Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 21 / Trend E.Mehdiyev /
First blood in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was shed on Feb 22, 1988. Two days earlier, on Feb 20, the Council of People's Deputies of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region decided to secede from the Azerbaijan SSR and the join the Armenian SSR, head of the Center of Political Innovations and Technologies, a political scientist Mubariz Ahmedoglu reminded at a briefing on Tuesday.
As it's known, the Azerbaijani population of Nagorno-Karabakh met with dissatisfaction that decision. The population of the Aghdam region joined peaceful protest, which was held on February 22 by locals of the Askeran region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
But at a time when the parties actually reached an agreement and began to loom the possibility of a peaceful return of the Azerbaijani population, the Armenians opened fire and killed two young Azerbaijanis, Mr Ahmedoglu recalled.
"Due to the fact that this crime has not received at the time a proper assessment, four days after this, on Feb 26 Armenians organized the murder of their own countrymen- Armenians in Sumgait. But apparently, the blood shed during the Sumgayit events also didn't satisfy them, and they committed many other murders, including the Khojaly genocide," the political scientist said.
The theoretical and ideological foundations of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was laid in late November 1987 in an interview, which then-economic adviser to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, ethnic Armenian academician Abel Aghanbekyan gave to the French newspaper "L'Humanite"," the political scientist noted.
"Proposal of academician economist Aghanbekyan on the exclusion of Nagorny Karabakh from the Azerbaijan SSR and its inclusion in the Armenian SSR was an event, which affected the economic situation in the USSR as a whole," Mr Ahmedoglu believes.
An article in "L'Humanite" was not the only support that the French gave to the Armenians, and in 1987 the European Parliament, with the active participation of the French socialists adopted a resolution recognizing the "Armenian genocide", he stressed.
Mr Ahmedoglu said Armenia and its leaders have always used the Christian factor in their interests, they still continue to do so.
"Before getting into the presidential chair Serzh Sargsyan in the United States called Armenia 'last stronghold of Christianity in the South'. And now the leaders of Armenia during their visits to other countries under the brand name of "cultural cooperation" sign various agreements. In fact, the cultural co-operation in the minds of Armenians means Christian solidarity," the political scientist noted.
The Armenians are forced to engage in massive fraud, as everything connected with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is against their position, said Mr Ahmedoglu. Therefore, the Armenians are trying to change the name of the "Nagorno-Karabakh" by "Artsakh". But their efforts have not yielded significant results.
He said the turning point in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict can occur at any time. The processes occurring in the international arena, including in Europe, provide the basis for this turn.
"Any change will be to the detriment of Armenia. Armenia, which doesn't take into consideration, or neutralize the initiatives put forward by the president of Russia at a meeting in Sochi, may face a persistent pressure from France," - said Ahmedoglu.