When “ethnic cleansing” is mentioned in the West in relation to the conflict over Nagorno Karabakh it invariably is in connection with the Armenian population who voluntarily left the region in late 2023.
This was three years after the Second Karabakh war of 2020 had resulted in an Azerbaijani liberation of most of its national territory, recognised by international law and practically every state in the world. In around 48 hours in September 2023 the Armenian separatist forces in the last holdouts in mountainous Karabakh were defeated and the Armenian population, which refused to live under any authority but their own, proceeded peacefully along the winding roads towards Armenia. They refused to take up the offer of equal citizenship made to them by Baku and the Armenian diaspora made a commotion about “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” – as they do.
Thirty years previous there was a real example of ethnic cleansing and massacres of the civilian population – and these were done by Armenian forces on the Azerbaijanis.
In the course of the First Karabakh war (1991-4) somewhere between 12,000 and 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed (along with probably more than 7,000 Armenians). 750,000 Azerbaijani civilians were driven out of Nagorno Karabakh and 7 adjacent regions, conquered by Armenian forces. These included 42,000 from the former Soviet Nagorno Karabakh oblast, 134,000 from Fuzuli, 129,000 from Aghdam, 63,000 from Lachin, 59,000 from Kelbajar, 59,000 from Jabrayil, 31,000 from Gubadli, 35,000 from Zangilan, 5,000 from Terter and 3,000 from Adjabedi. Up to 300,000 Muslims were driven out of the Armenian SSR during 1987-9, prior to the war.
They all became internally displaced people for 30 years, often residing in temporary accommodation for the duration. The area of Azerbaijan under Armenian control was 12,000 sq. km, approaching something like 18 per cent of the national territory.
The vlogger Albert Isakov on his YouTube channel recently shared video footage of the speech of Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the first President of Armenia, to members of the Armenian Yerkrapa Volunteer Union on the auspicious occasion of the occupation of the Azerbaijani city of Aghdam by Armenian forces, on July 27, 1993. It boasts of the great ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijanis from Armenia and the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan that Ter-Petrosyan argued made the independent Armenian state possible.
It can be viewed here.
It is worth noting that this video footage is appearing on the Internet for the first time. It may actually have been “leaked” by supporters of the current Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, to expose both Ter-Petrosyan and the Armenian National Congress led by him. Pashinyan has recently called upon the first three presidents of Armenia to publicly debate with him regarding their prior negotiations with Azerbaijan about Karabakh. This call prompted a harsh response by Ter-Petrosyan which may have provoked the appearance of the video.
The Armenian Yerkrapa/ERKRAPA was initially a 6,000 strong militia, formed by Vazgen Sargsyan, which grew into a much larger force and became a powerful veteran’s group in Armenian politics after the war. It was often described as “the power behind the throne” in the Karabakh Clan’s rule in Yerevan, before they were overthrown in the Pashinyan Velvet Revolution of 2018.
Addressing the Yerkrapa Volunteers in 1993, along with Vazgen Sargsyan, Ter-Petrosyan praises them as “pioneers” in the dismantling of the Soviet state. He asks rhetorically: “Who destroyed the Soviet Union?” replying himself: “You did it!” Ter-Petrosyan explains: “You became an example to the other republics” of the USSR, “After you, it spread to the Baltic States, Georgia, Moldova, etc. They all counted on us!”
It is certainly the case that in conjuring into existence the Armenian nationalist movement, out of his glasnost and perestroika reform policies, General Secretary Gorbachev, not only did for the national settlement the Soviets had imposed in the South Caucasus 60 years previous but also began the unravelling of the USSR itself. The initial losing of control to Armenian nationalism in the South Caucasus was a portend of things to come for Gorbachev, as he lost control of everything.
In the video footage Ter-Petrosyan states, in essence, that if the expulsion of Azerbaijanis from Armenia had not been begun in 1987-8, and continued in Karabakh during the war, Armenia would not have succeeded in becoming a functional state. It could only exist as an independent entity as an ethnically homogeneous state, with no minorities.
That is a pretty dramatic confession for the leader of Armenian nationalism to have made, in the moment of victory, and it is available for the world outside Armenia to see for the first time. Whether any notice of it is taken in the West is another matter entirely. All we can do is put it on the record.
Below is a translation of the important sections from the speech by Ter-Petrosyan in 1993:
“Our greatest happiness lies in the fact that we have organised the work of our militia, our armed detachments. The armed troops we created have become the backbone of our army. And through this we gained enormous experience even before Armenia and Azerbaijan gained their independence…
Thanks to this movement, Armenia and Karabakh solved one problem that the Armenian people could not solve for 600 years. Armenia and Karabakh have completely purified themselves of people of other nationalities. Once again, I will say it. This was a 600-year-old problem. The Armenian people will feel its significance for another 600 years after this. Just imagine if there were 170,000 people of another nationality still residing in Armenia today. Think about the other nationalities who were here before 1988. Today we would not have had a state. We would not be able to protect our northern and eastern regions and protect Sevan district. Furthermore, we would have three other new problems here. Remember that in three districts Azerbaijanis constituted the majority – Vardenis, Masis and Amasya. They also constituted a significant number in the Zangezur region.
And now that problem has been solved. But it did not come to us as a gift from heaven. This problem was solved by our movement and the national liberation struggle of our people, the Armenian National Movement, and its military wing, our Yerkrapa self-defence squads. Likewise, in Artsakh. Today, the entire territory of Artsakh, and much more, is in the hands of Armenians…
Today, there is only one question left – to end the war, establish a lasting peace, and then, with these conditions, sit down at the negotiating table and, if you wish, have continuous negotiations on the status of Nagorno Karabakh for the next 20 or 30 years. During this time, the security of the population of Nagorno Karabakh will be assured, its economy will develop, its population increase, and we will reach our ultimate goal.”
Levon Ter-Petrosyan was one of the more thoughtful and realistic of the Armenian leaders. In the subsequent years he attempted to secure the Nagorno Karabakh Oblast for Armenians by trading the surrounding territories of Azerbaijan for peace. He was ousted by his comrades, including Vazgen Sargsyan, in 1998. Sargsyan, who had been Ter-Petrosyan’s Defence Minister, took over as Armenia’s Prime Minister from June 1999 until his assassination on 27 October of that year, along with Karen Demirchyan and six others, in the Armenian parliament.
From then onwards it was very difficult for anyone in Armenia to negotiate a settlement with Azerbaijan. Nikol Pashinyan himself, after going down that road, thought better of it, provoked a new war and lost the occupied territories altogether to their lawful owners, Azerbaijan between 2020 and 2023.
It is a reasonable thing that states who wish to be homogeneous and drive out other nationalities at the point of a gun are finally confined to a minimum of territory. It is just bizarre that they are given credence by the West, including the most prominent of people in Washington like Nancy Pelosi, when they cry “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” themselves. Especially when they celebrate such things as the basis of their existence.
Pat Walsh 