Alone with Myself

Alone with Myself or How to Reach You, Descendants! by Leonid Karakhanovich Hurunts. A posthumous publication of entries from 1975-1982. Translated from the original Russian to English by Learn for Artsakh. 

Part Three: Fires in Karabakh 

Turkish Authors on the Role of Stalin in the Armenian Question

The well-known Turkish historian Tevfik Byikloglu, referring to his conversation with the former head of the Turkish delegation at the Moscow Conference of 1921 (negotiations on the conclusion of the Soviet-Turkish treaty) Yusuf Kemal-bey, writes: “February 22, 1921. During our meeting with Stalin, he offered us weapons, money and assistance with manpower. You yourself have already resolved the Armenian issue,” he said. (T. Baikloglu, "Ataturk in Anatolia (1919-1921)." Istanbul, 1959, p. 21). A prominent Turkish military and political figure, the first ambassador of Kemalist Turkey in Moscow, General Ali Fuad Jebesoy, who took part in the Soviet-Turkish negotiations in 1921, writes in his memoirs that Chicherin did not want to resolve the issue of borders in favor of Turkey, and only thanks to Stalin's intervention an agreement was reached: "Thanks to Stalin, it was possible to resolve those issues that led the negotiations to a dead end." ("Political Memoirs of General Ali Fuad Jebesoy", "Watan" newspaper, April 20, 1954).

In the special section "Stalin and the Armenian Question," Jebesoy recounts the conversation of the Turkish delegation with Stalin on the night of February 23, 1921. When asked by members of the delegation whether the Armenian problem would be discussed at the conference, Stalin replied: “You have already resolved it. If there are still unsolvable questions, resolve them yourself” (“Watan”, April 20, 1954).

Another author, journalist and historian Professor Ahmed Shukur Esmer, writes that the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR still hesitated whether to sign an agreement with the Turkish delegation, however, "Thanks to Stalin's intervention, the agreement was signed on March 16, 1921 in Moscow." (A. Esmer. Turkish diplomacy. Istanbul. 1959). "Tov. Lenin, I learned yesterday that Chicherin really sent some kind of stupid provocative demand for the cleansing of Van, Mush and Bitlis (Turkish provinces) in favor of Armenia. This Armenian imperialist demand cannot be our demand, Chicherin must be prohibited from sending notes to the Turks under the dictation of the nationalist mood of the Armenians.

Stalin."

12/11–1921

TsPA IML of the Central Committee of the CPSU, f.3 (Stalin).

Op. 1, unit ridge 52–14, SHEETS 2.

Nakhijevan Experiment

"Nakhijevan experiment." Isn't it an amazing phrase? Some may even think that this is some kind of scientific discovery. But the one who knows, who has known in his own skin what the "Nakhijevan experiment" is, shudders through his body from these two hateful words. The organizers of this experiment are very far from science. The name of this experiment is genocide, a kind of guillotine for the Armenians living in Azerbaijan.

But first of all about the experiment itself. Nakhijevan is an ancient Armenian land, where more than 50 thousand Armenians once lived. And suddenly this land, blooming, full of joy and happiness, was flooded with blood, the blood of people who know how to plow, sow, build houses, write books, people whose only fault is that they go to pray not in a mosque, but in a church. Here, as in Shushi, Shamkhor, Baku, Armenian blood flowed like a river... But again:  “You never know what happened then, under tsarism, the Musavat government, why now remember them, reopen wounds?”

The fact of the matter is that blood is shed even now, in our days, when from morning till night we bathe in a stream of words such as friendship and brotherhood. Some killers left, others came. What difference does it make how one or the other kills? With the Musavat call to kill infidels or with unctuous words about friendship, brotherhood? A killer is a killer, whatever he calls himself. Mir Jafar Baghirov was not a Musavatist according to his personal data, but he was worse than the most inveterate Musavatist, he killed no less. His followers were also Musavatists: Mustafayev, Akhundov, candidate for the Politburo Heydar Aliyev. There was no such frenzied, unbridled nationalism in Azerbaijan either under Bagirov, or under Mustafayev or Akhundov. Aliyev brought it to its apogee, the point of highest tension. But don't dwell on it. He's a candidate for the Politburo!

1917. 40-50 thousand Armenians lived in Nakhijevan. Genocide. Victims - 30 thousand. On the eve of the establishment of Soviet power - 11 thousand people.

According to the 1926 census, 11,270 people lived here. According to the 1970 census - 5,828 people. Now - 2% 30 thousand lives - victims of the first genocide in Nakhijevan in 1917. Hiding this truth, they attributed the Turks to their provocations, although the massacre here was initiated and carried out by Azerbaijanis. They are responsible for her. But well, we will also consider the first genocide the work of the Turks. According to the 1926 census, without the Turks, about 12 thousand Armenians lived here. According to the 1970 census, a little less than six thousand. Now it's only two percent. May I ask, where did about four thousand Armenians go? They just took and left, of their own free will? Ay-ay, what fidgets they are, these Armenians, they left their houses, hearths, the graves of loved ones, greased their heels just like that. No matter how! They are "gone." Don't forget Asad Karayev's1 directives. All my life, as long as I live, they never stopped acting for a minute, overtaking the Armenians in Azerbaijan, no matter in what corner of it they lived.

If we consider that genocide is not only physical destruction, but also expulsion from one's native places, then we can safely talk about a 60-year-long genocide. Armenian cemeteries remain in the Nakhijevan Autonomous Republic, but if you try to express a desire to visit the graves of loved ones - you will be met with thousands of delays. Dozens, hundreds of monuments - temples, churches, khachkars - remained. Our scientists cannot go there to study them. Everyone knows the famous incident: on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Armenia, they came from the Moscow newsreel to shoot artistic and architectural relics. So they left with nothing.

The question is, who was punished for all this? Armenians. Those who wrote about their lack of rights. Hence the flight of people from their native places. This successful experiment has been carried out with impunity for many years and is being carried out on the Armenian population throughout the territory of Azerbaijan. And, I must say, quite successfully. In Kirovabad, Khanlar, Dashkesan region, Shahumyan region. For example, in the Dashkesan region, out of 65 deputies of the district council, 53 are Azerbaijanis. Out of 41 leaders, 38 Azerbaijani ... There is not a single monument of Muslim origin in this region, yet only Azerbaijanis are members of the committee for the protection of monuments.

I cannot but mention the monstrous crime that took place in the same Dashkesan region. Here in the village of Bayan, a monument to Armenian soldiers who fell in the Patriotic War was desecrated. More than 500 dead. On July 16, 1969, on the night after the grand opening, the first secretary of the district, Suleymanov, arrived in this village, turned off the light and savagely destroyed the monument with a bulldozer, mistaking the Christian symbol of sorrow - an eagle with lowered wings, for a Dashnak sign. And when they explained it to him, Suleymanov said: “This is Azerbaijan, and there can be nothing Armenian here.” The monument was restored, but without the eagle. This was insisted on by Suleymanov, who was not punished for this vandalism.

