During Artsakh War, thousands of foreign mercenaries participated from Azerbaijani side against us. Among that chaotic mass there was a certain professional distribution of roles, for example – the Ukrainians and Russians were performing as high-class specialists mastering the usage of this or that types of weapons – pilots, artillery, etc. The mob which had come from Afghanistan was sent by external centers on a business trip aiming at acquiring new region acting from Azerbaijani side. It is not excluded that the organizers and supervisors of that business trip were the Turkish officers sent by Turkey and received by Azerbaijani authorities with great love, to whom the military departments of that country were attached as military advisors.
Chechen armed blocs stood out among this mob, inasmuch as they had arrived at this zone for ideological reasons, most possibly Artsakh War was a good occasion for the people for Chechnya’s independence to acquire the needed experience and skills for conducting an armed fight for the sake of their own independence during a foreign war. Chechen blocs had great and painful losses in Artsakh War, some of their high-ranked were also killed during the fights. For finding out about the relative of a head of a state entity of Chechnya, killed in Artsakh, even 2 people arrived at Armenia from the Ministry of foreign Affairs of Chechnya, and then left for Artsakh. They had come for a fake reason. I do not want to go into details of that story, I will only say that they were suggested to inform Chechnya’s authorities that the participation of Chechen armed forces in Artsakh War would not give Chechen people anything but senseless losses. I also know that not long afterwards the respective order on that occasion was given by General Dudayev – since the end of 1992, Chechen participation in war operations was ceased.
Arman MELIQYAN
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh