BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept. 21
Trend:
In the last years of the Soviet Union, great injustices were committed against Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview to Azerbaijan Television, Ictimai Television, and Real Television following a groundbreaking ceremony of the offshore operations of the Absheron field at the Heydar Aliyev Baku Deep Water Jackets Plant, Trend reports.
“In particular, the executioner of the Azerbaijani people Gorbachev and his gang hated Azerbaijan – in fact, not only Azerbaijanis but also all the Muslims. I know for sure that they had a strong feeling of hatred. As a result, the Armenians revolted and demanded that Nagorno-Karabakh be separated from Azerbaijan and joined to Armenia. This happened just two weeks after Heydar Aliyev was removed from the Politburo. The Heydar Aliyev factor did not allow them to raise their head. However, Gorbachev's immediate entourage consisted of Armenians, and no action was taken against this baseless claim. On the contrary, at that time Gorbachev's government sided with the Armenians by 100 percent, and the first steps were taken to separate Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan. Of course, some people in Azerbaijan may not remember or know this, but this history musty be remembered. At that time, the Soviet government decided to establish a special committee in Nagorno-Karabakh, and Gorbachev's aide Volsky was appointed to that committee. Volsky was a staunch pro-Armenian, and while he was working there, he did his best to erase Azerbaijan's historical heritage from Nagorno-Karabakh. The first signs of the policy of ethnic cleansing appeared in Khankandi. The Azerbaijanis were practically driven out of Khankandi while Volsky was there. In this way, the opportunity was created for the alienation of Nagorno-Karabakh from the rest of Azerbaijan,” the head of state said.
Unfortunately, President Ilham Aliyev said, the Azerbaijani leadership at that time treated these processes only as an observer, did not raise its voice, and did not speak up.
“They acted very cowardly and did not want to spoil relations with the center. The people who governed Azerbaijan at the time betrayed the Azerbaijani people. This was followed by the bloody January tragedy. Executioner Gorbachev committed a massacre against peaceful citizens. The blood of the Azerbaijani people was shed. Then came the Khojaly genocide. Together with ruthless Armenian detachments, the Khojaly genocide was perpetrated by the 366th Regiment of the Soviet Union. Yes, the Armenians made up the overwhelming majority of servicemen in this regiment, but it was a regiment of the Soviet Union that played a decisive role in ethnic cleansing against the Azerbaijanis, the Khojaly genocide, and the occupation of our lands. Otherwise, the Armenians could not have occupied our lands on their own,” the head of state said.
“So we have witnessed all this. Azerbaijan has made an invaluable contribution to the victory of the Soviet Union in World War II – both here in the rear and at the front. A ceremony to liberate the Sambek Heights was recently held in the Rostov Region of Russia. I am very grateful to the governor of Rostov where the heroic work and selflessness of Azerbaijanis have been recognized. At the same time, Russia's state television, Rossiya-1, interviewed me on this issue. Because it was the Azerbaijanis, the 416th Taganrog Division, who cleared the Sambek Heights and the Rostov Region from the Nazis. About 12,000 people served in this division. But the absolute majority of them, more than 11,000 people, were Azerbaijanis. The division was reorganized three times because there were extremely many casualties. They cleared Rostov from the Nazis, did not allow the Nazis in Mozdok to cross into Baku. We did that, the heroic people of Azerbaijan did. Azerbaijani officer Majidov planted the Victory flag on the Brandenburg Gate. But is this in the history books? No! Whoever you ask, most people don't know. Why? Because this history was erased. The heroism of the Azerbaijanis was erased from history,” the Azerbaijani president said.
President Ilham Aliyev noted that at that time, those sitting in Moscow – Mikoyans and similar anti-Azerbaijani elements – bent over backward to conceal the heroism of the Azerbaijanis.
“Mehdi Huseynzade is a legendary partisan who was given the title of a Hero of the Soviet Union at the insistence of the Azerbaijani side years after the war. While in Slovenia, I visited his grave. We held a big ceremony there. There I saw Slovenians fighting with him. They were crying. I talked to them because their impressions were very interesting. They were saying that there was no such hero elsewhere in the world. In other words, this was concealed and deliberately hushed up,” the head of state said.