire Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh in its geographical, historical and ethnic unity, but only the territories of the former NKAR and the Shahumyan region (see above), which at the beginning of open hostilities were fully subject to the power of the NKR leadership.
As a result of hostilities between Azerbaijan and the NKR, Azerbaijani troops occupied in 1992 and are currently occupying about 750 square meters. km of the territory of the NKR, which is 15 percent of its area. We are talking about the entire Shahumyan region (600 sq. km), as well as parts of the Mardakert and Martuni regions.

AZERBAIJAN

According to the propaganda statements of the Azerbaijani authorities and officials, at the moment, 20 percent of the territory of Azerbaijan is allegedly occupied, and there are allegedly over 1 million refugees and displaced persons in the country. It is also alleged that this situation arose as a result of "Armenia's aggression against Azerbaijan and the capture by Armenia of both Nagorno-Karabakh and the regions adjacent to it."
It should be noted that none of the resolutions of the UN Security Council adopted in connection with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict contains any expressions about the “aggression” of Armenia and, as a result, demands for the withdrawal of its troops from the territory of Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh (see resolutions 822, 853, 874, 884 / all of 1993 / UN Security Council).

THE QUESTION OF OCCURATED AZERBAIJANIAN TERRITORIES

According to the maps shown by the representatives of the Azerbaijan Republic, the total area of ​​the territories occupied by the NK Defense Army is allegedly 8780 square meters. km with a total area of ​​the Republic of Azerbaijan of 86,600 sq. km. A simple arithmetic operation shows that the area of ​​the seven regions of the AR adjacent to the NKR is only 10 percent of the indicated territory. Even if we consider, as the leaders of the Azerbaijan Republic officially declare, that the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic itself is also an “occupied territory”, then these territories will also make up not 20, but 13 percent 3 .
As mentioned above, not a single UN resolution or OSCE documents anywhere, ever, said anything about the “occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan by Armenia”. This statement itself is the fruit of the falsifying efforts of Azerbaijani propaganda. Since Nagorno-Karabakh cannot occupy itself in any way, therefore, the territory of the NKR, which is under the control of the NKR authorities (about 4300 sq. km), naturally, under no circumstances can be considered “the occupied territory of the AR”.
It should be especially noted that the maps presented by the Azerbaijani side, firstly, often have a deliberately distorted scale, in which NK and the surrounding regions are depicted larger than they actually are in relation to neighboring regions; secondly, the line of Karabakh-Azerbaijani military contact was drawn on them much to the east of the actual confrontation borders, which is easy to see if we compare Azerbaijani maps with military and other maps used in the work of the OSCE Minsk Group on NK.
Meanwhile, and after all of the above, the area of ​​occupied territories given by the AR is overestimated.
It is known that the NK Defense Army completely occupied 5 districts of the Autonomous Republic (Lachin, Kalbajar, Kubatly, Zangelan and Jabrayil) during the hostilities. Aghdam and Fizuli regions are partially occupied, in general, by about 30 percent.
According to Azerbaijani data 4 , the area and population of these regions are:

Kalbajar - 1936 sq. km, 50.6 thousand people;

Lachin - 1835 sq. km, 59.9 thousand people;

Kubatly - 802 sq. km, 30.3 thousand people;

Jabrayil - 1050 sq. km, 51.6 thousand people;

Zangelan - 707 sq. km, 33.9 thousand people;

Agdam - 1094 sq. km, 158 thousand people;

Fizuli - 1386 sq. km, 100 thousand people.

The total area of ​​the first 5 districts is 6330 sq. km. The total area of ​​Agdam and Fizuli is 2480 sq. km, but of these, 35% of the territory of Agdam and 25% of Fizuli regions are under the control of the NK Defense Army, i.e. respectively 383 and 347 sq. km. Thus, the figures given in the Azerbaijani data on the area of ​​occupied territories - 8780 sq. km. km - is also a falsification.
The total area of ​​the territory of the AR under the control of the NKR is not 8780 square meters. km, and 7059 sq. km, which is 8 percent of the territory of the former Azerbaijan SSR, that is, two and a half times less than 20%, which the leaders and representatives of the Azerbaijan Republic constantly repeat, deliberately misleading the international community and the world public opinion.
It should be reminded that Azerbaijan, for its part, occupies 15 percent of the territory of the NKR.

REFUGEES AND DISPLACED PERSONS IN AZERBAIJAN

168 thousand Azerbaijanis left Armenia in 1988-1989 5 . These 168,000 people, who left Armenia 8-10 months after the pogroms of Armenians in Sumgayit and the forcible expulsion of more than 350,000 Armenians from the AzSSR, mostly exchanged or sold their houses. The rest received monetary compensation from the Armenian government, while the Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan have not received any compensation so far. The former NKAO in 1991-92 during the hostilities left almost the entire Azerbaijani population - 40.6 thousand people, or 21.5% of its population (according to the 1989 census). It should be noted that Azerbaijan deliberately overestimates the number of the Azerbaijani population of the former NKAO, speaking about "60 thousand" Azerbaijanis, or about "a third of the population of the NKAO".
The Azerbaijani population of the Shahumyan region remained in their homes in all 4 Azerbaijani villages located along the perimeter of the borders of the region in its northern and eastern parts (the line of the Karabakh-Azerbaijani front passed there in 1991-1992). The Azerbaijani population did not suffer in the territories adjacent to the northern part of NK, as well as directly in the settlements of Northern NK, from where 83,000 Karabakh Armenians were deported in 1988-91. Moreover, more than one hundred thousand Azerbaijani refugees 6 were settled in houses and apartments of Armenians expelled from the northern part of NK.
According to the above-mentioned Azerbaijani data, the population of 7 regions fully or partially occupied by the NK Defense Army in 1989 was 483.9 thousand people. Taking into account the fact that Agdam and Fuzuli regions are partially occupied, the total number of displaced persons who left these regions amounted to approximately 420,000 people, of which 45,000, according to Azerbaijani data, returned to their homes in 1997. Thus, only 375,000 people out of the total number of inhabitants of these seven districts are displaced persons and refugees 7 .
The total number of Azerbaijani refugees and displaced persons in the AR, therefore, is the sum of the above number, to which should be added the number of refugees from Armenia (168 thousand people, who, as noted above, exchanged houses or received compensation and therefore can only be considered refugees with a stretch). ) and Nagorno-Karabakh (40 thousand people).
Thus, due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, there are 583,000 refugees and displaced persons in Azerbaijan, which is 7.9 percent of the official population of the Republic of Azerbaijan declared by Azerbaijan. The statements about "a million refugees in Azerbaijan" are the same fruit of propaganda falsifications as the statements about "20 percent of the occupied territories of Azerbaijan."
Recall that in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, a third of the population is made up of refugees and displaced persons. According to the Republic of Armenia, refugees in Armenia are 12 percent of the population. In addition, 300 thousand people in Armenia lost their homes as a result of the 1988 earthquake, and the country itself continues to be under blockade by Azerbaijan and one of the members of the OSCE Minsk Group on NK - Turkey.

KEY COMPARISONS IN PERCENTAGE

Territory of the NKR occupied by Azerbaijan - 15%

The territory of Azerbaijan under the control of the NKR Defense Army - 8%

Refugees and displaced persons in the NKR (in % of the population) - 33%

Refugees and displaced persons in Azerbaijan (% of population) - 7.9%

_____________________________

1 Sources of information:

• USSR census 1989
• Department of Statistics of the Regional Council of the NKAR
• District Executive Committee of Shahumyan District
• Committee for Refugees of the NKAR

2 More than 350,000 Armenians left Azerbaijan, who are in Armenia, Russia, the CIS countries and far abroad.
3 Taking into account the real area of ​​the territories occupied by Azerbaijan and the NKR
4 Data of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan, disseminated by the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the Russian Federation in the autumn of 1994, data from population censuses, the book “Azerbaijan SSR - Administrative-territorial division, Azgosizdat, Baku, 1979, the Azerbaijani newspaper “Mukhalifat” dated April 3, 1996, etc. .d.
5 This was precisely their number in Armenia according to official data at the beginning of 1988; in Baku they arbitrarily give a figure of 200 and even 250 thousand people.

Karen Nersisyan, Chairman of the National Statistical Service of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Candidate of Economic Sciences, answers the questions of Noah's Ark.

– From December 1 to December 9, the second population census since independence was held in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Please tell us how this landmark event of all-republican significance went. Did the experience of the first census conducted 10 years ago help?

- According to the law on the population census adopted in December 2001, the census in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is carried out once every ten years. The main task of the census is to obtain the necessary information about the population in order to develop directions for the socio-economic development of the republic, conduct demographic and social studies, optimal distribution and use of labor resources, current accounting and forecasting of the size and composition of the population, etc. Conducting a census is a series of diverse and interrelated activities. According to the law of the NKR "On the population census", citizens are obliged to take part in this nationwide event, to give accurate and comprehensive answers to the questions contained in the census list.

The census is supported by the government with its structural divisions, various ministries, departments and organizations. In accordance with the law of the NKR "On the census" and the decision of the government, the republican, regional and Stepanakert city commissions were created to organize and conduct the 2015 census. 9 census, 90 instructor and 501 enumeration areas were formed, schematic plans for the city of Stepanakert, districts and rural communities were drawn up.

We held meetings and meetings with the leaders of all the communities of the republic, gave the necessary methodological explanations, I personally visited all the districts, held meetings with the leadership of the district, with activists in the villages, residents, explained the importance of obtaining reliable and accurate data for the state and society, answered the questions questions you are interested in.

We tried to form in people an inner conviction of the importance of the event. Of course, there were individual cases of misunderstanding, someone even stated that they would refuse to answer questions, but after appropriate explanations, they managed to convince such citizens.

The census was carried out by involved workers - enumerators (census takers), who went around residential buildings and other premises and carried out a direct survey of adults living in them. The census takers have undergone appropriate training, instruction and certification. At the same time, we focused not only on their professional training, but also on a human approach to business. Fulfilling their duties, they tried not to cause inconvenience to citizens, they agreed in advance when it would be convenient to come to them for questioning.

In general, I consider the task set to be completed, no excesses were recorded during the census. It is very important that people reacted with understanding to the need to hold this event of national importance, realized its essence and significance and fully fulfilled their civic duty.

The experience of the first census certainly helped us. At the same time, I think that organizationally we have managed to move even further - people have become more informed. In this regard, I would like to note the clear and competent work of the Population Census Department headed by Mikhail Soghomonyan.

I will add that in order to test the methodological, organizational principles, programs and technology for developing census materials, in the first quarter we organized a trial census in two large villages of the republic - Aterk in the Martakert region and Tog in the Hadrut region.

– Preliminary results of the census will be presented in the spring of 2016, and the final results - at the end of the same year.

Please note that individual census data are confidential and not subject to publication. The information collected about citizens will be coded, and only generalized data will be published.

- It is known that the population census is not limited to a purely mechanical calculation of the population, during it, in fact, various kinds of social studies. Please tell us about them in general terms.

- According to the results of the census, as you correctly noted, not only the population will be specified, but also such indicators as age and gender, citizenship, place of birth, religion, educational qualification, scientific degree, main source of livelihood, employment, economic activity, household family conditions, occupation, etc. The census questionnaire consisted of 55 questions, 22 of which concerned the property and income of citizens. That is, we are trying to determine the real living conditions of households. The list included such questions as, for example, whether the respondents received money from abroad in the last 12 months, whether births or deaths were recorded in the family during the specified period, whether there were disabled people in the family.

The results of the census are of great importance for the development of state and economic policy, programming and management. The population census will provide an opportunity to study the changes that have taken place and to determine new directions and principles of development. Assessing the potential of a state is especially important for a country like ours, which is in a difficult geopolitical situation and constantly faces numerous challenges.

- Azerbaijani propaganda is trying to present the population of the NKR as much lower than our official figures. How would you comment on this?

– Our professional duty is to present the real situation. The fundamental principles that govern statistical bodies are accuracy, integrity and reliability. I don’t know how it is in Azerbaijan, but in our case there is no reason not to believe? official statistics. We do not deceive ourselves. Our grandfathers and fathers taught us this, and it is our duty to be honest with our people.

It is clear that the truth about Artsakh is not beneficial for the Baku authorities, and therefore they are trying to present information to the international community in a distorted form. But that's their problem.

- How would you assess the demographic situation in Artsakh in general?

- I would call the demographic situation in Artsakh positive and stable. There is a consistent dynamics of population growth in the republic. In the period from 2007 to 2014, the population of the NKR increased annually by an average of 1,400 people, or approximately 1%. The natural increase in this period averaged 1,200 people. This is reassuring.

- What innovations would you note in the activities of the National Statistical Service of the NKR? What are the plans for the near future?

- All innovations in the activities of the NKR National Statistical Service are dictated by modern requirements and are based on international standards.

Since January 1, 2014, we have been implementing a program of household research. The study will be long-term and consistent and will allow determining the standard of living of households, getting a complete picture of the socio-economic situation in the republic, correctly distributing public funds, controlling migration flows, calculating GDP using a new method, etc.

In 2015, we started calculating indicators of economic activity of the population during the month. Work is underway to assess the level of poverty, determine the real size of the consumer and food basket, and so on. This year, a transition was made to a new international methodology for calculating the consumer price index, which provides for a more frequent revision of the share of the consumer basket.

Work is also underway to revise certain indicators in environmental statistics, bringing them into line with international standards and classification. For the first time, a statistical compendium “Environment and Natural resources in the NKR.

In 2017, it is planned to carry out a complete agricultural accounting covering all physical and legal entities producing agricultural products.

Much remains to be done to train qualified personnel, introduce modern technologies, and the National Statistical Service of the Republic of Armenia, with which we have signed a memorandum of cooperation, is helping us in this. Such cooperation helps to more effectively implement reforms aimed at modernizing and improving the system.

– What would you wish to the staff and readers of the Noah's Ark newspaper in the coming year?

- Let New Year will bring everyone material well-being and prosperity, spiritual harmony, joy and happiness!

I wish the staff of the newspaper new professional success and more interesting materials!

Interviewed by Ashot Beglaryan, Stepanakert

Gandzasar Monastery is located in the central part of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) - an independent state formed as a result of the collapse of the former Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic into two parts: the Republic of Azerbaijan and the NKR. The Republic of Azerbaijan is populated mainly by Muslim Turks, known since the 1930s as "Azerbaijanis". Armenians who traditionally profess Christianity live in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was proclaimed in 1991 on the basis of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region (NKAO) - an Armenian self-governing unit within the USSR, territorially subordinate to Soviet Azerbaijan. In the past, Artsakh, the 10th province of the ancient Armenian Kingdom, was located on most of the territory of the modern Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Despite the fact that the toponym "Karabakh" remains in use to this day, it is gradually being replaced by a more authentic and adequate name of the country - "Artsakh".

