Our counterparts in the Azerbaijani 1news.az website, and the member of the Azerbaijani Parliament Aidiyn Mirzazade, who had an article entitled “If Armenia had not seized Azerbaijan’s territories…” put on the website, have “persuaded” us into giving some thought to history in the Subjunctive. It is not a thing to be done, but the idea of presenting the situation in the region “but for the Karabakh conflict” appears to be quite a thrilling one.

Well, if ifs and ans…

Although the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was “an integral part” of the disintegration processes in the post-Soviet area, and the exacerbation, no doubt, played into the hands of both internal and external forces seeking to cause a collapse of the USSR, decades of history actually lay at the root of the confrontation.

Permanent violations of the native Armenians’ rights in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region were getting graver, taking various forms. Although Armenians formed the region’s authorities, official Baku’s “threatening hand” had always been over their heads. After the 1953 “thaw”, and after Heydar Aliyev, who has been declared “national leader”, came to power, Azerbaijan launched a consistent policy of settling the Nagorno-Karabakh region with ethnic Azerbaijanis, which was stepping up tension in the region. In one of his interviews with Azerbaijani mass media (at a meeting with editors-in-chief of local newspapers) Heydar Aliyev was clearly speaking of the measures to increase the share of Azerbaijanis in the Nagorno-Karabakh population by opening enterprises that had nothing in common with the region’s economic set-up and supplying labor force from the other regions of Azerbaijan.

The Armenian authorities, without informing — or with the tacit consent of — the USSR Government, had to protect the Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabakh. Particularly, in early 1970, on the initiative of Karen Demirchyan, the then leader of Soviet Armenia, the written-off equipment of the Yerevan TV center was delivered to Stepanakert. That was the only opportunity for the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians to watch programs of the Armenian television. The Armenian population was encouraged to send their children to Armenian schools, while Shushi was turned into “a bulwark” of increasing Azeri population in the region – Heydar Aliyev proved unable to “shoulder the burden” of settling Stepanakert with Azerbaijanis. The causes of the full-scale confrontation of 1988 can be listed without end… As an exception to the rule, let us think about history in the Subjunctive.

What would have happened if the USSR had promptly responded to the developments, and the Nagorno-Karabakh people’s legal right to self-determination had evoked an adequate response in Azerbaijan?

- No Armenian pogroms in Sumgait on February 27-28 would have taken place. For the first time in the Soviet Union’s history the madding crowd was killing people because of their nationality;

- Armenian public would not have responded by flooding the streets and demanding the protection of Armenians in the neighboring republic;

- The relations between the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities in Nagorno-Karabakh would not have worsened;

- The uncontrollable confrontation between the two nations would not have caused an explosive situation in Armenia and Azerbaijan;

- Larger-scale Armenian pogroms in Baku on January 13-19, 1990, would not have taken place;

- Hundreds of thousands of Armenians would not have left their homes to become refugees;

- Armenian volunteers would not have responded to Azerbaijan’s open military aggression;

- In response to fierce shelling of the borderline settlements of Armenia, as well as towns and villages of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian troops would not have established control over the seven regions neighboring on Nagorno-Karabakh;

- Heydar Aliyev and his successor Ilham would not have to tell Azerbaijanis tales about Armenians’ being “inhuman monsters”, taking advantage of the anti-Armenian propaganda to support the personality cult of “Heydar-baba” and his son Ilham, which has been carried to the point of sheer idiocy;

- In its “struggle” against the Armenian people’s ancient history, the Azerbaijanis would not have developed an inferiority complex in their search of “national identity…”

This list could be continued, but our sincere desire is that the Azerbaijani authorities finally find a fair solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem.