Azerbaijani locals react to the fact of initiate preemptive hostilities against the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic by Azerbaijan differently. Expert on Iranian studies, Vardan Voskanyan, describes the posture of the locals as “silence” which broke by the “Shirvan Liberation Front” Tat organization, “Perhaps, it was the only statement at the level of the organization, with which they were urging the ethnic Caucasian Persians or Tat who were serving in the army of Baku dictator not to subjugate to the commanders and return to their own villages by abandoning the Azerbaijani army.
Personal-level statements were made also by the representatives of other locals. The public members of Talysh Diaspora also made individual statements but no other actual statements were made inside Azerbaijan in organized and group level in addition to the above-mentioned structure,” said Vardan Voskanyan, in an interview with Aravot.am. He informed that Lezgian activists and public-political figures also expressed their posture but as estimated by the expert, there was no consolidated approach, “This again comes to prove that Armenia must somehow review its political line not at the state but public and scientific level.
I mean the political line that is aimed at establishing relations with Talysh, Tat, Lezgian Diaspora representatives. Such relationships are important and it is necessary to develop them. We also need to have contacts with the representatives of the locals living inside Azerbaijan trying to consolidate them in the framework of local institutions and organizations,” noted the expert in Iranian studies.
Our interlocutor stated that in the presence of Azerbaijani dictatorial regime, the activities of such structures are almost impossible but they can be shaped thru cultural associations or companies dealing with studying the history of the locals. Thus, according to the expert, a fertile ground will be created to turn these structures into political ones in the future. We asked Vardan Voskanyan about his approach to arm the locals of Azerbaijan by Armenia. “Everything has its sequence. So far, we have a problem with forming an anti-Armenian segment among the locals inside Azerbaijan, and at best, a pro-Armenian segment. And prior to forming such a segment, we must have certain tools among the locals, which must be primarily aimed exclusively at the consolidation of these peoples. Unless we have consolidated locals who can act not just small short-term project implementers for the foreign players but to have their own initiative, plans and the vision for the future. Only by having consolidated locals we can contribute for them to act in the political framework and in the future, these structures, why not, may have armed wings but it is not the task of our scientists. There are other structures for it. In other words, everything should be done in sequence.” We also asked Mr. Voskanyan whether according to his observation, to what extent the Azerbaijani locals are able to lead to the collapse of Azerbaijan. “We need to look at the question realistically. In addition to the factor of the locals, there is also an Islamic factor in Azerbaijan which should not be ignored too. No need to have excessive expectations from these factors,” noted he. He also said that the number of Talysh in Azerbaijan amounts to 1-1.5 million, Tata – about 1 million while the number of Lezgians- about half a million. Note that Baku officially reduces the number of locals by 5-10 times.
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Luiza SUKIASYAN