The tried and tested Nakhijevan experiment, however, met with great resistance, is also being observed here, in Karabakh. In 1965-67, a letter signed by 50 thousand people was sent to Moscow about the desperate situation of the Armenians, about their desire to join the Armenian SSR. It ended the same as in Nakhijevan. The authors of this letter, prominent party and Soviet workers of Karabakh, were punished and expelled from the region. And the picture with a decrease in the population painfully resembles the Nakhijevan scenario. At the time of formation in 1923 in the autonomous region in Karabakh there were more than 142 thousand Armenians, and in 1970 - 120 thousand. Azerbaijanis were 12.6 thousand - it became 27.2 thousand, and now - 38 thousand.

In my letters to various authorities, including the Central Committee of the CPSU, Comrade Andropov and the late Grechko, I wrote about gross violations of Soviet law in the region. Here I want to give a few examples. Take, for example, the Hadrut region. Population in 1913 - 33 thousand Armenians, 1926 - 25 thousand, 1959 - 17 thousand, 1970 - 16 thousand. Here, as elsewhere in the region, not a single residential building, not a single institution has been built in 60 years. There are no schools, hospitals, clubs in the villages. The only hospital in Hadrut is housed in a former kulak house. Nothing is built here, but it is generously destroyed. More than 5,000 ownerless houses, which have turned into ruins, have been registered in the district. Hadrut itself resembles a godforsaken corner that civilization has not touched. Hadrut is a border town, as are the neighboring villages - Zangelan, Jabrayil, Fuzuli. Hadrut is more than a hundred years old, the named neighboring villages are several decades old, but look what a difference! Everything is explained simply - Armenians live in Hadrut, and Azerbaijanis live in the other villages.

Three rivers flow through the region, but don’t dare use their waters, they are needed for Azerbaijani regions. And people are running. They run wherever they can. As a result, 11,000 hectares of land are not cultivated due to a lack of labor force and peasant hands. However, in terms of non-irrigation, it can be said that almost the entire region is deprived of water. Two reservoirs - on Tartar - Sarsang and on the Hadrut River, are built in such a way that not a drop of water gets into the areas inhabited by Armenians. I remember the epic with Sarsang. There were so many letters, requests, troubles to raise the reservoir half a kilometer along the river. Then irrigation would capture at least part of the Armenian regions - it did not help ...

I would like to draw your attention to such facts. The issue of international education, which was devoted to the plenum of the Nagorno-Karabakh regional party committee in March 1975, was replaced in the report of the first secretary of the regional committee B. Kevorkov by determining the place of Karabakh in the administrative plan and frankly pushing through chauvinistic, pan-Islamic theses. The organizers and inspirers of this provocation have not yet been brought to justice.

And, finally, the question of national culture. What can Azerbaijan give to Karabakh in this sense? As is known, in Baku, where, according to the 1970 census, more than 200,000 Armenians lived, the Armenian theater was closed even before the war. Recently, the only Armenian higher educational institution, the Pedagogical Institute, was closed. True, under the pretext of transferring it to Stepanakert, a city with a population of 30 thousand people. But that is not all. This institute, while “reaching its place,” has turned mainly into an Azerbaijani one: two departments are Azerbaijani and only one is Armenian.

As is known, Armenians in Karabakh cannot see or hear TV broadcasts from Yerevan. No music, no native language. But they live nearby, within easy reach. Azerbaijan cannot provide the Armenian population of Karabakh with textbooks, native language teachers, or cultural personnel. Textbooks and other school supplies - everything is taken out of Yerevan by parents individually, and this often causes dissatisfaction on the part of the leaders of the region. As a result, Karabakh, which once supplied cultural personnel not only to Baku, but also to Yerevan, now cannot replace the semi-literate editor of an Armenian newspaper with another, more literate one. Forget their native language. The question arises - who is to blame? Maybe it's all a local initiative? No, not local. Suffice it to recall how Kevorkov dealt with the local history museum and much more.

In Nagorno-Karabakh before the revolution, 94% of the population were Armenians. Now - 80%. Naturally, there are also more cultural monuments and cultural figures of Armenian origin. Kevorkov cannot afford such an advantage. He took up the purge, ordering “to cross out the major Armenian figures.” As is known, Karabakh gave such military figures as Lieutenant General Madatov, Loris Melikov, Admiral Isakov, two marshals - Baghramyan and Babajanyan. Such historians, writers and cultural figures as historian Leo, writer Muratsan, revolutionary poet Hakob Hakobyan, scientists Ashot Ioannisyan, Terteryan, the famous revolutionary Knunyants, comrade-in-arms of Lenin Rusov and, finally, world-famous academic Kununts. And such a fact: in the Great Patriotic War, Karabakh gave the 21 Heroes of the Soviet Union. Of this number, only one is Azerbaijani. It is interesting how Kevorkov coped with such a difficult task - to put the Armenians in their place. 

No, you will not envy the person who has taken up such a thankless job.

Notes

1. Asad Karayev was the Azerbaijani chairman of the Karabakh Revolutionary Committee. In July 19, 1919, Karayev penned a letter to a fellow Azerbaijani chairman: "90% of Zangezur villages are not disarmed yet, the Armenians of Zangezur are not left without leaders, the intellectuals and military paramilitaries are still in the villages...Do not leave any able-bodied person or material wealth in Zangezur, so that this accursed tribe, the Armenians, can no longer stand on their own two feet."

Crime without Punishment

It is almost impossible to list all the murders that have taken place in Karabakh in recent years. Here I will give those facts about which I know for certain. In 1967, the chief agronomist, an Armenian, was killed in the Kuropatka state farm of the Martuni region during night work. A year later, his successor was also killed. A few months later, a boy, the son of the successor, was killed. They killed him, then gouged out his eyes, drove nails into his head and body. The perpetrators have been found. It turned out that the one responsible for this methodical and brutal extermination of Armenians was the director of the school in Kuropatkino, Arshad Mammadov, the son of Dashdamir Mammadov, the executioner of Russian soldiers from the 11th Red Army and dozens of Armenians. Dashdamir Mammadov in the 20s, standing at the head of an armed gang, fought against the young Soviet government and was shot as a sworn enemy by the Bolsheviks. His son avenged his father with periodic murders of Armenians.

Unable to find protection in court, the Armenians of Karabakh took matters into their own hands, which gave the Azerbaijani chauvinists a pretext for new mass arrests and persecution. More than 50 people were immediately thrown into prison. Some of them died of starvation and torture. The doctor of the Stepanakert hospital, a close friend of Arshad Mammadov, poisoned the deputy of the regional police department S. Abrahamyan, who revealed the full picture of A. Mammadov's crimes. Another participant in the preliminary investigation, a prosecutor from Martuni, Hakobyan, “died” in the hospital during a minor operation. In Baku, during an interrogation, an employee of the regional police department, Lieutenant Levon Harutyunyan, was beaten to death ... And all these terrible crimes remained not only unpunished, but not even recorded.

