Stalin & Karabakh – discrediting false allegations of Armenia
Report presents the article “Stalin & Karabakh – discrediting false allegations of Armenia” by Mariya Khan-Khoyskaya Martignoli:
“I know that after my death a pile of rubbish will be heaped on my grave,
but the wind of History will sooner or later sweep it away without mercy”
Joseph Stalin
A couple of days ago a Georgian friend of mine reminded me about this famous quotation of one of the most controversial figures in the turbulent history of the 20th century – Joseph Stalin. And I thought to myself – how true indeed! Comrade Stalin – damned by some, praised by others – did and said many things and undoubtedly foresaw how much impact his deeds and words would have on future generations. How many blazing debates were held in his name, how much blood was shed in his name or per his orders. Today in 2020, 67 years after his death, many disputes are still being held in his name and human lives are still at stake in the name of Stalin, or rather, due to frivolous and even false interpretations of what he did and didn’t back then, in the dawn of the Soviet era. Thousands of people all over the world are being misled and deceived because of those untrue interpretations. What’s worse: blood is being shed, people – innocent civilians, children – are suffering and dying due to the “courtesy” of the authorities and those who chose to blindly follow them on their path of blatant lies and findings devoid of context. These battles are no longer a matter of “difference of opinions” – they have stepped outside of the limits of the pen wars.
As we are literally flooded by tsunamis of data and, thanks to the modern era, we are also able to flood the internet ourselves, our main task and even duty now is to be able to distinguish between tissues of lies and obstinate facts, to check and cross-check the information, to view things from all sides, to dig deeper into the depths of the history and while doing so, not to stop at the level that satisfies only one side of sometimes many-faceted truth. Sadly, exactly the opposite has been occurring in recent years with regards to the history of the Karabakh conflict, escalating more and more until it became one huge messy tangle of what we have now: fake news and outright lies, bold denials and ridiculous excuses are now trumpeted out of “every iron and microwave” (с каждого утюга и микроволновки) as it is said in Russian. The most tragic is that this tumbleweed of chaos, initiated by the Armenian authorities, is carried all over the world: media and governments seem to have become somewhat, I daresay, brainwashed by these hoaxes and as a trained choir organically repeat the same things over and over again (1-5), even going as far as adopting a resolution on a local city level (6). And like a scarlet thread runs through these interviews, discussions, articles and resolutions the same message – Armenia is fighting for “their” land of Karabakh that comrade Stalin “gifted / gave / transferred” to Azerbaijan in 1921 (1) or in 1923 (6), land that had “never belonged” to Azerbaijan before (1). Tired of this utter nonsense, I have decided to clarify this situation basing myself on well-known and accessible for all information, for I am only but a common folk representative who is fond of history, stubborn facts and figures. Facts and figures that involve all engaged parties, all layers of this quite a sophisticated issue – the Karabakh conflict.
The list of resources that I have used here is naturally not exhaustive. As I said, I am a common folk person – I do not possess any access to any confidential archives. Any of you can easily check and cross check the information I have used here and find excessively more than what I have mentioned here. Many of the resources I gave already contain dozens of various sources from historians of many countries. My point here is not to start reciting you the whole history of my home country and the whole neighboring region since the dawn of the days – it has already been done by historians, archaeologists, sociologists, journalists, writers and many other scientists who obviously are better equipped and have more resources and skills than I do. My point here is to share with you the “common folk” point of view with regards to the history that is directly linked, according to my opinion, to the modern-day conflict in Karabakh and to show you that though limited my experience/age/ scientific/historical/political knowledge (underline as appropriate) might be, it is still more than enough to forge an opinion and sort the wheat from the chaff.
Chapter I – Azerbaijan as part of the Safavid Empire 1501 – 1736
The Safavid Empire (7-9, 11) was one of the most significant empires of the Orient that ruled over modern-day Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia, eastern Georgia, parts of modern-day Russian Federation (the North Caucasus), Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, parts of modern-day Turkey, Syria, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. This vast empire, originated from the city of Ardabil in the Iranian Azerbaijan region (modern-day Iran), known to the outside world as Persia, descended from Azeri and Persian background (8, 9, 11) dynasty and was actively involved in the usual political and social challenges that any empire in the history of humankind would go through. Originally Farsi-speaking Safavids gradually became Azeri-Turkic-speaking (mind, not Turkish – the Turkish Ottoman Empire was a different political entity and Azerbaijan was never part of it) (10, 11) and the Kizilbashes (8, 9, 11) were at certain point the de facto rulers of the empire. That was a great boost of the Turkic Azerbaijani language that became very important in the Persian-speaking land (8, 9, 11).
The Safavid Empire was naturally in the center of the political games of the era, namely with the powerful Russian Empire who sought to control the Caucasus as the key point to the trading routes between the East and the West and of course with the rivalrous Ottoman Empire. The famous Caspian (Persian) campaign of Peter the Great in 1722-1723 resulted in the Russian victory: the Safavids ceded some of their territories in the North and South Caucasus, comprising Derbent (modern-day Daghestan, Russian Federation), Baku, lands of Shirvan (modern-day Azerbaijan), Gilan, Mazandaran and Astarabad (modern-day Iran) (11-14). A very interesting fact must be mentioned here: the settlements of the Armenian families in the Northern Azerbaijan by special decrees of Peter the Great (11-14) who saw in them Christian allies and ordered to give them the newly acquired lands, privileges and in general “be gentle to them” (11, 13, 14). Peter the Great wrote to one of his generals, Rumyantsev Alexander Ivanovich in 1724 (the latter was in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) at that time) (12):
« Armenian delegates came to us asking to protect them from the enemies; if we are not able to do so, they request our permission to settle in our newly acquired from Persia provinces. We announced them that we cannot send our army due to the treaty with Porta but we allowed them to settle in the pre-Caspian provinces and sent them an encouraging letter. If the Turks will start telling you about it, answer them that it was not us who called the Armenians, it is they, as our co-believers, asked us to take them under our patronage; we, as Christians, could not refuse Armenians as Christians – as Vizir himself often said, those who ask for the patronage by reference to being of the same religion, cannot be repelled…”
Peter the Great’s politics with regards to the Armenians in the Northern Azerbaijan were to be continued, as per his will, by his descendants (12-14).
Chapter II – The fall of the Safavids and the rise of the Azerbaijani khanates
(XVIII – XIX centuries)
The Safavid Empire, just like it seems to be the destiny of any empire of the world, was in the state of great disorder by the mid of the XVIII century due to a number of reasons (8-11, 15). With its decline emerged a new period for the history of Azerbaijan – the period of Azerbaijani khanates. This period, though marked by deep political fragmentation and internal rivalries, is considered to be the dawn of the Azerbaijani statehood: the khanates were all ruled by the Azeri-Turkic khans, were independent and, though divided among each other, were united in their ethnic – Azerbaijani – origins (11, 15). Each khanate was named after its capital : Karabakh, Sheki, Ganja, Baku, Shirvan, Kuba (Quba), Nakhchivan, Talysh (modern-day Azerbaijan), Derbent (modern-day Daghestan, Russian Federation), Erivan (modern-day Yerevan, capital of Armenia) khanates were located in the northern Azerbaijan (to the north of the river Araz (Araks)) and Tabriz, Urmiya, Ardabil, Khoy (Khoi), Maku, Maragin, Karadagh in the southern part of Azerbaijan (all the latter are in the Azerbaijani Iran now, modern-day Republic of Iran) (11, 15). Ganja, Kuba, Karabakh and Sheki khanates were among the most powerful and the most economically prosperous in the northern Azerbaijan (15, 16).
Though prosperous economically and culturally, but ununited politically, the khanates were a honeypot for the Tsarist Russia that never ceded to find ways to extend its power and influence over the Caucasus (11, 15, 16). Therefore, after a brief relatively calm period for the khanates (1747 – 1802), the new era began: the era of the gradual appropriation of the Azerbaijani lands to the Russian Empire and the perpetual political division of the northern and the southern Azerbaijan (11, 15, 16). Kuba and Talysh khanates, together with the Djaro-Balaken djamaat (community) were the first ones that fell under the Russian patronage between 1802 and 1803 (11, 15, 16). The Ganja khanate stood rebellious – after menacing letters of the Russian general Tsitsianov and a month-long siege of the khanate, the Russian troops took over the Ganja fortress in January 1804. The ruler of Ganja Djavad khan fought fearlessly for the khanate’s independence, but heroically fell in the battle together with thousands of Ganja protectors. Some survivors hid themselves in the Ganja Shakh Abbas mosque but were savagely killed by the enraged Russian army. Ganja, the “best khanate in all of Azerbaijan”, “the ruler of all Azerbaijan” due to its strategic position could not stand against the devastating army of the Russian empire. The capture of Ganja was met with high appraisal by the Russian imperialistic court and the city was renamed to “Elizavetpol” after the Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna – wife of Alexander I (11, 15).
Below you’ll see a couple of maps showing the khanates of the northern Azerbaijan. Not only Karabakh khanate is present on them, but also it is called Karabakh or Shusha khanate (Ханство Шушинское или Карабахское) (Shusha, the capital of the mighty Karabakh khanate). You will also see the Erivan khanate (Эриванское ханство) with the center of Erivan (Эривань) present on these maps.
Red: Erivan khanate; Yellow: the rest of Azerbaijani khanates as per the text
The text in Russian is a quote from the order of Russian Empress Ekaterina II dated 10 February 1796 where she explains the importance of keeping two Russian army troops in Georgia and the establishment of political subordination of Erivan and other Azerbaijani khanates (16)
Violet: Ganja khanate; light brown – all Azerbaijan (as per the quote)
The text is a quote from Russian general Tsitsianov dated 4 January 1804 when he took Ganja khanate where he describes the Ganja fortress as the best in the whole Azerbaijan and the Ganja khanate as the ruler of all Azerbaijan (16)
*Note: for clarity purposes the previous maps were colored. The original map is called:
Карта Кавказского края с обозначением границ 1801-1813 г. Составлена в военно-историческом отделе при штабе Кавказского военного округа подполковником Томкеевым. Тифлис 1901 г.» / Map of the Caucasian region with the border markers 1801-1813. Made by the military-historical department at the Caucasian Military Command by Lieutenant Colonel Tomkeev. Tiflis, 1901” (17)
The fall of Ganja was marked with the beginning of the first Russian-Persian war (1804-1813). The lands of the Azerbaijani khanates were at stake. Persia lost the war and in 1813 the Gulestan treaty was signed between Mirza Abdulhasan khan from Persian side and general Rtishev from the Russian side. According to this treaty, the northern Azerbaijani khanates, namely: Ganja, Karabakh, Sheki, Shamakha, Kuba, Baku, Talysh became part of Russian Empire which also assured its sovereign right to have a fleet in the Caspian Sea. The khanates to the south of the river Araks (Araz) remained part of Persia. This was the beginning of the political separation of one nation and almost two century long domination of the Russians over the Northern Azerbaijan (11, 13, 15, 16). The Southern Azerbaijani (modern-day Iranian Azerbaijan / Northern Iran) remains until this day part of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Around 20 million people who live there are ethnical Azerbaijanis and speak Azeri and Farsi.
Persia naturally was not happy with the outcome of the war and soon the second Russian-Persian war was waged (1826 – 1828). Russia won again and the Turkmenchai treaty of 1828 between Persian prince Abbas Mirza and Russian general Paskevitch was signed. Russia gained, in addition to the previous khanates and other conditions, the Erivan and the Nakhchivan khanates (11, 13, 15, 16) and another very important condition: the relocation of thousands Armenians from Persia to the Southern Caucasus to the khanates of Erivan, Nakhchivan and Karabakh (11, 13, 15, 16, 18,19,20). During 3 months over 8’000 Armenian families (around 40’000) came to settle in the khanates and the so-called “Armenian province” was created. Its center was Erivan and the territory covered the former khanate of Erivan and the Ordubad region (in modern-day Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan) (11, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20).
The fateful Turkmenchai treaty finalized the process of the separation of Azerbaijan in two halves and marks the end of the khanate period of the Azerbaijani history.
Below you’ll find a map published in London in 1847 (21). Please take a closer look of the territories of Azerbaijan under the Russian Empire (red lines). You will see Ganja named Elizavetpol; you will see the territory of former Erivan khanate, as well as Nakhchivan, Zangezur, Gokca (Sevan) where the above described “Armenian province” was artificially created – all these lands are Azerbaijani territories.
And, if we come back to our topic of Karabakh – you will see that it is also on the territory of Azerbaijan, whereas Armenian territories are not even present in the Caucasus.
Chapter III – Azerbaijan Democratic Republic 1918 – 1920
and the dawn of the Soviet era
The independent Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was an event of a tremendous historical significance (11, 15, 22, 23, 27). After 90 years of Russian Empire domination over the Caucasus (1828-1918), the idea of the republic and statehood, people of Azerbaijan, rich in their ethnical variety and multiculturalism, but united by the notion of belonging to the Azerbaijani nation and Azerbaijani culture, were ready to establish an independent political entity in the Caucasus. The ADR, Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, was the first parliamentary republic in the Muslim East and among Turkic peoples (11, 15, 22, 23, 27), founded on May 28th 1918 with the temporary capital in Ganja, as Baku was in the hands of the Bolshevik-Dashnak (Armenian ultra-nationalists) government, known as the Baku Council of People’s Commissars (26 Commissars in total), including the notorious Stepan Shaumian, an Armenian Bolshevik revolutionary. (The city of Khankendi (Xankəndi, “village of khan”) in Karabakh was later renamed by Armenians to Stepanakert in his memory). The founders of the Republic, Mammad Emin Rasulzade, Alimardan bey Topchubashev, Falati khan Khoyski, Gasanbey Aghaev, Mamed Yusif Jafarov, Nasif bey Yusifbeyli struggled to strengthen not only the economical and social life, but also address the political security and acknowledgement of the independence by other world powers (11, 15, 22, 23, 27). It is interesting to note that the ADR granted women the right to vote much earlier than the US and some other Western countries (Switzerland gave it in 1971) (13, 22).
The active foreign policy of the ADR included the delegation to Paris Peace Conference on in 1919. On 2 May 1919, on the initiative of the US President Woodrow Wilson, the question of Azerbaijan was first discussed at the meeting of the “Council of the Four” at the Paris Conference (11, 15, 22, 23, 27).
Below you’ll see the two maps of the ADR: one done by France (28), the other taken from Armenian sources (24). As our topic is Karabakh, I’ll only mention it: as you can see, it is still on the territory of Azerbaijan.
Meanwhile Russia who had just undergone the Great October Revolution of 1917 and was rapidly brewing the Bolshevik Communists, naturally had its plans to sovietize the neighboring Caucasus (11, 15, 22, 23, 25, 27, 30). With this regard the Caucasian Regional Committee, CRC (Кавказский Краевой Комитет, KKK) and its famous Caucasian bureau were created with Grigory Ordjonikidze and Sergey Kirov as the chairman and his deputy. Azerbaijan with its rich resources, especially oil, was particularly attractive to the Bolsheviks (history repeats itself, doesn’t it?). Vladimir Lenin in his telegram to Ordjonikidze on 17 March 1920 wrote (25, 31) :
“Взять Баку нам крайне, крайне необходимо. Все усилия направьте на это, причем обязательно в заявлениях быть сугубо дипломатичными и удостовериться максимально в подготовке твердой местной Советской власти…»
«It is really, really important that we take Baku. Please direct all your efforts to it, and do so while being very diplomatic and be maximally sure to prepare the establishment of the solid local Soviet power..”
In the meantime, the Armenian government who was mobilizing its ultranationalists, the Dashnaks (Dashnaktsutyun) party, (11, 15, 22, 23, 25, 27, 30) reemerged their claims to the Azerbaijan territories, in particularly to Karabakh region, which is witnessed in the telegram of Anastas Mikoyan (CRC party member) to Lenin on 22 May 1919 (32):
Dashnaks – agents of the Armenian government are resolved to adhere Karabakh to Armenia, but for the people of Karabakh it would mean to lose their life source in Baku and connect themselves to Erivan with which they never had any ties with.
The Armenian peasants on the V reunion decided to acknowledge and adhere to the Soviet Azerbaijan
Central Party Archive of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism at Central Committee of Soviet Union Communist Part
This telegram also stands witness how the Soviet Bolsheviks were sure of their plans in 1919 to destroy the ADR and establish their power over Azerbaijan and the Caucasus in general.
Under the pressure from the Armenian dashnaks who were already waging war over Karabakh, as well as the Soviet Bolsheviks, Azerbaijani Democratic Republic finally fell on 27 April 1920, 23 months after its creation, when the XI Red Army troops marched to Baku and delivered an ultimatum for surrender (11, 15, 22, 23, 25, 27, 30).
The founders and the prominent figures of the ADR were forced to flee Azerbaijan. Many of them were repressed or killed. Fatali khan Khoyski for example, was shot in the back in Tiflis (Tbilisi, Georgia) and killed by two Armenian dashaks, Aram Erkaian and Misaq Grigoryan during the operation “Nemesis”. He is buried in Tbilisi, in the Pantheon of prominent Azerbaijanis (11, 15, 22, 23, 25, 27, 30 + personal archives, as Fatali khan’s direct descendant).