Nagorno-Karabakh is a presidential republic with approximately 144,000 inhabitants. The main legislative and representative body of the republic is the National Assembly.

Bako Sahakyan (elected in 2007) is the third President of the republic. President Sahakyan replaced President Arkady Ghukasyan, the head of the republic from 1997 to 2007. The country has been developing its ties with the international community for many years.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nagorno-Karabakh has offices in Australia, Germany, Lebanon, Russia, the United States and France. The NKR maintains close economic and military relations with the Republic of Armenia. The borders of the republic are under the protection of the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army, which is considered one of the most combat-ready armies in the entire post-Soviet space.

In October 2008, the wedding of 675 couples of newlyweds from the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic took place in the Gandzasar Monastery.

October 2008: Group wedding ceremony at the Gandzasar Monastery, Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh). Witnesses of the wedding, along with the assumed duties of the godparents, were seven Armenian philanthropists who arrived from Russia. The main godfather and sponsor of the Big Wedding was a well-known benefactor, a devoted patriot of Karabakh - Levon Hayrapetyan, a descendant of the ancient Asan-Jalalyan family.

Nagorno-Karabakh in Antiquity and the Middle Ages

The history of the statehood of Nagorno-Karabakh is rooted in hoary antiquity. According to Movses Khorenatsi, a historian of the 5th century and the founder of Armenian historiography, Artsakh was part of the Armenian Kingdom already in the 6th century BC, when the Yervanduni (Yervandid) dynasty asserted its power over the Armenian Highlands after the collapse of the state of Urartu. Greek and Roman historians, such as Strabo, mention Artsakh in their works as an important strategic region of Armenia, supplying the best cavalry to the royal army. In the first century BC. e. King Tigran II of Armenia (reigned 95-55 BC) built one of the four cities in Artsakh, named Tigranakert after him. The name of the area "Tigranakert" has been preserved in Artsakh for centuries, which allowed modern archaeologists to start excavations of the ancient city in 2005.

In 387 AD, when the unified Armenian Kingdom was divided between Persia and Byzantium, the rulers of Artsakh were given the opportunity to expand their possessions to the east and form their own Armenian state - the Aghvank Kingdom. “Aghvank” is named after one of the great-grandchildren of Patriarch Hayk Nahapet, the legendary progenitor of the Armenians, the great-great-grandson of righteous Noah. The administration of the Agvank Kingdom was carried out from the Armenian-populated provinces of Artsakh and Utik. Agvank controlled a vast territory, including the foothills of the Greater Caucasus and part of the coast of the Caspian Sea.

In the fifth century, the Aghvank Kingdom became one of the cultural centers of the Armenian civilization. According to the 7th century Armenian historian Movses Kaghankatvatsi, author of the History of the Land of Aghvank (Arm. Պատմություն Աղվանից Աշխարհի ), the country built a large number of churches and schools. Revered by Armenians, St. Mesrob Mashtots, the creator of the Armenian alphabet, opened the first Armenian school at Amaras Monastery, around 410. Poets and storytellers such as the 7th-century author Davtak Kertokh create masterpieces of Armenian literature. In the fifth century, the King of Agvank Vachagan II the Pious signed the famous Agven Constitution (arm. Սահմանք Կանոնական listen)) is the oldest surviving Armenian constitutional decree. Hovhannes III Odznetsi, the Catholicos of All Armenians (717-728), subsequently included the Aghven Constitution in the pan-Armenian legal collection known as the Code of Laws of Armenia (Arm. Կանոնագիրք Հայոց ). One of the chapters of the "History of the Aghvank Country" is completely devoted to the text of the Aghven Constitution.

In the Middle Ages, during the period of feudal fragmentation, the Agvank Kingdom broke up into several separate Armenian principalities, the most significant of which were the Upper Khachen (Aterk) and Lower Khachen principalities, as well as the principalities of Ktish-Bakhk and Gardman-Parisos. All these principalities were recognized as part of Armenia by the leading world powers. The Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (905-959) addressed his official letters to "the prince of Khachen, to Armenia".

In the middle of the 9th century, the feudal lords of Artsakh recognized the power of the Bagratuni (Bagratid) dynasty, the collectors of Armenian lands, who in 885 restored an independent Armenian state, the capital of which was the city of Ani. In the 13th century, Grand Duke Asan Jalal Vakhtangyan (reigned from 1214 to 1261), the founder of the Gandzasar Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, united all the small states of Artsakh into one single Khachen Principality. Hasan Jalal called himself "autocrat" and "king", and his state is also known in history as the Kingdom of Artsakh.

After the weakening of the unified Khachen Principality due to the Tatar-Mongolian invasion, the wars of Tamerlane and the attacks of the Turkic nomads from the hordes of the Black and White Sheep, Artsakh formally became part of the Persian Empire, but did not lose its autonomy. From the 15th to the 19th century, power in Artsakh belonged to five united Armenian feudal formations - melikdoms, known as the Five Principalities or the Melikdoms of Khamsa. Five principalities/melikdoms - Khachen, Gulistan, Jraberd, Varanda and Dizak - had their own armed forces, and the Armenian meliks (princes) were often perceived as representatives of the political will of the entire Armenian people. According to the testimonies of Russian and European diplomats, military commanders and missionaries (such as Field Marshal A. V. Suvorov and Russian diplomat S. M. Bronevsky), the total power of the Armenian troops of Artsakh in the 18th century reached 30-40 thousand infantrymen and horsemen.

In the 1720s, the Five Principalities, under the leadership of the spiritual leaders of the Holy See of Gandzasar, led a large-scale national liberation movement aimed at restoring the Armenian state with the assistance of Russia. In a letter to the Russian Tsar Paul I, the Armenian meliks of Artsakh reported about their country as “the region of Karabagh, as if it were the only remnant of ancient Armenia, which preserved its independence through many centuries” and called themselves “princes of Great Armenia”. Field Marshal A. V. Suvorov begins one of his reports with the words: “The autocratic province of Karabag remained from the great Armenian state after Shah Abbas before two centuries.”

At the beginning of the 18th century, the Holy See of Gandzasar for some time became the religious center of all world Armenians. This continued until the Supreme See of Holy Etchmiadzin again assumed this role.

Historical roots of the Karabakh conflict

The term "Karabakh" has been known since the 16th century. This geographical concept denoted the eastern outskirts of Artsakh, which in the Middle Ages were periodically invaded by Turkic tribes from Central Asia.

The term "Karabakh" has Armenian roots, referring to the Principality of Bahk (Ktish-Bakhk), which between the 10th and 13th centuries occupied southern part the regions of Artsakh and Syunik. The Turkic nomadic tribes that penetrated the Transcaucasus began to use the term "Karabakh" because of its phonetic (sound) similarity with the Turkic word "kara" (black) and the Persian word "bakh" (garden). Such phonetic incidents are not uncommon in situations where migrants are trying to adopt and alter in their own way geographical names indigenous population.

