Russia, Moscow, 26 February/ Trend corr R. Agayev/ An exclusive interview with MG Genrikh Malyushkin, who in 1990- for half a year was the commandant of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan and the deputy commander of the USSR Interior Ministry Central Administration's troops located in the region. At present, Malyushkin lives in Moscow.
Question: Mr. Malyushkin, let's begin from the very beginning. In 1990... You were dispatched to Nagorno-Karabakh. What problems did you face there?
Answer: The point is that the Nagorno-Karabakhregion is a sandwich between Armenian and Azerbaijani community ... So; we had to ensure the safe transportation of the local people by buses in this territory, accompany them in the case of attacks, as well as numerous herds, which shepherds had brought for the mountainous pastures. There were cases when these pastures were attacked by Armenian fighters. On 21 June 1990, innocent residents of Lachin- the mountainous village of region of Azerbaijan became the victims. A father and a teenage son, who were pasturing the herd, were shot to death by machine guns by the Armenian fighters wearing masks. The killers cut the victims' ears and tongue and pulled out their eyes. That was inhuman harassment. The forced witness of this terrifying scene was the shepherd's second son, who was in the shelter at that moment.
At that time, Victor Polanichko was the chairman of the Organization Committee. By the way, later he was also shot dead by the Armenian fighters in his car. When we arrived together at the scene of tragedy, it was difficult to explain the relatives of the perished why they were killed in front of their houses during the peace period. After several days, I met with those who committed this act of barbarism. During the checking up of the internal troops in Kalbajar region [we had passage places in the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia], I was informed that Armenian fighters drove off big herd from the October farm. We decided to force the Armenian fighters, though the authorities of the Vardanis Region of Armenia, to return this herd.
I agreed upon the talks with Armenian fighters near the Zod village, preliminarily, through my own channels. While landing, I suddenly observed that over 20 armed people - who were preparing for the shooting, met our helicopter. I decided to go out alone towards the gunmen and the crew remained on board. Introducing myself, I demanded to fetch me to the region's authorities, whereas they told me that the region authorities would. This representative introduced himself as Valeriy with the title of captain. I understood that I would have to deal with a group of avengers- as they called themselves. They said that they were defending the Armenian divisions from Azerbaijan. However, in fact, no Azerbaijani armed troops were in the border regions of Azerbaijan at that time. There were only militia [police] divisions, whereas the armed formations were placed in the part of Armenia. They were supplied with the weapons, armaments, food and dressed well. Those who arrived from the other countries, for instance mercenaries from the Arab countries, were also among the fighters.
Question: Were there any Russian soldiers from your division among the victims killed by Armenian militants?
Answer: During my presence in Nagorno-Karabakhregion, 30 military soldierswere killed and over 200 were injured. One of them, soldier Sergey Mezenetzev, accompanied the pack to Kalbajar Region. Twenty Armenian fighters attached them and fired at them. Three Azerbaijanis died and Mezenetzev was one of them.
Mikhael Gorbachov-the President of the USSR, jointly with the Government, carefully concealed the fact of death of the Russian military by the Armenian fighters in Nagorno-Karabakh and other Azerbaijani regions- attached to his region. I was simply surprised; to what extent the Government demonstrated cruelty with respect to its own people.
Question: It is well-known that Robert Kocheran, the ex-President of Armenia, was also in war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Do you have any information about that?
Answer: That is a fact. Robert Kocheran was a militant, who was at war. But the main propagandist of the idea of wreaking vengeance upon the Azerbaijanis was Zori Balayan, an Armenian writer. He wrote many books and one of them he personally presented to me in Stepanakert (Khankendi - Trend's comment). In that book he described a feat by an Armenian pilot born in Shusha.
Question: Do you remember what Zori Balayan used to say about Azerbaijanis?
Answer: I remember that very well. He had a genuine zoological hatred for Azerbaijanis. He used to say that it were Azerbaijanis who caused the murder of Armenians by Turks, their eviction from the Ottoman Empire in 1915. They reflected all those events in the entire history and the current situation, and that was confusing. All political figures daring to extend a helping hand to Turkey were condemned. All his books on the subject reflect fury and lust to take revenge on Azerbaijanis for the events that happened in 1915.
Question: Which side was better prepared for the war, had more bands, aggression initiatives and more armaments?
Answer: Of course, the Armenian troops were better prepared for the war. They had been formed into groups and wore uniform. They had armaments, a part of which they got after sacking our Armenia-based depots. They were supplied with food and the local Armenian authorities strongly supported those bands.
Question: You spent only half a year in Karabakh. But your sons were with you there, also combating. Could you speak about them?
Answer: They commanded battalions there. We had a plenty of units there - the division of Dzerzhinski in Stepanakert (Khankendi - Trend's comment) and Garrisons at the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. My sons were in the battalions of the internal forces. Andrey was in the Krasnodar battalion and Sergey in Ivanovsk police battalion. The battalions were replacing each other in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Question: Who from the Azerbaijan side took part in the combats - militants or people's volunteer corpses?
Answer: What militants?! There were just people's volunteer corpses. But they also vanished. Only Armenian bands remained.
Question: Who violated the border most of all?
Answer: Of course, it was Armenians. They violated the border with Azerbaijan every now and then, attempted to get into the local settlements, murdered the people, stole the herds of sheep, etc. One of the gangs of 50 Armenian militants disarmed me on a helicopter, together with the colonel of the interior forces. They wanted to penetrate into the area under our responsibility and I had flied to this region with a special division in a helicopter, after we were informed of the threat. The Armenian militants took refuge in the livestock farm among the civilians. Of course we could not fire as there were civilians who protected the farm from the stealing of the livestock. Then we proposed Armenians to lay down their arms. They came out one by one by throwing away their arms and I set all of them free. But, those in Baku told me that how could I dare to disarm the Armenian militants in the Armenian territory. However, it was not Armenian, but Azerbaijani territory. I could somehow get away.