It is interesting to note that the criminal, the torturer of an Armenian boy, Arshad Mammadov1, was solemnly buried in Shushi. The funeral procession was led by the chairman of the Council of Ministers of Azerbaijan, Alikhanov himself, and on his advice, a magnificent tombstone with the image of a book was erected on the grave of this barbarian.

On one of the streets of Shushi, a young man, Azerbaijani J. Beglyarov, appeared in front of the chairman and agronomist of the Armenian collective farm and, chuckling impudently, said: “Listen, I have to kill one Armenian today, so decide for yourself which of the two of you will be killed?” And, taking out a knife, he killed one of them, the agronomist. The killer has not been found. In the same Shushi, this incident was followed by other murders. The caretaker of the music school and his son, who were Armenians, were killed. In broad daylight, the forestry driver Ulubabyan was killed with a pistol shot. The perpetrator, as a rule, is not detected and not punished.

In Martakert, the entire family of the field watchman was killed. In Norshen, Martuni region, in my native village, two tractor drivers were killed - Karen Sargsyan and Khachik Danielyan. The killers were found, they were from a neighboring Azerbaijani village, but they did not suffer any punishment. The son of the old Bolshevik J. Avanesyan from Stepanakert was shot dead in Aghdam. When asked by an Azeri investigator why he had killed an innocent man, the killer replied: “He was aiming at a bird, but the bullet hit him.” And the murder was framed as the result of a misunderstanding.

An Armenian peasant woman from Krasna was killed by two soldiers from the military unit of Stepanakert. During the judicial investigation, one of the killers confessed that they were bribed by the wife of Arshad Mammadov to take this step. But the trial was conducted in such a way “so as not to inflame national passions.” They announced that the Armenians, the killers of this woman, had been “found.”

Three builders from Stepanakert were killed in Imishli. An Azerbaijani, who was building a house in Stepanakert, connected a high-voltage current to the sleeping Armenian builders at night, and they did not wake up again. This crime was also regarded as careless handling of electricity. And, finally, the very recent murder of an old collective farmer from the village of Gatsy, Martuni region, by the Azerbaijani Hamid, about whom I wrote to Comrade Andropov. Azerbaijani Hamid killed his victim with a hunting rifle, then decapitated the body, cut off the head. This is typical for all murders committed by Azerbaijani chauvinists: after the murder, it is obligatory to desecrate the body of the unfortunate victim.

The secretary of the regional committee, the provocateur Kevorkov does not hear and does not see all this. He sees only “Armenian nationalism.” I appeal to all people of good will: stop the hand of the murderers in Karabakh! Punish those responsible, including the instigators of these murders - Kevorkov and others like him.

Notes

1. In 1966, an eight year old Armenian boy named Nelson Movsisyan was sadistically murdered by a group of Azerbaijans. The leader of the group was Arshad Mammadov, the director of the school of the Kuropatkino village of Karabakh's Martuni region. There were nails driven into Nelson's head and his body was found crucified on a tree. 

There Was Such a Werewolf in Karabakh

"Beirut, May 6, 1975. (TASS). Today, a ceremony dedicated to the memory of the Armenians who died at the hands of the Turkish reaction in 1915 took place at the Bourj Hammoud stadium. After the rally... a procession took place through the streets of the city. Today, one of the streets of Beirut has been renamed 'Street of Armenia.' About thirty thousand people took part in the ceremony and demonstration.”

April 24 is the day of remembrance of the victims of the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey, the 60th anniversary of the death of one and a half million Armenians was widely commemorated not only in Beirut. On this day, black flags were hung out in the cities of America and other countries that sympathize with us, sharing our grief. The newspapers Pravda, Izvestia and many others dedicated their pages to the memory of the dead. How did the Soviet Karabakh newspaper meet this mourning day for all mankind, especially for Armenians, the day of the monstrous genocide? A slop bucket pouring over its people ... All issues of the newspaper on April 24 and the following days were filled with responses to B.S. Kevorkov at the plenum of the Nagorno-Karabakh Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan. The report was stuffed with “anti-Yerevanism” – an expression borrowed from Kevorkov himself – attacks against Armenians, against everything Armenian, Armenian history and culture. It is no coincidence that in some countries hostile to us, when generously commenting on this monstrous anti-Armenian speech, Kevorkov is called “Kevorkov-aga,” “effendi-Kevorkov.”

The year turned out to be unusual, fruitful. The vines sagged under the bountiful clusters, which waited in the wings to swell with sugary-sweet juice. People who grew such grapes looked forward to a rich harvest, happily rubbing their hands. Their work, the hard work of the farmer-vine grower is fully rewarded. What could be higher than such joy for the peasants?! But they say, “Man proposes, but God disposes.” This time, Kevorkov turned out to be a cruel ‘god’, who decided the fate of grapes in his own way. Yes, yes, Boris Sarkisovich Kevorkov, the First Secretary of the Nagorno-Karabakh Regional Party Committee, who celebrated his coming to office in an original way. Deciding to turn the nose of the whole republic, forgetting that Nagorno-Karabakh is not Absheron or even Aghdam, but a mountainous region, where each village has its own ripening period for grapes, he announced a grape harvest all over the region in one day. They cut grapes unripe, green, substandard, with a low, unacceptably low sugar content. A cheerful, national harvest festival was turned into a real mourning. It was not heard in the gardens accompanying the collection of jokes, jests, the usual animation, songs. Instead of them - a rude prodding of policemen, driven from the district centers to hurry the peasants. Try to calculate how much damage the "grape saga" alone caused to people, how many decaliters of the famous Karabakh wine the country missed as a result of the activities of a fraudster obsessed with report mania...

However, such a calculation has been made. It turned into a figure of five million in just one year. To start. This was the first year of Kevorkov's "work" in such a high position. But in what numbers and percentages can we express the moral damage that this newly-appeared god in the guise of a party leader inflicted on people, honest village workers, our entire society?! In one village of the Hadrut region, the highest mountainous region of Karabakh, where the “grape saga” suffered most of all, since grapes were harvested, as I was assured, when the snow had not yet completely disappeared from the mountains, an old woman said, “And from where did this Azrael fall on our head? Hope the road he took to reach us dries up. Hope he…”

Poor, poor old woman. She does not know that for some reason there is a green street for such Azrael. She does not know that such people are honored and respected everywhere. Well, tell me, hand over heart - who else in life can be so lucky? The anniversary of Karabakh, the 50th anniversary of granting it the status of an autonomous region, was being prepared. How can one miss, taking the opportunity, not to reward one of the successful “Azrael?” Searched for a long time. The date of the anniversary was pushed back twice - they could not find a worthy one. And finally, he was found - a contender for a high award. What does it matter that the day of his award coincided with the day of his ascension to the post of first secretary of the regional committee? Who takes into account public opinion, the opinion of people who have long ceased to be surprised at anything?

