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Azerbaijan’s Policy of
Economic, Political and Cultural Discrimination
Inclusion of Nagorno Karabakh in the Soviet
Azerbaijan within the guise of "autonomous status" practically
legalized the annexation of historically Armenian territories. For its
population it meant the establishment of a discriminatory regime, which
would undertake "quiet deportation" of Armenians from their
ancient lands. The policy of suppression was applied to practically
all spheres of the autonomous oblast's economic, social and political
life.
The backwardness of the Soviet economic system, which
was based on centralized planning and command management, had its imprint
on the economy of Nagorno Karabakh. Its structure depended on the demands
of the USSR and the soviet republics, rather than on the interests of
the oblast itself. Economic problems were being solved through the prism
of political goals pursued by the government of Azerbaijan. As a result,
the structure of the Nagorno Karabakh economy, distribution of production,
and economic workload did not correspond to the true economic condition
and potential of Nagorno Karabakh.
During 1968-1979, the level of capital investments
in NKAO did not change significantly (24-26 million rubles per year),
while they doubled in Azerbaijan and reached 1,820 million rubles in
1979 ("Narodnoe Khozaystvo Azerbaijana za 60 let", Baku,
1980). These proportions were of a political nature. Not less than
half of the funds allocated for Nagorno Karabakh were spent on the construction
of Sarsang reservoir. Despite the fact that the reservoir was built
on Nagorno Karabakh's territory, only about 13% (130 thousand hectares)
of its lands were irrigated using its water. Thus, for ten years sizable
capital investments of 10 million rubles annually were made available
for the construction of the reservoir, which allowed Azerbaijan to claim
a sharp increase of investments in Nagorno Karabakh.
Winemaking was the most developed economic activity.
Nagorno Karabakh used to lead in the world in the production of grapes
per capita (about one metric ton per capita), counting only the government-grown
grapes. However, only 20-22% of the harvest was used to make wine -
the other 78-80% went to Azerbaijan as raw material.
In the biggest industrial enterprise of NKAO, the
Karabakh Silk Factory, which employed 2500 workers, the entire technological
production chain was in place except for the last link - dyeing the
final product. The fabric was sent to a destination hundreds of kilometers
away to the Azeri town of Sheki for this process. From there the final
product was shipped out to markets for sale. Nagorno Karabakh was thereby
deprived of great profits.
The government of Azerbaijan allocated almost no funds
for development of roads within the oblast, which seriously hindered
the economic development of Nagorno Karabakh. Thus, land communications
between the capital and regional centers of Nagorno Karabakh was diverted
to pass through surrounding Azerbaijani regions.
Average annual rates of capital construction were
2.5 times lower than those of Azerbaijan proper despite the fact that
in the 1950-1960 nine deposits of Island spar, seven deposits of asbestos,
thirteen deposits of limestone, several vast deposits of copal and valuable
marble were found in Nagorno Karabakh. The abundance of local valuable
natural resources was ignored and 93% of all construction material was
imported to Karabakh from surrounding regions of Azerbaijan.
No labor-intensive and especially no science-intensive
technologies were introduced in Nagorno Karabakh, despite the fact that
all requirements for establishing a robust metal-mining industry were
present in the region. Azerbaijan blocked introduction of science-intensive
technologies to Nagorno Karabakh in order to keep the area agricultural.
As a result, many highly-educated residents left.
The aforementioned indicates that Nagorno Karabakh's
economy did not have a place in that of Azerbaijan due to the absence
of complete-cycle production capabilities. Instead, Karabakh was used
as a source of raw materials for Azerbaijan. Nagorno Karabakh was economically
dependent on the outside due to its economic structure and management
mechanisms.
The intentional stalemate of economic development
had its impact on the welfare of the Armenian population and became
a major factor in its migration. As a result, the Armenian population
declined both nominally and proportionally, despite the high birth rate.
Thus, while the Armenians constituted 96% of the entire population of
Nagorno Karabakh in 1921, in 1979 their numbers dropped down to 75%
of the entire population of the NKAO. Meanwhile, the Azeri population
of Nagorno Karabakh grew several times as its growth was predominantly
sustained by the influx of migrants from Azerbaijan. On July 22, 2002
during his meeting with reporters, Azerbaijani President Heidar Aliyev
admitted that he had attempted to change the ethnic composition of Nagorno
Karabakh during his years as the First Secretary of Azerbaijani SSR:
"I tried to change Nagorno Karabakh's demography… Instead
of sending Azeri workers to Baku, I sent a large number of them to Karabakh
from surrounding Azerbaijani regions… With these and other measures,
I was trying to make sure that Azerbaijani population grew in Karabakh
while the Armenian population diminished. Those who worked in Karabakh
back then, know what I am talking about." In 1923 Azeries constituted
3% of the population of the area, in 1953 their number grew to 13%,
reaching its peak of 24% in 1988.
Interventions into the spiritual and cultural life
of Armenians, insults of national dignity, gross falsification of history
- this was the cultural policy of Azerbaijan. In all reference books
of Azerbaijani SSR, Azeris were mentioned as the indigenous population
of Nagorno Karabakh. Radio and television broadcasts from Yerevan were
banned. Cultural and spiritual links with the Armenian SSR were practically
severed.
Azerbaijani authorities shut down several Armenian
schools. Forty-six of them were abolished starting in 1960. The History
of Armenia was removed from the curricula of secondary schools and replaces
by the history of Azerbaijan. The official language of the autonomous
region was not mentioned at all in the Law of Azerbaijan on NKAO.
Even the historic monuments of Nagorno Karabakh were
subject to an anti-Armenian policy. There are approximately 1,700 historic
architectural monuments in Nagorno Karabakh, most of them churches and
monasteries. They were not included in the official list of monuments
protected by the government of the Azerbaijani SSR. Moreover, the Academy
of Science of the Azerbaijani SSR named them "dangerous religious
centers of the past".
Many of these monuments were built in the Middle Ages
and played a unique role in the history of the Armenian people. Armenian
ancient sources and more than 1,000 Armenian writings carved into the
walls of those monuments give evidence to the Armenian nature of those
monuments.
The Azerbaijani authorities tried to ignore Armenian
cultural monuments, which date back to early times and up to the 19th
century, with one purpose - to create an inaccurate "record"
that Nagorno Karabakh was not populated with Armenians until the 18th
century. In addition, Azerbaijani authorities tried to Islamize Nagorno
Karabakh, portraying these monuments as Albanian.
The abolition of Armenian monuments became widespread
and systematic during the Soviet period. On the territory of Nagorno
Karabakh alone, hundreds of churches, monasteries and cemeteries were
bombed, destroyed and wiped out. Hundreds of khachkars (cross-stones)
were crumbled and used as construction material. Settlements of cavemen
in the caverns of Tstsakhach, Mets Taghlar and Azokh were damaged. The
burial vault of St. Grigoris (5th century AD) in the Amaras monastery
was torn open. A vivid example of the Azerbaijani policy of discrimination
is the fact that beginning from 1930s there were no functioning churches
in Nagorno Karabakh, while in Shushi, mosques were openly serving the
religious needs of the Azeri population.
Education and employment policy towards Nagorno Karabakh
was also discriminative. The Armenian-language higher educational institution
in Baku was abolished. In order to raise the educational level of the
population of republics, special quotas were established by the central
USSR authorities to educate people in higher education facilities located
in other cities. According to the program, Azerbaijani SSR was given
a quota of 850-900 students while Nagorno Karabakh did not receive a
single place. Azerbaijani authorities explained this fact by saying
that the program is intended for indigenous inhabitants only. In other
words Azerbaijan officially considered Armenians population of NKAO
as non-indigenous and created unbearable conditions in order to force
the Armenians from the area of their historic residence eventually changing
the demographic picture of Nagorno Karabakh. For the same reason, persons
who received higher education in the Armenian SSR were denied employment.
As a result, many promising individuals were forced to leave Nagorno
Karabakh and seek employment elsewhere. Meanwhile, Azeris were being
sent to Nagorno Karabakh in large numbers to work in the local Communist
Party, administrative, economic, law-enforcement, educational, cultural
and health-care arenas. Besides, using the pretext of building nation-wide
industrial and energy giant enterprises, people were forcibly recruited
in NKAO and relocated to Baku, Sumgait, Mingechaur and other cities
of Azerbaijani SSR. (Later, in 1988-1990 these very people and their
families fell victim to the massacres and mass pogroms of Armenians
on the territory of Azerbaijan.) Thus, it is not surprising that during
1926-1976 the number of Armenian towns and villages decreased by 85,
while Azeri settlements grew by 17 ("Dostizheniya Nagornogo
Karabakha v devyatoy pyatiletke", Stepanakert, 1979.)
Realizing, that this situation had serious consequences,
the Armenian majority of Nagorno Karabakh appealed to the central authorities
with letters and petitions on numerous occasions. They demanded the
annulment of the unconstitutional and illegal decision of 1921 and the
review of the option of transferring of Nagorno Karabakh from Azerbaijan
SSR to Armenian SSR. All these demands remained unanswered, while Azerbaijan
responded with new repressions. The national liberation movement was
reborn in 1988 as the people of Karabakh saw hope in Mikhail Gorbachev's
democratization agenda to correct the mistakes of the Soviet totalitarian
past. 
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