IAȘI | Conferința științifică „Nagorno-Karabah: Un secol de conflict: Război și diplomație”, găzduită de Universitatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza

Pe 3 aprilie, a avut loc la Iași o conferință științifică intitulată „Nagorno-Karabah: Un secol de conflict: Război și diplomație”, găzduită de Universitatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza din Iași.

Subiectul a fost prezentat în detaliu de către doctorul în științe istorice Henri Matinyan din Armenia, care a ilustrat istoria Arțahului, începând cu divizarea administrativ-teritorială a Armeniei Mari și urmărind evoluțiile până la problemele actuale ale regiunii. S-a argumentat bine că numele Arțah este toponimul antic al teritoriului respectiv, în timp ce numele „Karabah” a apărut ca urmare a pătrunderii triburilor nomade turcice în regiunea Arțahului în perioada medievală târzie. Bogata moștenire culturală armeană a Arțahului a fost prezentată concis, alături de propaganda azeră menită să falsifice această moștenire – o propagandă care nu are nicio legătură cu realitatea.

Conferința științifică a fost moderată de Dr. Bogdan-Alexandru Schipor, cercetător la Institutul de Istorie al Academiei Române. La eveniment au participat membri ai facultății și studenți ai Departamentului de Istorie al Universității Alexandru Ioan Cuza, precum și cercetători și personal al filialei ieșene a Academiei Române, precum și invitați.

Prezentăm în continuare un rezumat al conferinței (în limba engleză) așa cum a fost redactat în comunicatul de presă difuzat.

Throughout different historical periods—under attacks by various nomadic tribes, and during the rule of Persia and the Russian Empire—Artsakh maintained a degree of autonomy. After the 1917 October Revolution and the collapse of the Russian Empire, from May 1918 until April 1920, Karabakh was de facto an independent territory. During this time, Nagorno-Karabakh, with a 95% Armenian population according to census data, legitimately declared itself an independent administrative-political entity.

Following the Sovietization of Armenia and Azerbaijan, on 30 November 1920, the Azerbaijani Revolutionary Committee (the main governing body of the Bolsheviks at the time) announced that it recognized the territories previously claimed by Azerbaijan—Nagorno-Karabakh, Zangezur, and Nakhichevan—as inseparable parts of Armenia. Furthermore, a written decree issued by the Azerbaijani SSR National Council on 12 June 1921 declared that Nagorno-Karabakh was an inseparable part of the Armenian SSR.

This decision was welcomed by the new Soviet Armenian government, and steps were initiated to establish governmental structures in Karabakh. However, very soon, the Azerbaijani leadership reversed its previous declarations and began renewed efforts to assert control over Karabakh and Nakhichevan.

On 4 July 1921, in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, the Caucasian Bureau of the Russian Communist Party convened an executive meeting, during which it was confirmed that Nagorno-Karabakh constituted part of the Armenian SSR. However, in the early hours of the next day, 5 July, at the insistence of Moscow and under Stalin’s personal intervention, this decision was reversed without due legal procedure. A new resolution was imposed: to place Nagorno-Karabakh within the jurisdiction of the Azerbaijani SSR as an autonomous oblast (province). This was justified solely by economic ties between Artsakh and Azerbaijan, while completely disregarding historical and demographic realities.

The official reasoning stated:

“Based on the necessity of national peace between Muslims and Armenians, as well as the economic connection between Upper and Lower Karabakh and its permanent link with Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh should remain within the Azerbaijan SSR, granting it broad regional autonomy with an administrative center in the city of Shushi.”

This decision was an unprecedented violation of international law—a group of Bolsheviks led by Stalin, without any legal jurisdiction, transferred the territory of one state to another recently created one, Azerbaijan, which had only been established in 1918.

The year 1988 marked a turning point in the history of Nagorno-Karabakh. The people of Artsakh called for the defense of their freedom and the restoration of their fundamental rights, which had been violated for decades. On 20 February 1988, the People’s Deputies of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast held an extraordinary session and submitted a formal petition to the Armenian SSR, the Azerbaijani SSR, and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR requesting the transfer of jurisdiction from the Azerbaijani SSR to the Armenian SSR.

While the Azerbaijani and Soviet parliaments rejected the request, the Armenian Parliament accepted it, and on 1 December 1989, an official statement announced that representatives from Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia had reached a joint decision to unite Artsakh with Armenia.

In response to this lawful move, the Soviet Azerbaijani authorities launched large-scale massacres and ethnic cleansing against Armenians living in Azerbaijan—first in Sumgait, then in Kirovabad and Shamkhor, and later in Baku and throughout Azerbaijan. Hundreds of peaceful civilians were killed or tortured, and many others became refugees.

On 30 August 1991, Azerbaijan declared its independence, and on 2 September, Nagorno-Karabakh followed suit, proclaiming the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh (NKR). The legitimacy of the right to self-determination for the Armenians of Artsakh was based on the USSR law “On the Withdrawal of the Union Republics from the USSR,” dated 3 April 1990. According to this law:

Article 2: “The decision on secession of a Soviet Republic from the USSR is made by the will of the people of that Soviet Republic by means of a referendum.”

Article 3: “In case the Soviet Republic has autonomous republics, autonomous regions or autonomous territories within its borders, referendums are to be conducted separately in each of the autonomies. The people residing in the autonomies are given the right to independently decide whether to remain in the Soviet Union or in the seceding Republic, as well as to decide on their state-legal status.”

On 10 December 1991, in the presence of international observers, a referendum was held across the NKR, with 82.2% of eligible voters participating. Of those, 99.89% voted in favor of independence; only 0.02% voted against. The vast majority of those who did not participate were Azerbaijanis.

Thus, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, two independent and legally equal states emerged on the territory of the former Azerbaijani SSR: the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. The subordination of the people, territory, and authorities of Karabakh to Azerbaijan ceased lawfully.

The next part of the report addressed the 1991–1994 war of survival, the declaration of independence of the NKR, efforts to establish and strengthen its statehood, and the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group aimed at conflict resolution. It also analyzed the prospects for a negotiated settlement, the military operations of 2016 and 2020, and the ethnic cleansing carried out by Azerbaijan in 2023—an act that, according to the definition of the International Criminal Court of Hague, fully qualifies as a crime against humanity.

by Mihai Stepan Cazazian