Kevorkov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor as Secretary of the Regional Committee, without having worked a single day in this post! At the Plenum of the Nagorno-Karabakh Regional Committee of the Party, Kevorkov repeated the "grape saga," this time exposing the former leadership of the region to rubbish. According to the plan, the speech was devoted to the international education of the working people of the region - you see, by duty the secretary should be engaged in education. But under the guise of internationalism, in fact, a clear pan-Turkism was being dragged through. Yes, yes, a sort of Turkish-Azerbaijani nationalism, if you like, pan-Islamism. Pan-Islamism in the mouth of an Armenian, Boris Sarkisovich Kevorkov. What did it mean? I can’t say everything, for this you need to rewrite the four-hour speech of Kevorkov himself. Here I will cite only one of his phrases, his "military" slogan: "I will eradicate the nationalism of Armenians in Karabakh." The nationalism of those who are deprived of the right to cry when they are hurt, when they are being strangled, offended at every turn! The nationalism of people, of all human rights "beneficial" with only one - the right to flee from their native places, their native land, from their native home. So, for 50 years as part of the Azerbaijan SSR, Nagorno-Karabakh had less population than in the year the region was formed. 

Kevorkov thoroughly knows all the nuances of Azerbaijani nationalism. For a career, he, an Armenian, needs to rise to the heights of pan-Turkism, pan-Islamism, bringing new victims from his own tribesmen to the altar. Only thanks to endless sacrifices is it possible to move up the career ladder, not to fall off it. Kevorkov chose two Armenians as the next victims in order to win the sympathy of the new executors - the Turks: the special correspondent of the regional party newspaper Soviet Karabakh Y. Babalyan and ... Soghomon Tehliriann. Babalyan read a poem by the Armenian poet Aramais Sahakyan in a narrow circle. There we are talking about the moon, which, thanks to our cosmonauts, turned to us on the other side. The poet dreams that the beloved Ararat, the silhouette of which flaunts on the state emblem of socialist Armenia, turns into the other side1. This poem has been published, and lives its own life in a book. And reading it has become a crime. The man was removed from work, expelled from the region.

Another victim was Soghomon Tehlirian, or rather the memory of him. The memory of the people's avenger, who, five years after the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire, killed one of the organizers of this massacre - Talaat Pasha.

At one time, the European public noted with satisfaction the fair decision of the Berlin court that acquitted Tehlirian, and Kevorkov, on the eve of the sixtieth anniversary of the genocide, calls to forget this name, the name of the people's avenger who committed his right, fair trial. He says so, “True, Talaat Pasha is an unpleasant person, but why glorify the name of the terrorist Soghomon Tehlirian?” Curious to know what other god Kevorkov wants to serve by shamelessly demonstrating his Turkish nationalism?

By the way, the Armenians were removed from work, driven out of the region before Kevorkov. Kevorkov only strengthened this famously, and gave it a legal move. He not only dismisses the Karabakh-Armenians from work, violating all labor, trade union and other Soviet laws, not only kicks him out of the region, but cracks down on his victim, having previously mocked him, very often sticking the label of a nationalist to a good person, an active communist. Under Kevorkov, the activities of the "factory" for the "dressing up" of the nationalists assumed a wide scope. A lot of things can serve as a crime: a relative lives in Yerevan, he went to defend his candidate not in Baku, but in hated Yerevan - yes, yes, and there are such people in this stream of people generously expelled from the region.

For many years, a young scientist, director of the local history museum Shahen Mkrtchyan worked in Karabakh. His work was in plain sight, noted in Moscow. Under him, the museum became a museum. Mkrtchyan compiled a catalog of historical monuments in Karabakh. Kevorkov called Mkrtchyan, got acquainted with the catalog and was furious. All the monuments, unfortunately, with the exception of one mosque in Shushi, were of Armenian origin. According to Kevorkov, this is a clear violation of the principle of internationalism. What? One mosque for hundreds, thousands of Armenian historical monuments?! Fuck the nationalist. And they drove him away, forbidding him to print the catalog.

Let us say in passing: Kevorkov was not alone in this interpretation of questions about the cultural monuments of Karabakh. Many Azerbaijani historians argue with foam at the mouth that these monuments are of Albanian origin. The treacherous Armenians came, they seized our mountains by force and left their inscriptions on these monuments, confusing some gullible scientists - from Herodotus to Orbeli2. And these grandmother's tales are passed off as science. Kevorkov, of course, is at one with them. What is Herodotus or Orbeli to him when there are such whales as Ziya Buniyatov3 and Zelik Yampolsky?

More facts? Please. The famous Armenian poet of the 9th century Davdak, who lived in Karabakh and wrote, of course, in his native ancient Armenian language, was declared Azerbaijani and renamed Davud. It's okay that this Davud is translated into Azerbaijani from ancient Armenian, but talk about it, the label is ready - a nationalist. So, with the light hand of Kevorkov, Zori Balayan, a talented writer, journalist, doctor, who had worked in the Far North for more than fifteen years, was turned into a nationalist. All his books and individual publications published in Armenia and the central press are about people to whom he treats with great sympathy and love. His works, dedicated to the North with its motley population, are deeply saturated with internationalism... It is curious to know where Kevorkov found nationalism in Z. Balayan's work? Ah, yes, the essay "Paths of Childhood," published in the journal "Friendship of Peoples" No. 3, 1974. Read, look with a lantern for that crime, according to which Balayan is unfoundedly accused of nationalism. Didn't find it? You read badly. And the grandmother, and the grandfather, and the relatives that Balayan has - Armenians - like himself. Is this not a crime4? What an audacity: such a relationship and not a single mixed marriage. The report does not say so, but it is implied.

Of particular interest is the assessment he gave to Papik and Tatik, a sculptural image of a grandfather and grandmother, the brainchild of the famous Armenian sculptor Sargis Baghdasaryan, a magnificent architectural ensemble of red tufa that meets you at the entrance to Stepanakert. “Papik and Tatik” are Armenians, their marriage is not mixed, and therefore “in no way contribute to the friendship of peoples.” Don't believe? Read Kevorkov's report (Soviet Karabakh newspaper dated March 23, 1975) and see what a solid place the newly-minted theoretician of internationalism assigns to this "theory" of mixed marriage.

I won’t discover America if I say that by raising the banner of internationalism, declaring it the cornerstone of our system, our life, we grind this stone day by day, fearlessly reduce it to decline. This metamorphosis of the transformation of internationalism into its opposite, antipode, can be well traced on the example of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region. I didn’t know what Armenak Karakozov was - the first party leader of the region, the name of this person will forever remain in the grateful memory of the Karabakh people - I was small then - but after him almost all the secretaries were to some extent Kevorkov. More in some, less in others, but Kevorkov sat firmly in everyone.

Once, it was under Bagirov, Avetik Isahakyan came to Nagorno-Karabakh to visit his friend in the village of Karakend. He stayed there for 15 days, and no attention was paid to him by the leadership of the region. Returning to Yerevan through Stepanakert, Isahakyan decided to go to the Regional Committee. The Regional Committee Secretary Grigoryan asked, “Excuse me, varpet, do you have permission to enter Karabakh?”