And now we have come to the main point of this whole story – comrade Stalin.
Chapter IV. Stalin, Karabakh and “Caucasian bureau decided”
Finally, the key argument and the whole point of this article – the argument “Stalin gave Karabakh to Azerbaijan”, aka “Caucausian bureau decided”, thanks to Mr Nikol Pashinyan’s famous speech at Munich Security Conference while participating in panel discussions with Mr Ilham Aliyev on 15 February 2020 (26).
The president Ilham Aliyev have already explained the matter live during the conference. I will only allow myself to give you a more detailed explanation of this argument that Mr Pashinyan mentioned.
In the 2-year period – after the fall of the ADR and before Azerbaijan became the part of the Soviet Union – the territory of Karabakh as well as Nakhchivan, Zangezur became the target of the intricate political games with the Soviet Bolsheviks on one side and the Armenian dashnaks on the other side. During 1920-1921 according to the Soviet archives all telegrams and reports to Moscow with regards to foreign affairs were mostly addressed to Stalin and G. Chicherin: Stalin being the first People’s Commissary on the Nationalities and Chicerin – the People’s Commissary of the Foreign Affairs of the Russian SSR (11, 15, 22, 23, 25, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32). I will not share with you the complete texts of dozens of telegrams, letters, messages, reports, writings of Stalin and Lenin and other Soviet Bolsheviks. You can find the full list of all these documents in the references below and read the resumes as well as the original sources yourself, including USSR archives. I will, however, point out the document that Mr Pashinyan referred to when he was justifying Armenian claims to the territory of Azerbaijan:
Mr Nikol Pashinyan: “… As far as Nagorno-Karabakh is concerned like a country, you know, I should say that I’m not agree with President Aliyev, because Caucasian bureau decided to Karabakh to be a part of Azerbaijan.. err.. Armenia, I am sorry. And after that decision – this was totally lawful decision – and after that, according to the personal initiative of Joseph Stalin, this decision was changed in the Moscow and it was like a plot between Stalin, Lenin and Ataturk. And Karabakh never been a part of the independent state of Azerbaijan. Karabakh was put into Azerbaijan only in the process of forming Soviet Union….” (26)
The introductory speech of Mr Pashinyan was rather long and he gave some other arguments that according to him justify the claims of Armenia to Karabakh. Leaving aside all of them (that would be the subject for another article), I’ll only concentrate on the Stalin issue.
In his book “Battle to death” Rudolf Ivanov explains about this first meeting of the Caucasian bureau that decided to give Karabakh first to Armenia on 4 July 1921. According to this document, after the vote, Karabakh was to be joined to Armenia. However, following the statement of Nariman Narimanov, the final decision was to be taken by the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party of Bolsheviks later, which happened on 5 July 1921 (27, 30).
FROM THE PROTOCOL OF THE MEETING OF THE CAUCASIAN BUREAU PLENUM OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE RUSSIAN COMMUNIST PARTY (Bolsheviks)
5 July 1921
“Participated: a member of Central Committee of the Communist Party of Russia Stalin, members of the Caucasian Bureau- Orjonikidze, Makharadze, Narimanov, Myasnikov, Kirov, Nazaretyan, Orakhelashvili, and Figatner, Commissar of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan SSR Huseynov.
HEARD: Comrade Orjonikidze and comrade Nazaretyan raised the issue of reconsidering the decision of the previous plenum.
DECIDED:
A) Proceeding from the need to maintain national peace between the Muslims and the Armenians and the constant economic ties of Upper and Lower Karabakh with Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh should be left within the borders of Azerbaijan S.S.R., with broad regional autonomy and its administrative center in the town of Shusha.
B) Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan should be instructed to identify the boundaries of the autonomous region and present the results to the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Russia for approval.
Secretary of the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Russia Figatner. (signature)
Therefore, as you can see, Stalin didn’t “give” anything to Azerbaijan. The document clearly states “Karabakh should be left” (not transferred, not given to) within the borders of the Azerbaijani SSR. However, some Armenian historians and apparently, Armenian government are fixed on the idea that it was a mistake, or that Stalin, Lenin and Ataturk had some kind of plot to favor Azerbaijan (Mr Nikol Pashinynan said so in his speech in Munich). So, I have a question here: if according to Armenia everyone should rather pay attention to the document dated 4 July 1921 when Karabakh was given to Armenia according to the Caucasian bureau: if it was GIVEN to Armenia, then it means it was TAKEN from somebody, right? Who did it belong to, in this case? If that land always belonged to Armenia then why would they use the term “GIVE” and not “LEAVE TO” Armenia? The second meeting, though, clearly has the word “should be left “(оставить) for Karabakh to Azerbaijan which means that this land was already part of Azerbaijan, otherwise they would have used the word “give” or “transfer”.
As a matter of fact, Stalin was also busy with other territorial claims that Armenia demanded: on 25 June 1921 during a meeting where the borders of the newly forming Soviet republics were discussed, an Armenian representative A. Bekzadian was asking the Soviet to attribute some lands from the neighboring Azerbaijan and Georgia to the favor of Armenia (31). Below is the quote in Russian and translation into English:
«После заключения Московского договора положение Армении надо считать исключительно тяжелым…. Ныне, не располагая достаточной территорией, Армения как политически самостоятельная единица существовать не может. Ввиду этого обстоятельства находим крайне необходимым произвести территориальные прирезки от соседних республик — Азербайджана и Грузии в пользу Армении.»
“After the Moscow treaty the situation with Armenia must be considered as particularly difficult… today as Armenia does not have enough territory, it cannot be considered as self-consistent political entity. Therefore, we strongly urge you to consider territorial allotments from the neighboring republics – Azerbaijan and Georgia to the favor of Armenia”.
You may read more about this matter in the sources I listed – they are more than enough to clarify the story of Karabakh. And what I have listed to you is just a very little tip of the iceberg – thousands of documents are in archives of Azerbaijan, Russian Federation, Armenia, France, Great Britain, Germany, US; hundreds of works devoted to this issue were published and are still being published by historians and scientists all over the world. A thoughtful reader can easily trace the lies and separate the true facts from the fake ones. The question here is not in his/her ability but rather in his/her willingness to do so.
“Karabakh never belonged to Azerbaijan and was given to it by Stalin in 1921 or 1923”. Those of you who decided to believe such falsehood, despite all the proof, including my humble presentations (and I remind you I only went as far as I thought to be the most relevant to the topic in discussion ) – I cannot make you believe otherwise, just like I cannot make people believe that the Earth is not flat but ellipsoid. Everyone is free to believe (or not) to whatever he/she chooses, as long as it does not bring harm to the others. In the question of Karabakh it, unfortunately, the respect of such a simple principle turned out to be an utter failure. Close to 1 million refugees and forcedly displaced people (from Karabakh, from the 7 occupied regions and from Armenia itself) in Azerbaijan, the brutal Khojaly genocide of 25-26 February 1992, 4 UN Security Council resolutions of 1993 (N°822, N°853, N°874, N°884) with demands of unilateral withdrawal of the occupying forces of the occupied areas of the Republic of Azerbaijan, UN General Assembly resolution of 2008 (N° A/RES/62/243 ) clearly stating that it “demands the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of all Armenian forces from all the occupied territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan”) (in case those who are like Mr Pashinyan decide to play with words and are not sure who those “occupying forces” are) , calls upon the Government of Armenia to respect all these resolutions (33, 34)… and complete and utter NON respect of these resolutions – all this based on this Stalin myth? Finally, all the atrocities that have been happening in Azerbaijan since 27 September 2020 – Ganja, Barda, Terter, and other cities bombings, deaths of dozens of civilians, children… all this blood has been and is being shed in the name of Stalin, or rather, because of Stalin?
What saddens me most in this, is that the media and even the government choose to follow this Stalin fabrication. When it comes to an opinion, everyone is naturally free to express it, but when a state official entity or a well-known public figure goes and repeats the same frauds that all radically-minded pro-Armenian historians have already fabricated long time ago while serious historians (and I am not talking about only Azerbaijani – many Russian, German, Polish, British, Turkish, even Armenian historians themselves) have already addressed them and debunked them – isn’t it, I daresay, rather embarrassing ? You chose to mention Stalin – then go ahead and speak about the whole story, with all parties involved, with every stone turned over, with all roots of the conflict checked – why just a piece that appeals to you the most?
Seems that Stalin was right about the rubbish on his grave – as he was right about the wind of History.