With the expansion of the Turkic-Islamic colonization of the Middle East, Asia Minor, the Balkans and Transcaucasia, the nomads gradually forced the indigenous Christian population into the mountains, and themselves occupied the plains. As a result of this process, in the central and eastern regions of modern Azerbaijan, the indigenous Armenian population was forced to flee to the west, to hard-to-reach areas inhabited by the Armenian highlanders of Artsakh since ancient times.

In order to control the full cycle of pasture cattle breeding, the nomadic Turks planned to occupy not only the plains but also mountain pastures in Artsakh and other regions of the Armenian Highland. For many centuries, the Armenian people managed to repel the attempts of the Turks to colonize the territories of Transcaucasia. The inscription of the 13th century engraved on the wall of the Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God of Dadivank Monastery tells about the victories of the Artsakh prince Asan the Great in his 40-year war against the Seljuk Turks.

By the middle of the 18th century, the long-term Armenian-Turkish war with the Ottoman invaders ravaged Artsakh, and internal disagreements weakened the power of the Armenian princes. As a result, Muslim nomads managed to advance into the mountainous part of Artsakh, capture the fortress of Shushi and proclaim the so-called "Karabakh Khanate" - an Armenian-Turkic principality that existed for a little over 40 years. In 1805, the "Karabakh Khanate" was annexed to Russian Empire and soon abolished. All three representatives of the dynasty of "Karabakh khans" - Panah-Ali, his son Ibrahim-Khalil and grandson Mehti-Kuli died a violent death at the hands of the Persians, Armenians and Russians.

The liquidation of the khanate served to establish stability and peace in relations between the Armenian population and the Muslim minority in Artsakh. The administrative center of the region, the city of Shushi, became the commercial and cultural center of the region. Many outstanding musicians, artists, writers, historians and engineers, both Christian Armenians and Muslims, were born and worked in Shushi.

Despite the relatively quick liquidation of the "Karabakh Khanate", part of the Turkic colonists did not return to their former territories in the Mugan Steppe, but wished to remain in Artsakh. After the settlement of the city of Shushi by the Turks, flashes of inter-religious tensions began to appear in the city.

The Armenian-Turkic conflict in Artsakh flared up in full force at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1905-1906, almost all of Transcaucasia, and Artsakh in particular, was involved in the so-called "Armenian-Tatar war" (the ethnonym "Azerbaijanis" fully came into use only in the 1930s; instead, Russians called Azerbaijanis "Caucasian Tatars ").

Nagorno-Karabakh after the October Revolution of 1917

The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh worsened considerably after the fall of the Russian Empire in October 1917. In 1918, three independent states arose in Transcaucasia - Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. From the very first days of their existence, all three republics plunged into territorial disputes with each other. During this tragic period, in March 1920, the Transcaucasian Muslim Turks (the future "Azerbaijanis") and the Turkish interventionists who supported them committed a large-scale massacre of the Armenian population in the administrative and cultural center region, the city of Shushi, while continuing the policy of genocide of the Armenian people, launched by the government of the Ottoman Empire in 1915. Up to 20 thousand Armenians from Shushi were killed, about 7 thousand buildings of the city were destroyed. A large number of documentary evidence of the pogrom has been preserved, including photographs showing the extent of destruction in the Armenian quarters of Shusha. The Armenian half of the city was actually wiped off the face of the earth. In the same way, thousands of Armenian cities and villages in Western Armenia, Cilicia and other regions of the Ottoman Empire were destroyed and burned during the genocide in 1915-1922.

Nagorno-Karabakh under Bolshevik rule

In 1921, the Bolsheviks recognized Artsakh as part of Armenia, along with two other predominantly Armenian regions: Nakhichevan and Zangezur (ancient Syunik, whose population managed to defend their right to remain in Armenia). The leader of the Azerbaijani Bolsheviks, Nariman Narimanov, personally congratulated his Armenian colleagues on the determination of the status of all three provinces within the borders of Armenia. However, Baku's position quickly changed. Azerbaijan's oil blackmail (Baku did not send kerosene to Moscow) and Russia's desire to enlist the support of the Turkish leader Kemal Ataturk led to the fact that Joseph Stalin, who at that time served as the People's Commissar for Nationalities, forcibly changed the decision of the Soviet authorities and transferred Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan in 1921, which caused a storm of indignation among the Armenian majority of the region.

In 1923, Nagorno-Karabakh received the status of an autonomous region within the Transcaucasian Federative SSR (later Soviet Azerbaijan), thus becoming the only Christian autonomy in the world subordinate to a Muslim territorial-political entity.

Over the next 70 years, Azerbaijan used in relation to Nagorno-Karabakh various forms ethno-religious, demographic and economic discrimination, seeking to expel Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh and populate the region with Azerbaijani migrants.

Nagorno-Karabakh as an autonomous region of the USSR

The fact that official Baku tried to expel the Armenian majority from Nagorno-Karabakh was not a secret for the Karabakh people themselves, who sent complaints to the Kremlin about the illegal actions of Azerbaijan. However, Azerbaijan acted covertly and skillfully disguised its policy with demagogy about the "brotherhood of the Transcaucasian peoples" and "socialist internationalism."

The veil of secrecy was lifted after the collapse of the USSR. In 1999, the former leader of Soviet Azerbaijan - and later its third president - Heydar Aliyev, stated in his public speeches that since the mid-1960s, his government had pursued a deliberate policy of expelling Armenians from the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh by changing the demographic balance in the region. in favor of the Azerbaijanis. (Source: "Heydar Aliyev: A state with opposition is better", "Echo" newspaper (Azerbaijan), Number 138 (383) CP, July 24, 2002). Aliyev not only confessed to his deeds on the pages of the press, but also made it clear that he was proud of it.

In Nagorno-Karabakh, the Heydaraliev population policy led to a complete halt in the growth of the Armenian population of the region: NKAO was the only unit of the national-territorial division of the USSR, where both the absolute and relative growth of the titular nationality (Armenians) was negative. The NKAO was also the only unit of the national-territorial division of the USSR where, despite the Christian majority of the population, there was not a single functioning church.

The number of the Azerbaijani minority increased sharply: if, according to the 1926 census, Azerbaijanis (officially listed as "Turks") made up only 9% of the population of the region, and Armenians 90%, then by 1986 the number of Azerbaijanis from the total population was 23%. By 1980, 85 Armenian villages had disappeared from Nagorno-Karabakh, while 10 new Azerbaijani villages were added.

One of the reasons for the demographic expansion of Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh lies in the events associated with the episode of the almost complete disappearance of the Turkic minority from the region in the 1930s. After the monstrous massacre in the city of Shushi in 1920, the Azerbaijani nationalists seemed to have achieved their goal - the Armenian population of the city was destroyed, and Shushi ceased to be the cultural and political center of the Armenians of Transcaucasia. However, the mass killing of workers, merchants and technicians, as well as the destruction of most of the city's urban infrastructure, came to the side of the Azerbaijanis. Despite the fact that the Azerbaijanis became the masters of Shusha, the city, or rather, what was left of it, quickly fell into decay and became unusable as a settlement for two decades to come. This circumstance, as well as the plague epidemic in Nagorno-Karabakh in the 1930s, led to the mass migration of Azerbaijanis from Shusha. By 1935, there were practically no Azerbaijanis left in Nagorno-Karabakh who would be descendants of the “original” community of Muslim Turks who lived in the region since the time of the “Karabakh Khanate”. This is where the history of the "old" Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh ended. The “Stalinist” census of the population of the region in 1939 was completely fabricated by the Baku leadership of Mirjafar Bagirov to create the appearance of the presence (and even growth) of Azerbaijanis in the region. All Azerbaijanis who were registered by the All-Union Population Census in post-war years, were the descendants of migrant colonists sent to Nagorno-Karabakh from other regions of the republic.

The Armenians periodically sent petitions to Moscow, in which they asked to be protected from the policy of the Baku authorities and to reunite the region with Soviet Armenia. The most large-scale actions were taken in 1935, 1953, 1965-67 and 1977.

Although official Baku, during the period of strong centrist power of the USSR, did not hide its extreme negative attitude to the protests in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan did not have the opportunity to use force against the Armenian population of the region. By the middle of 1987, the actions of the Baku authorities took on the character of open coercion of Armenians to leave the republic.

According to President Heydar Aliyev himself and his Minister of Internal Affairs, Major General Ramil Usubov, the main anti-Armenian demographic actions were organized by Azerbaijan in the city of Stepanakert, the administrative center of the NKAO, and in the regions north of Nagorno-Karabakh (Source: Ramil Usubov, " Nagorno-Karabakh: the rescue mission began in the 70s”, “Panorama”, May 12, 1999). These Armenian-populated territories - Shamkhor, Khanlar, Dashkesan and Gadabay regions were not included in the autonomous region in 1923, and there the Baku authorities managed to reduce the proportion of the Armenian population and relieve people of Armenian origin from their leadership positions. The only exception was the Shahumyan region of Azerbaijan, which bordered on the NKAR.

Another vector of the anti-Armenian policy of Azerbaijan at the beginning of Gorbachev's perestroika (1985-1987) was aimed at the destruction of Armenian architectural monuments in Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent regions, and the appropriation, or alienation, of the Armenian historical and cultural heritage. The purpose of these actions was to "cleanse" Azerbaijan from the traces of the Armenian historical and cultural presence. The methods of the Baku authorities also included the destruction of archival documents, the reprinting of historical evidence with the removal of references to Armenians, and the publication of revisionist publications making territorial claims to Soviet Armenia.

Perestroika and glasnost: secession of Nagorno-Karabakh from the Azerbaijan SSR

The strengthening of anti-Armenian sentiments in Azerbaijan in 1987 alerted the population of Nagorno-Karabakh. The catalyst new wave The events in the large Armenian village of Chardakhly in the Shamkhor region of Azerbaijan served as a popular movement for the secession of Nagorno-Karabakh from the Azerbaijan SSR. Chardakhly was not included in the NKAR in 1921 during the formation of the autonomous region. When a man who spent part of his life in Armenia became the director of the Chardakhli state farm, the Azerbaijani authorities removed him from his post, and the village population was openly demanded to leave Azerbaijan. When the Armenians refused to comply with this demand, the leadership of the Shamkhor region staged two pogroms in Chardakhly - in October and December 1987. Soviet newspaper“Selskaya Zhizn” wrote about the Chardakhli incident in its issue of December 24, 1987. In October 1987, the first rally in defense of the Chardakhli people took place in Yerevan.

After the events in Chardakhly, the Armenians of NKAR came to the conclusion that history repeats itself, and further being under the rule of Baku is fraught with disaster.

Inspired by the policy of perestroika and glasnost, the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh launched the first mass democratic movement in the USSR in their homeland, which was soon supported by most of the party apparatus of the region. The movement also spread to the territory of Armenia. Thousands of rallies were held in Yerevan and other cities of the republic.

On February 20, 1988, the regional council of people's deputies of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, which for 70 years was a purely formal administrative body, officially asked the Azerbaijan SSR and the Armenian SSR to consider the possibility of secession of the region from the Azerbaijan SSR and joining it to the Armenian SSR.

This unprecedented initiative shocked the Moscow authorities, who did not expect perestroika, glasnost and democracy to be taken so seriously on the ground. Moreover, the Karabakh movement was perceived with caution in the Kremlin, since, in fact, it ran counter to the principles of the totalitarian system and communist authoritarianism. The situation with Nagorno-Karabakh set a precedent for other Soviet autonomous entities, some of which also sought to change their status.

Baku, meanwhile, was preparing its own "solution" to the Karabakh issue. Instead of starting a constitutional dialogue, which was what the Council of People's Deputies of the region called for, the Azerbaijani government resorted to violence, overnight transforming the legal process into a forceful inter-ethnic conflict. Already two days after the announcement of the petition of the NKAR Regional Council, the Baku leadership armed a crowd of thousands of rioters from the nearby Azerbaijani city of Aghdam and sent it to the capital of the region, Stepanakert, to “punish” the Armenians of the NKAR and “put things in order”. And 5 days after the Agdam attack, the Soviet Union was shocked by an extraordinary event in the history of this state - massacres Armenians in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgayit, located not far from Baku. Within two days, dozens of people were brutally killed and maimed. After the belated arrival of Soviet internal troops and police units in the city, all 14,000 Armenians living in the city left Sumgayit in a panic. For the first time, refugees appeared in the USSR.

The party leadership in the Kremlin was in a state of confusion and inactivity, and ordinary Soviet citizens could not believe that the events described could take place in a state where the friendship of peoples was sung.

The Kremlin's sluggishness and its sluggishness in condemning the Sumgayit events ultimately turned into a disaster for the entire country. Firstly, the Karabakh issue quickly left the legal channel and took the form of an armed conflict. Secondly, the feeling of impunity soon led to violent acts of violence in other republics of the USSR. For example, to the pogroms in the Ferghana Valley of Uzbekistan in 1989.

Actions of mass violence against Armenians in the Azerbaijan SSR made the process of secession of Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan irreversible. The nightmare of the Sumgayit massacre in February 1988 was repeated in the Azerbaijan SSR more than once - first in Kirovabad in November-December 1988, and then in Baku in January 1990, when hundreds of Armenians were killed. Basically, these were elderly people who did not have time to leave the capital of Azerbaijan after the Sumgayit events. In general, out of 475,000 Armenians living in Soviet Azerbaijan at the time of the 1979 census, 370,000 people were expelled. Most of them settled in refugee camps in Armenia.

While tens of thousands of Armenians began to leave the Azerbaijan SSR during the pogroms in the autumn of 1988, the Azerbaijanis, fearing retribution, also began to leave the Armenian SSR, succumbing to panic and rumors. The Armenian activists of the Karabakh movement tried in every possible way to stop the process of the forced exchange of population between Armenia and Azerbaijan and turn the events back into the mainstream of the constitutional process. Despite the fact that many expected responses to the Armenian pogroms, restraint and tolerance were shown in Armenia and the NKAO; the Sumgayit pogrom remained unanswered. This strategy of the Karabakh activists was based not only on the belief in the potential effectiveness of legal methods for resolving the Karabakh problem in favor of the Armenians, but also on cold calculation. In Armenia and the NKAO, they quickly realized that the Kremlin leadership was opposed to the Karabakh movement and was looking for a pretext to suppress it. The Azerbaijanis, on the contrary, did not shy away from violence, since Moscow shared their position on maintaining the status quo in the Karabakh issue. Moreover, the Baku leadership tried to provoke Armenians into retaliatory violence: firstly, in order to create a pretext for Moscow to liquidate the Karabakh movement, and secondly, in order to “under the guise” bring to its logical conclusion the implementation of the project launched in the fall of 1987 to expel the Armenians from the republic and the creation of a mono-ethnic, Turkic Azerbaijan.

By 1990, reactionary forces had gained influence in the Kremlin, trying to slow down Gorbachev's reforms and strengthen the shaky positions of the CPSU. The Baku authorities found important allies in these forces, headed by Yegor Ligachev, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU. The Ligachevites considered Nagorno-Karabakh a kind of "Pandora's box", from where "the harmful democratic heresy spread throughout the territory of the Union", threatening the territorial integrity of the republics and the hegemony of the Communist Party. Likhachev supported the actions of Azerbaijan, placing at its disposal units of the Soviet internal troops, who, together with the punitive detachments of the Azerbaijani police, pursued Armenian activists, bombed Karabakh villages from military helicopters and terrorized the villagers of the region. In turn, the Baku authorities did not remain in debt, pleasing some of the corrupt Kremlin patrons with generous bribes.

In April-May 1991, the "Operation Ring" was organized by the joint efforts of the Soviet troops and the Azerbaijani militia, which led to the deportation of 30 Armenian villages in the NKAR and the Armenian regions bordering it and the killing of dozens of civilians.

Military aggression of Azerbaijan against Nagorno-Karabakh

The collapse of the USSR untied the hands of Azerbaijan. The former goal of the Azerbaijani nationalists, who sought to “solve” the Karabakh issue by “squeezing out” the Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, was replaced by a new, more ambitious and brutal strategy, which envisaged the military seizure of Nagorno-Karabakh and the complete physical destruction of the Armenian population of the region. This policy was based on the ideals and principles of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 1918, whose leadership conceived and carried out the massacre of the Armenian population of the former capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, the city of Shushi, in 1920, as a result of which up to 20 thousand people died.

At the end of 1991, Azerbaijan quickly disarmed the former military units Soviet army, stationed on the territory of the republic, and, overnight, having received weapons from four Soviet land divisions and almost the entire Caspian Flotilla, began full-scale military operations against the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

In its anti-Armenian campaign, the Azerbaijani government used all available means, including a large number of foreign mercenaries. Among them were up to 2,000 Mujahideen from Afghanistan and militants from Chechnya, led by the later known terrorist Shamil Basayev. A few years later, Islamic mercenaries who fought in Azerbaijan became part of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network. The Azerbaijani military was trained by NATO instructors from Turkey.

In 1988-1994, the American Congress and the structures of the European Union, in their official statements, condemned the aggression of Azerbaijan and supported the right of Nagorno-Karabakh to self-determination. In particular, in 1992, the US Congress passed amendment number 907 to the Freedom Support Act, which limited assistance to Azerbaijan due to its use of a blockade against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Yerevan did its best to support the people of Nagorno-Karabakh in their unequal struggle for survival, but Armenia itself found itself in an extremely difficult situation due to the Spitak earthquake in December 1988, which occurred 8 months after the start of the Karabakh movement. As a result of the December disaster, a third of the housing stock of Armenia was destroyed, 700 thousand people were left homeless (every fifth inhabitant of the republic), 25 thousand people died.

Azerbaijan was not slow to take advantage of the situation created in connection with the earthquake. In the summer of 1989, Azerbaijan completely blocked the railway communication of Armenia through its territory, which stopped restoration work in the Disaster Zone. A few months later, Azerbaijan closed the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, blocked the airspace over Nagorno-Karabakh, and in 1990, with the help of its armed forces, occupied the airport in Stepanakert. These actions led to the blockade of land and air communications with Nagorno-Karabakh, completely cutting off the region from the rest of the world. In Armenia, hundreds of thousands of victims of the earthquake remained in the open air, and the cities and villages of the republic remained destroyed until the end of the 90s.

Another, even more tragic episode of the war unleashed by Azerbaijan was the shelling of the civilian population of the capital of the region, the city of Stepanakert. The shelling was carried out in three ways: by multiple launch rocket systems from the heights above Stepanakert, from the city of Shushi, which until May 1992 was completely controlled by the armed formations of Azerbaijan; long-range guns from the city of Aghdam and assault aircraft of the Azerbaijani Air Force. The shelling lasted for a long nine months. Up to 400 ground-to-ground and air-to-ground rockets were fired daily around the city. Just a week after the start of the bombing, central part Stepanakert turned into a heap of ruins, and a few months later most of the city was wiped off the face of the earth.

By the beginning of 1992, after 3 years of complete blockade by Azerbaijan, famine began in Nagorno-Karabakh, and an epidemic of serious infectious diseases broke out. The regions that survived from the destruction of the hospital were overflowing with the wounded and sick.

Self-defense and the proclamation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic

The difficult situation did not break the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. In response to the military aggression of Azerbaijan, the population of Nagorno-Karabakh organized a heroic self-defense. Despite their numerical minority and the lack of adequate weapons due to the complete blockade, the Karabakh Armenians made unheard of sacrifices for the right to live in their historical homeland and build a democratic state. Thanks to discipline, endurance and good knowledge of military affairs, multiplied by an indestructible desire to survive, the Karabakh people managed to seize the initiative in hostilities. The factor of the lack of support for Azerbaijan from the Kremlin also had an effect.

With the help of volunteers from Armenia, who were transferred to Nagorno-Karabakh by helicopters from Yerevan under heavy fire from Azerbaijani air defense, the Artsakh self-defense formations managed not only to push the enemy back beyond the borders of the region, but also to create a wide demilitarized zone along the perimeter of the former borders of the region, which helped to shorten the front line and establish control over the dominant heights and the most important mountain passes. In May 1992, Armenian self-defense units managed to break through the land corridor between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia through Lachin, thus ending the three-year blockade.

Echoes of a recent war: restoration work in Gandzasar in the late 1990s, healing the monastery from the traces of Azerbaijani bombing and decades of neglect. Photo by A. Berberyan.

The security zone is the basis of the defense system of Nagorno-Karabakh. However, some territories of Artsakh remain under the occupation of Azerbaijan to this day. These are the entire Shaumyan region, the Getashen sub-region and the eastern segments of the Mardakert and Martuni regions.

In August 1991, Azerbaijan unilaterally withdrew from the USSR, at the same time adopting a resolution on the "abolition" of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, bypassing the Constitution of the USSR. Azerbaijan's actions allowed Nagorno-Karabakh to take advantage of the USSR Law "On the procedure for resolving issues related to the withdrawal of a union republic from the USSR", adopted by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in April 1990. According to Article 3 of this law, if a union republic included an autonomous entity (republic, region or district) and wished to leave the USSR, the referendum was to be held separately in each of these entities. Their inhabitants had the right to decide either to remain part of the USSR, or to leave the USSR together with the union republic, or to decide their own state status. Based on this law, the joint session of the Regional Council of People's Deputies of the NKAR and the Shahumyan District Council proclaimed the secession of Nagorno-Karabakh from the Azerbaijan SSR and announced the creation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) within the USSR. When the USSR collapsed in December 1991, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic held a referendum and declared independence. The referendum was held under the supervision of numerous international observers.

In May 1994, in the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, an armistice agreement was signed between Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan and Armenia, which stopped hostilities. Since that time, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic has begun the process of economic recovery, strengthening the foundations of liberal democracy and preparing for the formal recognition of the independence of the republic by the international community.

The policy of destruction of the Armenian historical and cultural heritage in Azerbaijan

The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, a young Christian and democratic state, continues to be opposed by Azerbaijan, a Muslim quasi-monarchic dictatorship of the Middle East type, based on oil production.

Since the late 1960s, Azerbaijan has been ruled by the Aliyev clan, founded by Heydar Aliyev, a KGB general who, after being elected first secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, ruled the Azerbaijan SSR in the 70s and 80s. In 1993, two years after the declaration of independence by Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, who had returned from Moscow by that time, organized a military coup and came to power, becoming the third president of the country.

When President Heydar Aliyev died in 2003, his only son Ilham became the head of Azerbaijan. He was "chosen" by rigging, as usual, the results of the vote. Ilham Aliyev continues the traditions of his father's authoritarian rule. In Ilhamov's Azerbaijan, any manifestation of dissent is suppressed: opposition parties are actually banned, there is no free press as such, the Internet is under control, and every year dozens of people are sent to jail or die under unclear circumstances for criticizing the authorities.

To date, the main target of the Aliyev regime in Azerbaijan are the monuments of the Armenian historical and cultural heritage, hundreds of which are located in the west of Azerbaijan and in the Nakhichevan region.

In 2006, Ilham Aliyev ordered the destruction of all Armenian churches, monasteries and cemeteries in Nakhichevan. Nakhichevan was recognized as part of the Armenian Republic by both the Entente governments in 1919-1920 and by the Russian Bolsheviks in 1921. However, under pressure from the Turkish government, Nakhichevan was transferred to the rule of Soviet Azerbaijan. The mass destruction of architectural monuments and khachkars (Armenian carved stone crosses) located at the world-famous medieval cemetery in Julfa in the spring of 2006 provoked protests from the international community. The Western press compared the Azerbaijani vandalism to the destruction of the Buddha monument in Afghanistan in 2001 by the Taliban regime.

And two years before that, Ilham Aliyev publicly called on Azerbaijani historians to rewrite history textbooks, deleting all references to facts that are not directly related to the Azerbaijani (Turkic) historical heritage of their country. This task is indeed not an easy one. Azerbaijanis are a relatively young ethnic community. Being the descendants of the Turkic nomads who migrated from Central Asia, the Azerbaijanis practically did not leave any tangible cultural trace on the territory of modern Azerbaijan.

Unlike Armenia, Georgia and Iran (Persia), whose history and culture were formed in the period of antiquity, "Azerbaijan" as a geographical, political and cultural unit appeared only at the beginning of the 20th century. Before 1918 “Azerbaijan” was not the name of the territory of the current republic, but the province of Persia, bordering on present-day Azerbaijan in the south and populated mainly by Turkic-speaking Persians. In 1918, after long meetings and consideration of several alternative proposals, the Turkic leaders of Transcaucasia decided to proclaim their own state on the territory of the former Baku and Elizavetpol provinces of Russia and call it "Azerbaijan". This immediately provoked a sharp diplomatic reaction from Tehran, which accused Baku of appropriating Persian historical and geographical terminology. The League of Nations refused to recognize and accept the self-proclaimed state of "Azerbaijan" into its composition.

In order to demonstrate the absurdity of the situation with the declaration of independence of "Azerbaijan" in 1918, imagine that the Germans form a national state for themselves and call it "Burgundy" (similar to the name of one of the provinces of France) or "Venice" (similar to the name of a province of Italy) - thus causing a protest from France (or Italy) and the UN.

Until the 1930s, the concept of "Azerbaijanis" as such did not exist. It appeared thanks to the so-called "indigenization" - a Bolshevik project aimed, in particular, at creating a national identity for many ethnic groups that do not have a self-name. They also included the Turks of Transcaucasia, who were mentioned in tsarist documents as "Caucasian Tatars" (along with "Volga Tatars" and "Crimean Tatars"). Until the 1930s, "Caucasian Tatars" referred to themselves as either "Muslims" or defined themselves as members of tribes, clans, and urban communities, such as Afshars, Padars, Sarijals, Otuz-iki, etc. In the beginning, however, the Kremlin authorities decided to refer to the Azeris as "Turks"; it was this term that officially appeared in determining the population of Azerbaijan during the All-Union Census of 1926. Moscow Bolshevik ethnographers also came up with standard surnames for "Azerbaijanis" based on Arabic names with the addition of the Slavic ending "-ov", and invented an alphabet for their unwritten language.

Today, Azerbaijani historical revisionism and cultural vandalism is openly condemned by Russian and international scientists and politicians. However, the Baku ruling regime ignores international public opinion and continues to treat Armenian historical and cultural monuments on the territory of Azerbaijan as a direct threat to Azerbaijani statehood. However, the interest of the international community in the monuments of ancient Christian architecture helps to stop Azerbaijani vandalism and preserve the priceless cultural and spiritual heritage of the South Caucasus.

Bournoutian, George A. Armenians and Russia, 1626-1796: A Documentary Record. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2001, pp. 89-90, 106

For the term "Karabakh" and its connection with the Principality of Ktish-Bahk, see: Hewsen, Robert H. Armenia: a Historical Atlas. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2001. p. 120. See also: Armenia & Karabagh (tourist guide). 2nd edition, Stone Garden Productions, Northridge, California, 2004, p. 243

Bournoutian George A. A History of Qarabagh: An Annotated Translation of Mirza Jamal Javanshir Qarabaghi's Tarikh-E Qarabagh. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 1994, Introduction

First General Census of the Russian Empire in 1897 Ed. N.A. Troinitsky; Volume I. General Compilation for the Empire of the results of the development of data from the First General Census of the Population, taken on January 28, 1897. St. Petersburg, 1905

See photographic material in: Shahen Mkrtchyan, Shchors Davtyan. Shushi: city tragic fate . Amaras, 1997; See also: Shagen Mkrtchyan. Treasures of Artsakh. Yerevan, Tigran Mets, 2000, pp. 226-229

Newspaper “Kommunist”, Baku, 2 Dec. 1920; see also: Karabakh in 1918-1923: a collection of documents and materials. Yerevan, Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of Armenia, 1992, pp. 634-645

Cm. All-Union population census of 1926. Central Statistical Office of the USSR, Moscow, 1929

See Ramil Usubov: "Nagorno-Karabakh: the rescue mission began in the 70s", "Panorama", May 12, 1999. Usubov wrote: It can be said without exaggeration that only after Heydar Aliyev came to the leadership of Azerbaijan did the Karabakh Azerbaijanis feel like the full masters of the region. A lot of work was done in the 70s. All this caused an influx of the Azerbaijani population into Nagorno-Karabakh from the surrounding regions - Lachin, Aghdam, Jabrayil, Fizuli, Aghjabadi and others. All these measures, implemented thanks to the foresight of the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, favored the influx of the Azerbaijani population. If in 1970 the share of Azerbaijanis in the population of the NKAO was 18%, then in 1979 it was 23%, and in 1989 it exceeded 30%”.