Isahakyan was very offended by these words. Returning home, he wrote about this to Bagirov. Bagirov immediately summoned Grigoryan: “Tell me, Grigoryan, are you an enemy or a fool? So meet the varpet, the great Armenian poet! Or did you want to quarrel us with the Armenians?”

Grigoryan, terribly afraid, murmured in fright, “Fool, Comrade Bagirov.” The secretary was immediately suspended from work. It is permissible to ask, how would Bagirov deal with this same Grigoryan if he received Isahakyan according to all the rules befitting his name? I think it would be the same. I will try to list which workers have been laid off in the last two years, moved from their jobs or expelled from the region. They have no number, they exceed two hundred people.

Let's name a few of them: the Chairman of the Regional Executive Committee Ohanjanyan, his deputies Baghdasaryan and Davidyan, the secretary of Mkrtycheva, the head of the agricultural department Ghukasyan and his deputy Grigoryan, the manager of Karvintrest Harutyunyan, the head of UMP. Dzhangaryan, Head of the Statistical Department Zakharyan, from the Union of Writers - Agadzhanyan, from the regional committee - Melkumyan, Harutyunyan, Asryan, from the city committee - Agadzhanyan, Gasparyan, Israelyan, from the city executive committee - Poghosyan, Musaelyan. A large group of figures of Armenian culture was forced to leave the region: the writer and historian Bagrat Ulubabyan, the poet Bogdan Janyan and many others. The writer of these lines, the author of more than twenty books dedicated to Karabakh and published in different languages ​​- Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani, spent more than three hours in the waiting room until he was received by Kevorkov.

The unkind reception was due to only one reason: a guest from Yerevan, which he hated. Probably also "one of those." And indeed: I was received by Kevorkov as a representative of the “Dashnak” Yerevan. The whole hour-long conversation with witnesses is proof of this. I would like to see how such famous poets as Rasul Gamzatov, Kaysyn Kuliev, David Kugultinov and many other figures of national culture would feel if they lived not in the RSFSR, but in Nagorno-Karabakh, under the rule of Kevorkov. What “isms” would this ignoramus reward them with? I would also like to ask why the animal hatred for the Armenians of Kevorkov-Aliyev is presented as internationalism? A frank mockery of this holy word - the holy of holies of our existence? The desire to cover up all your nationalist nonsense? But do the Kevorkov-Aliyevs need a screen?

Kevorkov's speech at the plenum of the Regional Committee was published in the newspaper Soviet Karabakh on March 23. A day later, I sent a telegram to Moscow addressed to Comrade Brezhnev about this shameful, harmful speech by Kevorkov. On the same day I received an answer: “The telegram was handed over to Comrade Brezhnev by appointment.”

Today is April 12th, an eternity has passed and no response. Everyone remained “on their own”: me with my naive protest against Kevorkov's perfidy, Kevorkov with his slop bucket, pouring mud on his people in the name of a vile career. Is all this done with the knowledge of high authorities? Or does Moscow firmly believe in Aliyev's infallibility? Rather the latter. Why such blind faith in the leader, who so far has not particularly distinguished himself in anything, except for planting Azerbaijani nationalism in the republic.

But why are we silent? Why do we believe in Aliyev? We still remember another faith, faith in Bagirov, which cost us hundreds, thousands of innocent people, primarily Armenians. Who has counted how many innocent victims Aliyev accounts for? Where is the control figure, having reached which, you can ask Aliyev for what he did? What term is given to this orgy, the term of lawlessness and impunity? How much longer can we endure, afraid to make a sound, knowing in advance that any word of an Armenian is nationalism? Answer me, my foolish age.

Now you are foaming at the mouth talking about your love for the Russians, started talking about friendship, about internationalism. But, while flaunting your love for the Russians, you completely forgot about one episode in which your age-old “love,” your friendliness, showed up. The protracted Russo-Turkish war was over, the revolution was in the country, Russian soldiers were returning home. Carriages filled with noise and songs passed through the whole of Armenia. Women and men, who had just recovered from the massacre, ruin and cruelty of the Turks, approached the train, bringing their feasible gifts. Armenians greeted Russian soldiers returning home from the front to Russia with bread and salt. It was the attitude of the people, who never forgot the saving mission of the Russians in the fate of the Armenians, the will of the national hero Andranik, who shared this eternal love of his people for the Russians.

And what happened to these people when they left the border of Armenia, moving further through the territory of Azerbaijan? What, memory is short? Ziya Buniyatov remembers the Albanians well, without a twinge of conscience attributing to them the great monuments of architecture and spiritual culture in Karabakh. With the ease of a magician and real falsifier, he refutes all the historians of the world - from Herodotus to Orbeli. Why shouldn't he remember an episode that took place no earlier than at the beginning of his life. Uh-oh, it is not good for an academic historian to have such a short memory. Yes, gentlemen, the "nationalist Armenians," "not loving the Russians," saw off the Russian soldiers returning from the Turkish front with bread and salt, and the Azerbaijanis, "loving the Russians," annihilated all thirty thousand of these soldiers near Shamkhor, finished off the survivors, taking possession of their weapons - rifles. Yes, this is an episode that smells of blood. An episode that spoils the facade of hypocritical assurances of age-old "love" for the Russians. The tsar, by the way, was well aware of this trait of your people - bloodthirstiness - and did not trust you, the Aliyevs, with rifles, and did not take them into the army. And he was not wrong. You justified the king's suspicion a hundredfold.

You completely forgot about another episode in which your age-old "love" for the Russians, your friendliness, showed up. We understand that you are not responsible for the activities of Musavatists. Not a single Armenian historian has reminded you of this episode, which you bashfully keep silent about. You took up arms against our national hero Andranik. You don't let us live because of him. True, you do not speak about the reason for your fierce hatred for him in a loud voice. You pretend to be offended by Andranik because of several Azerbaijanis killed in Nakhijevan. But, firstly, he killed not Azerbaijanis, but soldiers of the Musavat government. And he killed for a very reasonable reason: the Musavat government did not want to let his army through Nakhijevan to help Shahumyan, who was besieged in Baku, to help the Baku Commune, which was in trouble. And he went with his army at the behest of his heart to save the world's first worker-peasant power from hordes of Turks. 

Notice to yourself: from the hordes of the Turks. You must know how this aspiration of Andranik and his soldiers was accepted by Lenin. Vladimir Ilyich was delighted with Andranik, with his intention to help the Commune. This well-known telegram captures this Leninist enthusiasm: he, among other things, calls Andranik the people's hero of Armenia... This is Andranik, who, having taken possession of Nakhijevan, liberated the whole Nakhijevan from the Musavatists, beat off a telegram to Lenin with a request to include Nakhijevan in the Soviet Russia. Yes, indeed, there were casualties, as in any war. Moreover, a just war. But you prefer to remain silent about this. Victims, that's all. Having said "A," you must also say "B." This is common knowledge. And you just forget to do it. Don't be silly, don't let in the fog: you don't like Andranik because of his eternal enmity towards the Turks, because of just revenge. That's why you hate Andranik. Blame yourself. You yourself forced me to remind you of this part, which you carefully hide, keep silent about.

