“Putin, keep your word!”, “We believed you!”, “Koltso-2 ???”, “Open the way of life”!
These are the slogans kept by the people of Artsakh today, their chanted thoughts. They came and stood in front of the “peacekeepers” parking lot near the closed gates. The people of Artsakh have not forgotten that Vladimir Putin declared himself and his “peacekeepers” guarantors of the security of the Armenians of Artsakh. Today they remind that, suspecting that some circumstances made the Russian President forget his own words.
-And we still remember V.V. Putin’s 2020 words delivered at the “Valdai” club on October 22:
“But we definitely cannot forget what happened in the fate of the Armenian people, the Armenian nation, during the First World War. The tragedy of the Armenian people was enormous. It is the second part. The third part is that the conflict started not just as an interstate conflict and a struggle for territory: But also from an ethnic confrontation. Unfortunately, it is also a fact that brutal crimes were committed against the Armenian people in Sumgait and later in Nagorno-Karabakh. We have to take all of these into account:
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Not satisfied with this, the Russian leader also reminded about Sumgait on October 29;
“As I said before, and I can hardly say anything new here either, the conflict started with what – ethnic clashes first in the city of Sumgait, in Azerbaijan, then in Nagorno-Karabakh itself. And the then leadership of the Soviet Union did not take any effective measures to ensure the safety of the people. The Armenians took up arms and did it themselves. Whether they did it well or badly, the initial impetus for their actions was precisely these negative events on ethnic grounds.”
The President of the Russian Federation considers it his duty to remember Sumgait on November 17 as well. He is a statesman and politician who stopped the Turkish-Azerbaijani genocidal aggression against Armenians in 2020.
“I must remind you that all this started in 1988 when there were clashes on ethnic grounds in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait. Then the civilian population suffered, the Armenian people, and these events spilled over into Nagorno-Karabakh. The Armenians themselves took up arms. After many years conflict began, which led to the fact that in 1991 Karabakh declared its independence, sovereignty, and autonomy; in 1994, the Bishkek memorandum stopped the hostilities. And what was the result? As a result, Karabakh declared its independence, as I said, and seven more districts adjacent to it went under Armenian control.
Does the honorable Mr. President rightly see a connection between 1915, Sumgait, and Nagorno Karabakh? Indeed, he perceives that the roots of Sumgait and Nagorno Karabakh were in 1915, and it is no coincidence that both Sumgait and the Artsakh issues are ethnic. Russian President also perceives and evaluates the step of self-determination of the people of Artsakh as a response to Sumgait. The fact that the Soviet Kremlin did not help the Armenians, the target of the genocide in Sumgait and Nagorno-Karabakh, is what the Russian President is protesting. It seems that the President of the Russian Federation is sufficiently sincere and conscientious in his awareness of historical gaps and crimes against humanity, and this is what prompted him to speak about Sumgait in the fall of 2020, during the genocidal war, when he remembers Sumgait in those days and Sumgait in 1988 and Nagorno-Karabakh in 1991. He saw a direct connection between Karabakh.
In this respect, he even surpasses all the rulers of the third Armenian Republic taken together. But today, the people of Artsakh have to call on the President of the Russian Federation to speak his mind and not block the way of life. Even today, the people of Artsakh remember and see a similarity with the “Koltso” operations that Baku carried out with the permission of the Soviet Kremlin in the spring-summer of 1988 against Nagorno-Karabakh, then in April-July 1991 against Getashen, and in 1992 against Shahumyan, where, of course, the Soviet Union no longer existed. Still, Shamanov, a member of the Russian President’s party and a hero of the Russian Federation, played a decisive role today. I would like to know if the Russian President knows about this.
The Artsakh citizen is sure that the key to that way of life is in the hands of the Russian President.! “We believed you!” Why did the Russian President remind us about Sumgait during the genocidal aggression of 2020?
Why did the Russian Federation take the Armenians of Artsakh hostage and put them under a blockade?
Why did he block the way of life of the Armenians of Artsakh?
Is Sumgait or Koltso in today’s Kremlin plans? What genocidal program are Russia and its President leading?
Mariam AVAGYAN
Coordinator of the Assembly of Refugees from the Azerbaijani SSR