See: Bodansky, Yossef. “The New Azerbaijan Hub: how Islamist Operations are Targeting Russia, Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.” Defense & Foreign Affairs’ Strategic Policy, section: The Caucasus, p. 6; see also: "Bin Laden Among Islamists' Foreign Backers." Agence France Presse, report from Moscow, 19 September 1999

See: Cox, Caroline, and Eibner, John. Ethnic Cleansing in Progress: War in Nagorno Karabakh. Institute for Religious Minorities in the Islamic World, Switzerland, 1993

Fowkes, Ben. Ethnicity and ethnic conflict in the post-communist world. Palgrave, 2002, p. thirty; see also: Swietochowski, Tadeusz. Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995. p. 69

Brubaker, Roger. Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe. Cambridge University Press, 1996. Also: Martin, Terry D. 2001. The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001

"Pravda.Ru", Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian stated that in current year Yerevan is waiting for the recognition of the Republic of Artsakh by one of the states of the world. Mr. Nalbandyan kept silent about which state he is talking about. But that's not what matters. The words of the head of Armenian diplomacy suggest that serious changes are being prepared in the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh and in Transcaucasia as a whole.

"If the West recognizes Nagorno-Karabakh, a war will begin"

First, it must be clarified that the "Republic of Artsakh" is the unofficial name of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), an entity unrecognized by the world community on the territory of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region (NKAR), which was part of Azerbaijan during Soviet times. Many historians and analysts are of the opinion that it was with the conflict over the NKAO-NKR that the process of collapse began. Soviet Union. This must be understood in order to correctly take into account the destructive potential that lies within this problem.

Second key moment is the fact that the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which declared its independence in September 1991, managed not only to survive and actually take place as a state, but also to achieve outstanding military successes in the armed conflict with Azerbaijan. The Armenians of Karabakh (or Artsakh, as this region is called in Armenia) were able to establish full control over the territory of their former autonomy, and moreover, to seize seven regions of Azerbaijani territory around it. The capture of these areas made it possible to form a security belt, as well as to provide direct land communication with the territory of Armenia.

The third circumstance that should be taken into account is that the NKR is not recognized either as a state or as a party to the conflict. Officially, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict exists between Armenia and Azerbaijan. There is no NKR or the Republic of Artsakh here. Including for Armenia: Yerevan itself still (for more than 25 years) does not recognize the NKR.

Finally, for the purposes of our analysis, we should also mention the established international format for resolving the conflict. The so-called Minsk Group was created within the framework of the OSCE, whose co-chairs are engaged in practical work. These are Russia, USA and France.

So, what can Mr. Nalbandyan's words mean against this background?

It immediately causes bewilderment: if Armenia really wants to achieve international recognition of the NKR, then why does it not start this process with itself? Why does Yerevan refrain from recognizing Artsakh, aside expecting that some "one state" will take this step?

In fairness, it must be said that a little less than a year ago, the Armenian government and parliament took some actions that could be regarded as the beginning of the procedure for recognizing the PRC. However, nothing decisive was done; at the same time, a warning was sounded that recognition would follow if Azerbaijan launched an aggression against Artsakh.

Be that as it may, the fact remains that the NKR does not have official recognition even from its closest and natural ally, Armenia.

Who, what state in the world would agree to declare recognition in such a situation? And on what terms?

Based on the experience of international recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which until recently had a status similar to that of the unrecognized NKR, one can assume that this is most likely a small island state.

What will change in case of such recognition?

It seems that for the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic itself, which actually took place even without this, almost nothing. The NKR has really proved its vitality, its ability to ensure its own security. The economy functions here, the social sphere works, and there is a regular political process. Of course, it is difficult to imagine that all this would have been possible without the constant reliance on assistance from Armenia. And yet, Artsakh - recognized or unrecognized - is a political, military, socio-economic reality that is unlikely to change in one direction or another if it is officially recognized as a state somewhere on a distant island.

At the same time, it is clear that any formal recognition of the NKR-Artsakh will lead to a fundamental change in the structure of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and, accordingly, to the destruction of the existing international mechanism its settlement. If the NKR receives state status, it will turn into a party to the conflict. How will Armenia behave then? Will he also remain a participant and (which would be logical) create some kind of military-political bloc with the NKR, opposing Azerbaijan? Or will he try to distance himself from the situation, washing his hands and shifting responsibility for the future to the authorities of the now recognized Artsakh? But Baku has already firmly stated: in this case, Azerbaijan will no longer consider Armenia as a party to the conflict.

Under these conditions, it is no less clear that the Minsk Group (MG) with its co-chairs will be virtually erased, a completely new settlement mechanism will be required. Needless to say, the MG cannot boast of efficiency: in 25 years it has not made any progress in achieving peace. But at the very least, it ensures a ceasefire regime, the absence or at least the suppression of large-scale hostilities. If it does not exist, no one will be able to vouch for the fact that the war will not flare up again. Given the possibility of creating a single Armenian-Karabakh bloc in conditions when Armenia is part of the CSTO and a Russian military base is deployed on its territory, a new war in Karabakh could pose a great danger to Russia. Do we need it?

Another question of fundamental importance arises: within what borders does a certain state recognize the NKR-Artsakh? Within the borders of the Soviet NKAO or together with the occupied regions of Azerbaijan? But in any case, it is clear how Azerbaijan will react to this: Baku will be forced to respond extremely sharply and harshly.

All that has been said is enough to clearly understand: the recognition of the NKR-Artsakh will create a completely new situation in the conflict and in the region as a whole. It's like a new deal of cards at the playing table. This doesn't just happen out of nowhere. This means that there are forces interested in such a cardinal change in the format of the whole problem.

It is hardly worth believing that we can talk about the largest players: Russia and the United States. For Moscow, a new explosion in Karabakh is completely unnecessary: ​​there are enough worries without that. Washington is also directly, most likely, not interested in large-scale destabilization in the Transcaucasus. Although, of course, it cannot be ruled out that someone may try to drag the new owner of the White House into an adventure. Moreover, it is difficult to suspect him of close acquaintance with the situation in Transcaucasia.

However, with all this, it is difficult to assume that Yerevan decided to make statements about the allegedly upcoming recognition of the NKR, without enlisting at least understanding, if not support, from friendly forces. And in this regard, it is curious that shortly before that, the Minister of Defense of Iran visited Armenia.

In general, the impact of the Iranian factor on the situation around Karabakh and in Transcaucasia as a whole is not very actively covered in the press. This is understandable: until relatively recently, Iran had other priorities. But now, against the backdrop of the lifting of sanctions against Iran within the framework of the "nuclear deal", it is impossible to deny Tehran's steady increase in foreign policy activity in almost all areas. And it would be strange if the Iranian strategists did not turn their eyes to Karabakh.

It cannot be denied that Iran has sufficient potential to try to play a leading role in resolving this conflict. The territories of modern Armenia, parts of Azerbaijan, including Karabakh, were once part of the Persian Empire. Iran's ties with both Armenians and Azerbaijanis are of a long historical nature: there are a lot of Armenians in Iran, and they are part of the country's business and administrative elite. Strong in Iranian society are the positions of Azerbaijanis, who, by the way, profess Shiite Islam.

All these advantages of Iran, its potential levers of influence on the situation in the Transcaucasus and, in particular, around Karabakh, have so far been in vain: the Minsk settlement format did not leave Iran the slightest opportunity to intervene. Therefore, one should not be surprised if it turns out that Tehran decided to replace this format with a new one, in which there will be a place for it.

If so, then Russia needs to seriously prepare. The Iranians have already managed to become inevitable participants in solving problems in Lebanon and Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, and in Yemen. Probably next in line is Karabakh.