Question: Who told you that the Armenia hired mercenaries for its army?
Answer: When we disarmed them we tried to talk to them, even through an interpreter in Armenian language. But they would not understand anything. It was obvious that they were mercenaries, particularly the Arabs. Most of them did not speak Armenian language at all. As I remember, we were fired on when the experienced Kochelnikov- the head of the crew, flied over the Armenian population. One of the bullets fell to the gasoline tank and if we had not landed, the helicopter would have exploded. We came out of the helicopter with the colonel to see where the hole is and suddenly the colonel was fired. The bullet injured his muscle. We hid under the helicopter and I did the dressing of his wound. Fortunately, I had a medical package. As we could not fly to the border with the helicopter, we returned to the outpost; I changed the helicopter and flied to the border where one of soldiers spoke English. He had a wireless operator and he said that he had just received a phone call saying that General was killed. I was that General, the Armenians thought that they have killed me. But the Armenian militants killed my shift man Merzlikin and 27 people who flied with the representatives of Azerbaijani government, also with the Prosecutor General. This is a well-known tragedy that took place in November 1991, in Karabakh.
Question: When did you begin to publish your memories about Karabakh?
Answer: About in 1993-1994. They were published in newspapers Pravda, Pravda Rossii, Moskovskaya Pravda, and Krasnaya Zvezda.
Question: Taking into consideration the pro-Armenian spirit in the press and one-sided publication of Karabakh conflict, how did you manage to get your work published in the press? After all, you were telling the truth?
Answer: I could somehow do it. Gorbachov and his government had a mean attitude towards it. When the strife between Armenians and Azerbaijanis began, none of the members of his government flied to the region. They did not fly to Skinvali and Fargana as well. The orders to impose a curfew were very late, when it was almost impossible to stop a war. But we needed those orders on time, as they would have given us legal basis to arrest the militants.
Question: It turns that due to the inactivity of the Soviet bodies, you yourself decided the destiny of the people - disarm, release, etc?
Answer: Yes, practically it was so because I could not arrest them due to the absence of legal grounds.
Question: Certainly, you repeatedly talked with the Armenian fighters arrested by you. How did they explain why they took arms? What did they want and what did they achieve?
Answer: I should confess that many of them fought for money. They themselves also did not hide it. They were paid, fed free of charge. Practically, the ideological inspirer of this hostility was the writers -such as Zori Balayan. Exactly, they set the local population and fighters against the Azerbaijanis.
Question: Although 20 years have passed, the conflict still remains unsettled. In your opinion, how is it possible to settle it? The peace between the Azerbaijanis and Armenians is an abstract understanding after the events that had occurred, or is it possible?
Answer: Hundreds of thousands of innocent people have suffered. The Azerbaijanis were forced to leave their Native Lands. The Azerbaijanis in Nagorno-Karabakh were oppressed. I think that the only way of settling this conflict is the peaceful negotiations. During the summit in the Slavic Square in Moscow on 15 November 2004, I gave a speech on this issue and stated that only peaceful talks can normalize the situation. There is no other way. Otherwise, people will again suffer. Nevertheless, the local Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh was not armed; they also became hostages of these fighters - Armenian fighters and mercenaries. The local population sustained provocations. Many provocations were made by the foreign forces in order to establish hostility between the Azerbaijanis and Armenians. By the way, I talked to many heads from both the sides. They supported peaceful settlement of the problem. However, some forces- who were not interested in it urged on continuation of the armed collision.
Question: Besides Zori Balayan, who displayed special activity in order to further worsen the situation and create war between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis?
Answer: Robert Kocharyan. Yes, exactly him. He was a commander of an armed gang. He headed the detached forces and these events took place exactly under his leadership. I heard much about him and his activities, but I could not meet with him. Even the Armenian fighters committed pogroms against the local Armenian population who helped removal of the internal troops. Home of one Armenian was blown up in Martuni on 14 July 1990. Certain time later, a radio centre in Stepanakert (Khankendi - Trend's comment), passenger trains were blown up. Later, the Armenian fighters blew up the inter-city bus (Tbilisi-Agdam) which led to the death of 24 passengers.
Question: What facts can testify availability of equipment with the Armenian fighters?
Answer: I remember how the Upper Askipara village of Azerbaijan's Gazakh region was fired by the Armenian guns, and we entered the village with armoured personnel to save the peaceful population. It means that, already in 1990, the Armenians had many heavy techniques. The Armenian fighters often attacked and robbed our storehouses and stole our arms. They were armed well, practically everybody had submachine guns. On 29 Feb 1992, the final Soviet and Russian troops were removed from Karabakh.
Question: Who suffered more from the war?
Answer: You know Azerbaijanis have suffered most from the war. That all happened in front of my eyes, that is why I say facts. I witnessed how the blood of Azerbaijanis, thousands of innocent people, was shed. Hundreds of people were brutally murdered by Armenian militants, hundreds thousand people had to leave their own lands - Nagorno-Karabakh. Therefore, it was very pity for me to see all that. I was worried about Azerbaijanis.
Question: Do you still have Azerbaijani friends?
Answer: Probably. But for a long period I have not been to Azerbaijan. The last time I visited Baku was in 1991. With great pleasure, I would like to visit the country again.
Question: Are you going to write anything more about Karabakh?
Answer: I am publishing the book about Karabakh with the support of the Federal National Cultural Autonomy of Azerbaijanis in Russia.