Don't piss us off, Aliyevs. There is much more we can remind you of. You are not such white swans as you portray yourself. Who pulls you by the tongue to constantly talk about what you don’t even have in sight? Here you are not ashamed of us, living witnesses of the Great Patriotic War, portraying your people as such heroes, without whom we cannot see Victory. Settle down. We know how you fought: in crowds, without weapons, they went from the Germans to us, from us to the Germans, who did not even want to take you prisoner. It’s a pity there are no statistics that would give a figure on how many of yours lay in hospitals. Not from a bullet, not from fragments, but from soap, from a crossbow.

But there are other statistics - which of us fought how. Little Armenia, three times smaller than Azerbaijan, but gave several times more heroes, including generals, marshalls, admirals, and major military leaders.

Ah, this passion of yours to be proud of what you don't have! Here you are talking about fulfillments and over fulfillments without actually doing anything. Everything is false and false. All on deceit, falsification, juggling of facts. They still believe you, but you don’t even know, passing off your wild chimeras as reality. The whole world knows the tragedy of Shushi - this is when in March 1920, a month before the establishment of Soviet power, the Musavatists burned the Armenian city of Shushi and killed the entire Armenian population.

And here is how modern Azerbaijani poets assess this event. Nabi Khazri published a poem in which he addresses his people with programmatic reflections: “On the roads of Shushi, you distinguished enemies and friends well.” And Rasul Rza, speaking at the visiting plenary session of the Writers' Union, organized in Shushi, proudly announced to his fellow tribesmen: "The Azerbaijani people here, in Shushi, recorded a glorious page in their history, and you must never forget about it."

We, like no other people, know how to forgive an insult. It is well known that the Turks carried out the massacre of Armenians in Western Armenia partly by the hands of the Kurds: they armed them and threw them at us. Let's not hide, they "worked" well, faithfully served the mercenaries. But look how they, expelled from the same Turkey, found shelter in Armenia, what a nest they made here. They have everything here: a Kurdish school operates, books are published in the Kurdish language, there is a department in the Armenian Academy of Sciences where Kurdish scientists are engaged in Kurdish studies. Kurds hold high positions in the republic, are elected to the Supreme Council, among them there are candidates of sciences, professors. Even academics. The writer Erevanli lives and prospers in Armenia. At home for many years he lived in poverty without an apartment, and now he does not know such troubles. He also does not know what it means to wait a long time, to beat the thresholds, in the hope of publishing a book. His books were published immediately, as soon as he handed over the manuscript. Erevanli grew into a prominent scientist, defended his Ph.D., teaches at the university, and now he is a professor. In his doctoral dissertation, he even dared to goad the Armenians, stating that in such and such a century the Azerbaijani language was so widespread in Transcaucasia that many Armenian poets and ashugs wrote and sang in this language at that time. Nothing, and he was forgiven.

I would like to mentally imagine what would have been done to the unfortunate learned Armenian if he had dared to make such a statement in Azerbaijan, attributing such a “mission” to his language. How would he pass by secret ballot for a doctor? In Azerbaijan, this is unthinkable. First, who will let you, an Armenian, rise to the rank of doctor, professor? This is out of the question. You'll break your neck somewhere along the way. As for the statement about the mission of your native language, I beg your pardon, you just won’t get home, somewhere along the way a truck will run into you so that not a trace of you and your statement is left.

A very recent example. Now, when I am writing these lines, Georgiev Eduard Arkadyevich, who came from Baku, lives in the hotel "Armenia." He is a candidate of legal sciences, wrote a doctoral thesis, and will defend in Moscow. He is there, in Baku, where the title of doctor, like his own ears, can not be seen. So he came here, probed the soil, wanted to move to Yerevan or, at worst, have hourly lectures here. Here is the internationalism of Azerbaijan and the nationalism of Armenia. Indeed, when they shouted "Catch the thief," the thief was the first to raise a long stick.

Professor Ziya Buniyatov wrote an openly nationalistic work, in which, by the way, all Armenian ancient monuments in the eastern part of Armenia, in Karabakh, are declared Albanian. Paruyr Sevak gave him a friendly scolding for this “prank,” scientifically proving the absurdity of all fictions. He arranged for him - this inventor-doctor, a kind of scientific puzzle. Azerbaijan did not accept this. Boya also did not accept it. He simply awarded the pseudoscientist the title of academician.

But as soon as Azerbaijan looks askance at any of us, we immediately begin to look askance at the “unfortunate” and we are in Armenia. Zori Balayan is a ready-made correspondent for Literaturnaya Gazeta. This position has been vacant for more than a year, but they do not dare to appoint Balayan. Inconveniently, Kevorkov, in his absurd report, named his name in the list of “sinners,” Aliyev will be offended. Better let Balayan be offended - it's not a big deal. And what are we doing with the writer and talented scientist Ulubabyan, who was expelled from Karabakh? We keep him in a black bag, in a strong bridle, from which he often has a hard time. The untruth of Ziya Buniyatov is printed, for it the pseudoscientist is given a high title, and the truth of Ulubabyan is shamefully hushed up, his works, for which there is no price, make their way into the press painfully slowly, squeezing through the fine sieve of vigilant censorship. Bagrat Ulubabyan is still young, full of energy, but he is not elected anywhere, you will not hear his name, although he enjoys unquestioned respect in the republic. All for the same - no matter how offended Aliyev is.

Dear compatriots, how stupid we are. I assure you, no matter how much we offend our own for the sake of strangers, no matter how many curtsies we make to Aliyev, nothing will be enough. Until we respect ourselves, protect our dignity, no one will respect us. The “non-resistance to evil” that we carry in our genes as Armenians and as Christians has a very dangerous side to it. Constantly swallowing resentment, allowing ourselves to be humiliated, trampling on our pride, developing in ourselves, in the people this very “non-resistance to evil,” are we not killing in it, in each of us, a person who is obliged to defend himself, his dignity? Who knows, our betrayal, the appearance of Kevorkovs, Grigorians, Babayans among us - is not all this the result, the culmination of this very “non-resistance to evil?” However, this list can be continued. Almost all the secretaries of the regional committee of the NKAO, with the exception of Karakozov and his entourage, were to some extent Kevork. Who to a lesser extent, and who to a greater extent.

Yeghishe Grigoryan seemed to be different, more independent, his wife was an Azerbaijani. Gurgen Melkumyan could be called a decent person, if not for his inertia. True, his decency did not interfere with the pressure on the Armenians. The mission of pressure was carried out for him by the Russian comrades assigned to him - Kostryulin, Volodin. Melkumyan, by virtue of his character or puppet position, did not interfere with them. Both of them superbly fulfilled their mission under him - the unremitting pressure on the Armenians did not stop for a minute. And the Russian comrades helped the Aliyevs in this. That is why Kostryulin and Volodin, who are completely different in character, were like twins in their actions towards the Armenians. They were united by drinking. They liked to pawn behind the collar at the expense of those whom they offended, they did not give life on their land.

