Стр. 35 - Azərbaycan xalçaları

35
that Azerbaijanis should not be removed from certain territories of Armenia, but from the
entire country. It is apparent that the plan was to get rid of all Azerbaijanis from Armenia.
According to the 11th Article of the resolution dated December 23, 1947, it was intended to
settle foreign Armenians in place of the deported Azerbaijanis.
Although this process was called resettlement in the official documents, it was in all re-
spects an act of deportation (deliberate, unexpected, and compulsory). A reference by the
Minister of the Interior, dated May 3, 1948, sheds light on these issues. The reference, con-
ducted on the basis of agents’ reports, considered the main reasons for resettling Azerbai-
janis in addition to the settlement of foreign Armenians: an anticipated war between the
USSR and Turkey, distrust of Azerbaijanis, and the hostile attitude of Armenians against
Turks. Opinions about the resettlement being compulsory and serious protests against it
were also recorded.
From 1948-1953, when the deportation was realized (this process was halted after Stalin’s
death), about 150,000 Azerbaijanis were expelled from the Armenian SSR. All the property,
history, and cultural monuments belonging to the people in the Armenian SSR were left
there. The Armenian government and Armenians added to their wealth with these proper-
ties.
The arbitrariness of Armenian governmental bodies, hostile actions by Armenians against
Azerbaijanis, mass acts of violence, incorrect selection of the location for the resettlement
of these people in the Azerbaijan SSR during the deportation of Azerbaijanis subjected in-
nocent people to death.
The deportation of Azerbaijanis from the Armenian SSR from 1948-1953 was one of the
harshest episodes in the history of Soviet deportations taking place up to that time (includ-
ing the deportations of Koreans in 1937; Germans at the end of 1941 and the beginning of
1942; Poles in November 1942; Crimean Tatars on May 18, 1944 and others).
The end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s.
The Armenian SSR and the Soviet leadership that supportedArmenia were not completely
successful in deporting all Azerbaijanis fromArmenia. On one hand, the process of deport-
ing Azerbaijanis from the country was not achieved and on the other hand a certain fraction
of those deported returned to their native lands after Stalin’s death.
The Armenian government maintained its anti-Azerbaijani policy. In the early 1960s, dur-
ing the Cuban Missile crisis, relations between the USSR and the U.S. became tense. NATO
member Turkey was drawn into the conflict and Soviet-Turkish relations cooled. The USSR
began an anti-Turkey hysteria. In this situation in the mid 1960s, Armenia was granted per-
mission to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the events of 1915 which took place in the
Ottoman Empire. This was accompanied by mass violence against Azerbaijanis living in the
Armenian SSR. This case recurred every year at the same time. In 1977, during the adoption
of the new constitution of the USSR, Armenia failed once more in its claim on Mountainous
Karabakh and this aggravated the anti-Azerbaijani policy in Armenia. In 1987, with solid
support from the Soviet leadership, the “issue of Mountainous Karabakh” was included
on the agenda. At the beginning of 1988, Azerbaijanis were deported further from the Ar-
menian SSR in order to realize territorial claims against Azerbaijan. The deportations be-
came cruel and more than 250,000 Azerbaijanis were forced to leave in 1988-1989 and they
were subjected to genocide. The last Azerbaijani location, the Nuvadi village, which had
withstood Armenian pressure for nearly three years, was evacuated in August 1991. Thus,
in consequence of the deportation policy implemented deliberately and systematically by
Armenia, the expulsion of Azerbaijanis from their historical country was completed. At this
time, to realize its claim on Mountainous Karabakh, Armenia launched an undeclared war
onAzerbaijan to invade the country. Azerbaijan’s Mountainous Karabakh region and seven
surrounding districts, 20% of Azerbaijani territory, were occupied. Armenia invaded the
historical homeland of Azerbaijanis by means of deportations and infringed on the interna-
tionally recognized territorial integrity of Azerbaijan by occupying its lands.