For greater persuasiveness, let's climb higher: let's take Markaryan and Khoren Grigoryan in Baku. Kabulov, Abakumov, Nazaretyan, Sarkisov - with Beria. Recall that by agreement with Beria - this was proved at the trial of Bagirov - by such and such a date not a single Armenian should have remained in Azerbaijan, and approximately by the same date - in Georgia. The perpetrators of this terror, unheard of in history, the undisguised genocide of Armenians, were our compatriots named above, the closest people of Bagirov, Beria. Suffice it to say that all of Beria's guards were made up of Armenians. The head of the guard was also an Armenian, Colonel Sarkisov. With the idea to exterminate or resettle the Armenians to hell in the middle of nowhere by such and such a date, Beria and Bagirov went to bed, under the protection of the Armenians and ... remained alive. What faith these bastards had in our resignation, in our diligence, in our meanness! Look, admire, the most trusted people under Beria, Bagirov are Armenians. What kind of persecution are we talking about? To implement such plans, even Beria and Bagirov needed a screen. And my compatriots calmly gave this screen into the hands of the murderers, the murderers of their people.

Shame burns me from these confessions, but we have no right to hide it. If it were possible to moderate this pain of ours, to shame people, our people, to urge them not to become a screen, not to climb the ranks over the corpses of their compatriots. How many years have I lived in Yerevan, I know many figures of Azerbaijani culture, Azerbaijanis by nationality, but I have not observed such passions for anyone, the smallest betrayal in relation to my people. Yes, they didn't need to.

Under Tovmasyan it was. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Armenia decided to declare Andranik a national hero. All the republican newspapers printed this resolution and placed a portrait of the Zoravar. The editor of the Azerbaijani newspaper Jafar Veliyev, a deputy of the Supreme Council of Armenia, who was favored by our government to the limit, did not succumb to the general impulse, did not publish the decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Armenia in his newspaper. Between the republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia at that time there was a dispute about Kachak-Nabi - they disagreed in the assessment of the famous robber, whom Lenin knew about, wrote Maxim Gorky. In Azerbaijan, he was declared a national hero. The editor again found himself in the camp of our opponents. He admires me, this can not be ignored.

For fifty years or more, we have not created a single Kevorkov, and in Azerbaijan they are at least a dime a dozen. So I think, I constantly think, where does such meanness come from in us? Is it not from the notorious Christian morality, the morality of non-resistance to evil, from the principle: when they hit one cheek, turn the other? Here we are substituting. They beat us on one cheek and then the other.

I love the Azerbaijani people. My childhood passed among Azerbaijanis. Many have left an indelible mark on my memory. I wrote about them in my books. All of them really existed - there is not a single fictional person among them. Here I will give just one case. My uncle Harutyun Hovhannisyan, whom I wrote about, was dispossessed by kulaks, driven out into the street, having had housing taken away.

My uncle Harutyun Hovhannisyan is a kind-hearted and very hospitable person known in the district. In Norshen you will not find a person who would not be treated kindly by him, supported in difficult times by him. But when the hour struck, he got into trouble, was declared a kulak, all his good-doings were forgotten at once. There was no roof in Norshen where he could lay his head. My uncle, as I said, had, among other things, his own garden in the Azerbaijani village of Novruzlu. Novruzlu residents, having learned about the unenviable fate of their uncle, came to him and offered him to move to their village. They promised to build him a hut in the garden, to return part of the garden. Uncle went. They built a hut for him. He lived in it for seven months and returned to Norshen again, saying to his relatives: “I won’t change my faith because of some hut or garden.”

I often envy, kindly envy the Azerbaijanis for the fact that they are like that: they do not easily succumb to considerations of profit, transient moods and campaigns. For the fact that they have withstood the test of time, have retained their "I", have not lost respect for each other, respect for their eminent people.

How not to remember such a case. It was after the war. Once the family went to Norshen. On the way we got stuck in Yevlakh. Some miserable wrecked bus ran to Agdam. Buying a ticket was considered a feat. For several days people spent days and nights at the checkout window. And then there are mosquitoes that swarm overhead. Staying in Yevlakh, you understand, is not a great pleasure. I thought, I thought, and now I came up with it. I approached the ticket office not from the side where passengers spent the day and night in the illusory hope of buying a ticket for this God-given bus, but from the other, back side of the booth. The door of the booth, fortunately, did not close well, and I, boldly sticking my head in the doorway, casually said, "Greetings from Samad Vurgun. Salaam!"

The cashier, an elderly man, all wrinkled and with a large bald head, as if hypnotized, hastily closed the cash register window and quickly approached me. The inquiries began. I passed the exam. I was not Vurgun's friend, but I knew him quite well. The old man believed, completely melted, "Come on, come on, dear writer. There will always be a place for Comrade Samad Vurgun on the bus."

A minute later we were on the bus.

I also remember another case. I'm not afraid to talk about him. Everything is mine, both good and bad. Avetik Isahakyan arrived in Nagorno-Karabakh. I stayed with a friend in one of the villages. Stopped in Stepanakert on the way. You already know how they talked to him in the regional committee. For a puppet leader, this is in the order of things. There was no room for Avetik Isahakyan in the hotel. This is also in the order of things - people do not belong to themselves. The poet Bogdan Janyan comes running. Avetik Isahakyan is sitting on a suitcase in the aisle of the hotel corridor.

"I don't need anything. Just help me go to the bathhouse, and then on the road," asked Varpet.

Janyan immediately, from Isahakyan, called the bathhouse, and Varpet heard an impassive voice, Let it be not Avetik Isahakyan, but God himself. In order..."

This is us already. Without a prompter. Without Aliyevs. Without Bagirovs. This is the soil on which the Bagirov-Aliyevs arise, woe to us, people. Woe to us, my fellow countrymen. How did we get to this life?

I wonder how they would have met Avetik Isahakyan in the regional committee, in the hotel, in the same bathhouse, if he were an Azerbaijani? I'm pretty sure it would have been different. That's what I mourn, I think constantly. I don't know where all this comes from? But there is also consolation. “The good qualities of the Armenians,” testifies George Gordon Byron, “are natural, and the bad ones are grafted from neighbors.” Today I got up with the idea of ​​working on a book that I abandoned for lack of time. The records I keep mercilessly devour all my working time. I give them deadlines and push them back myself. I can't shake the need to write down my observations. The fact that I can’t interrupt my notes in any way and go about my literary affairs is partly Zori Balayan’s fault, my friend from Kamchatka, a vagabond and traveler. Almost every day since he settled in Yerevan, he comes in the morning with his information or calls and tells me some news that again makes me push the novel I started aside. Today he stunned me on the phone with very unpleasant news.

“Hello, chief.”

That's what he calls me when he's about to goof off for something. And he scolds me, regardless of my age, when I allow at least a small indulgence for the "enemies" of Karabakh. Very often imaginary enemies. Strongly and painfully loving Karabakh, he could rank enemies for the slightest offense - out of love.

“Hello, chief,” Zori shouted into the phone again. “I want to congratulate you. Your letter to Volodin in Moscow returned to Volodin. He removes all offenders from work, the persecution of them has begun.”

Volodin is the second secretary of the Regional Committee. Nikolay Ivanovich. He is Russian. I became a secretary recently, not more than a year. But he has already managed to become famous in the region for his outright ignorance, martinetism, and tough temper. Upon his arrival in Karabakh, he made his first visit to Gandzasar. Gandzasar is the oldest Armenian monastery, which is under the protection of the state. It was from here that back in the 17th century our ancestors addressed for the first time in Transcaucasia with a letter and a courier to Tsar Alexei and Peter the Great himself with a request to annex Armenia to Russia, to “protect the Armenians like their own chickens.” It was from here that the Armenian Catholicoses sent walkers to the Russian tsars. Now, as it has been written in the newspapers more than once, this holy temple is supposed to be turned into a museum of Russian-Armenian friendship. And this is symbolic. Yes, with the Russian people among the Armenians, in particular, among the Karabakh people, everything good, sublime is connected. We know and bequeath to our children to remember that we owe our physical existence to the Russian people, who saved us from the Turkish barbarians.

Do you think Volodin paid his visit to see what condition this holy temple is in? Nothing like this. He came to express his disapproval of its existence. This dissatisfaction was expressed in the fact that he tore off the wall a portrait of the Catholicos Vazgen the First, who was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor by the Soviet government for his contribution to the education of believing Armenians in the spirit of internationalism, tore it into small pieces, threw it to the ground and trampled it. At the instigation of Volodin, another Russian party worker, Bystrov, came to the central Stepanakert library and ordered the portraits of Armenian classics to be removed from the wall, saying: “What kind of opera artists are these?! Remove and replace with Azerbaijani writers. Don't forget where you live."

Here I omit other details in the guise of this museum "secretary." In a very short period of time, more than forty specialists were fired from their jobs in the region. This figure is worth thinking about, given that our region is small. By the way, Volodin likes to trump this figure on occasion, especially when he is tipsy. And he is often tipsy. As a result of his activities, the work of many institutions and organizations is paralyzed. Many workers removed from their positions continue to work without replacement. And if they are replaced, then, as a rule, by workers whose professional suitability and competence leaves much to be desired. This strict guardian of order is also not clean at hand: he likes to extort bribes from the chairmen of collective farms. Rather, he does not extort bribes, but demands. And there are living witnesses to that. It is no coincidence that the old honored teacher, director of the Stepanakert school No. 3 Petrosyan Christopher Alexandrovich said about him with pain, “In Volodin, except for the surname, there is nothing of the Russian.”

I understand that Volodin cannot defile that bright feeling that the Armenians have shown for the Russian people since ancient times, and it is all the more offensive that this feeling is vulgarized by a responsible party worker of Russian nationality. I wrote about all this to Moscow. Now this letter has come back. It is in the hands of Volodin. In the receiver I hear now a sad, now a furious, smile of a friend and tormentor. His anger is ready to break the phone.

"What are you talking about, chief? Run, enjoy your work. The work of your friends. Volodin also seems to be among your friends in Karabakh.”

Balayan obviously had enough. Volodin was never among my friends. I figured it out from the first steps. This is not to be confused with anyone. But when Zori is angry, when Karabakh is offended, what will he not say in his heart?

"Don't yell at me, Zori. First, Volodin is as much a friend to me as he is to you. Secondly, you know very well that I could not imagine that my letter would turn against those whom I was trying to protect." However, I'm lying. I knew, roughly imagined, how it would all end. Nothing new. The techniques are the same, as old as the world. The complaint, no matter to whom it was addressed, having described a large circle, returns to the one to whom it was written. And yet, I fell for the bait. Instead of helping, I gave good people new worries, new troubles. Scold me, Zori. I still deserve your scolding!

However, it will take a little time, and everything will fall into place. It will become clear to everyone why such a leapfrog happened with the anniversary of Karabakh. They chose a leader for him. They needed a Turk and they got him - a Turk with a naked scimitar in his hands. This is who Boris Sarkisovich Kevorkov turned out to be for Karabakh, for its Armenian population. I'm only afraid that no one will believe that Kevorkov is an Armenian, that he was fed by Armenians. My god, you are what makes time with people. What can you do with a person if you want!

But more on that in other posts. I haven't been working much lately. Kevorkov completely took over me, my time. The time of many of my friends. Thoe who were also rooting for Karabakh. The main friend among us, of course, is the writer Bagrat Ulubabyan, a highly educated person, a great connoisseur of Karabakh, who gave him a lot of spiritual and physical strength. I am sure that someday, when everything settles down and the truth triumphs, there will be a monument to him in Stepanakert. To our dear great contemporary!

But back to Kevorkov. Let's stay in his company, although his whole appearance carries a cadaverous smell. Here he is, our Karabakh werewolf, as I see him. The image written, alas, is also for posterity.  After all, we protect, we very much protect the population from unnecessary information, if this information does not praise Kevorkov, does not praise the time that generously produced Kevorkov-werewolves on the people’s grief. 

Notes

1. Ararat is an incredibly culturally significant mountain for Armenians. Its two peaks, Sis and Masis, can be seen from Yerevan. The author of this poet is dreaming of seeing the two peaks in reverse - the view that would be seen from occupied Western Armenia, modern-day Turkey.

2. The "Caucasian Albanian" concept referred to here is a conspiracy theory by Azerbaijanis, historical revisionism pushed forward by Azerbaijani scientists and historians. They claim the Armenian monuments in Karabakh are in reality Caucasian Albanian and that the centuries-old Armenian inscriptions on the monuments are doctored. The millennia-old continuous presence of Armenians in Karabakh has been recorded from historians of all periods, including Herodotus and Orbeli. Hurunts is being sassy.

3. Ziya Musa oglu Bunyadov was an Azerbaijani historian and Vice-President of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan. His work has received much criticism, particularly due to their blatant nature of falsifying Armenian history. Bunyadov is also notorious for his article “Why Sumgait?” wherein he argues Azerbaijan’s Sumgait Pogrom, which killed hundreds of Armenians, was planned by Armenians themselves in order to vilify Azerbaijan and bolster Armenian nationalism. Bunyadov also reprinted many medieval and historical textbooks and sources, replacing all mentions of an “Armenia” with “Albania.” 

4. King of sass!

Discussion Questions

1. What do you know about Nakhichevan? Did you learn more about the genocidal projects of Azerbaijan through the "Nakhichevan experiment"? 

2. What does the declining population of Karabakh and Nakhijevan and the increasing population of Azerbaijanis tell you? 

3. Why do you think Azerbaijan deprived Karabakh-Armenians from accessing Armenian education, language, and cultural knowledge? 

4. Hurunts thoroughly criticizes Armenians in these chapters. What are his grievances?