THE CAUCASIAN KNOT

THE CAUCASIAN KNOT

The History er Geopolitics of

Nagorno-Karabagh

LEVON CHORBAJIAN
PATRICK DONABEDIAN
CLAUDE MUTAFIAN

0
ZED BOOKS
LONDON & NEW JERSEY
 The Caucasian Knot was first published by
Zed Books Ltd, 7 Cynthia Street, London NI 9JF, UK, and
165 First Avenue, Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey 07716, USA,
in 1994.

Copyright C Levon Chorbajian, Patrick Donabedian and

Claude Mutafian, 1994 CONTENTS

Cover design by Andrew Corbett.

Laserset by Opus 43, Cumbria, UK. List of Maps
Printed and Bound in the United Kingdom About the Authors
by Biddies Ltd, Guildford and King's Lynn Transliteration Note
Preface by Gerard Chaliand
All rights reserved Maps

The right of the authors of 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDITION 1

this work has been asserted by them in Levon Chorbajian
accordance with the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act, 1988. Armenia and Karabagh: An Overview 4
Is Islam a Factor in the Struggle for Nagorno-Karabagh? 9
A catalogue record for this book The Azerbaijani Claim to Nagomo-Karabag)i 11
is available from the British Library. Military and Related Issues 13
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Armenian and Azerbaijani
US CIP data is available from Economies 18
the Library of Congress. The Politics of the Armenian Question and the Karabagh Question 22
Other Interested Parties: the US, Russia, Turkey, Iran, Great
ISBN 1 85649 287 7 Hb Britain, the UN and the CSCE 31
ISBN 1 85649 288 5 Pb Escalating Violence 37
2 INTRODUCTION 49
Patrick Donabedian and Claude Mutafsan
3 THE HISTORY OF KARABAGH FROM ANTIQUITY
TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 51
Patrick Donabedian
5
Karabagh and Mountainous Karabagh 1
The Eastern Provinces of Armenia until the Fifth Century Artsakh and Utik in Albania 5
The Descendants of Arran 2
Church and Language in Albania 5
Following the 'Albanian Episode': Arab Occupation The Kingdoms and the Seljuk Invasion 4
5
 III An Appeal from the Armenian National Council of Karabagh
`Albanian': An Ambiguous Concept 63 to Colonel Haskell, High Commissioner in Armenia, to
The Princes of Khachen after the Seljuks 64 Undertake Measures to Liberate Karabagh from Azerbaijani
A Grand Armenian Prince under the Mongols 66 Authorities and Troops Who Have Organized Pogroms and
The Long Ordeal of the Mongol and Turkmen Occupations 68 Massacres of Armenians (Tiflis, 18 August 1919)
70 IVA Declaration of the Revolutionary Committee of Azerbaijan, 176
The Armenian Meliks under Persian Occupation
Rebirth of the Idea of Independence 72 Signed by Narimanov, President of the Committee, and Huseinov,
The Eighteenth Century: The Turks Enter Mountainous Karabagh 74 People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs (30 November 1920)
NB Declaration of Narimanov at the Baku Soviet (1 December 1920) 178
Armenians and Turks in Karabagh 76 178
VA Propositions Put to a Vote by the Caucasian Bureau (of the
The Nineteenth Century: Russia Enters the Scene 77
Communist Party) on the Status of Karabagh (Tiflis, 4 July 1921)
Under Russian Administration 79 VB Decision of the Caucasian Bureau (of the Communist Party) 178
Ambiguity in the Term 'Azerbaijani' 80 on the Status of Karabagh (Tiflis, 5 July 1921)
A Brief Survey of Art History 82 VIA Special Session of the 20th Meeting of the Deputies of the Soviet of the 179
Autonomous Region of Mountainous Karabagh. Text of the
109 Resolution by the Parliament of the Autonomous Region of Mountainous
KARABAGH IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Karabagh Requesting Incorporation into Soviet Armenia (20 February
Claude Mutafian 1988) 180
109
VIB Decision of the Plenum of the Regional Committee of
Russian Transcaucasia 111
Mountainous Karabagh of the Azerbaijani Communist Party
The Turn of the Century 112 Concerning the Demand of the Proletariat and Communists
The Armeno-Tatar War 113 of the Region to Reattach the Autonomous Region of
From 1906 to 1918 180
115 Mountainous Karabagh to the Armenian SSR (17 March 1988)
The Rescue of Armenian Karabagh 118 VII Letter from Andrei Sakharov Addressed to the Secretary General
Great Britain against Karabagh 124 of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union,
The Destruction of Shushi 127 M. S. Gorbachev (21 March 1988) (excerpts)
Soviet Azerbaijan 131 VIII Resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR
Rejecting the Reunification of Mountainous Karabagh with
The Fall of the Armenian Republic 133 Armenia (23 March 1988) 181
Soviet Armenia 134 DC Resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the
The Separation of Karabagh from Armenia 137 Azerbaijani SSR Concerning the Appeal Made by the Deputies of the 182
The Autonomous Region of Mountainous Karabagh 139 People's Soviet of the Autonomous Region of Mountainous
Azerbaijani Politics 140 Karabagh to Transfer the Region from the Azerbaijani SSR
Red Kurdistan to the Armenian SSR (13 June 1988)
141
The Exodus of Armenians from Karabagh X Speech by Henrik Poghosian, First Secretary of the Regional 183
144
Early Attempts at Reunification with Armenia Committee of Mountainous Karabagh, Communist Patty of
147
The Era of Perestroika Azerbaijan, before the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the
149 USSR (18 July 1988) (excerpts) 184
1988 — An Historic Year 155
The Impasse XI The Mediation Mission of Andrei Sakharov as Interpreted by
Ziya Buniyatov, Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan
(15 April 1989) (excerpts) 187
CONCLUSION 171 XII Analysis by Ziya Buniyatov, Azerbaijani Academician,
Patrick Donabedian and Claude Mutafian Concerning the Events in Karabagh and Sumgait
(13 May 1989) (excerpts) 188
174
XIII Interview with Elena Bonner, Widow of Andrei Sakharov,
in Le Reno (26 July 1990) (excerpts) 189
APPENDICES
XIV Interview with Galina Starovoitova, Deputy in the
Letter from the Commander in Chief in Zangezur (Andranik) 174 Supreme Soviet of the USSR, in Hama,
to the Commander of Allied Troops in Baku Concerning the 190
(19 September 1990) (excerpts)
Immediate Ban on Azerbaijani Troop Concentrations in 175
Karabagh and Zangezur (March 1919) INDEX 192
Declaration of H. Bahatrian, Karabagh Armenian National Council
Representative, on the Situation in Karabagh (21 March 1919)
LIST OF MAPS
1 Greater Armenia and the Provinces of Artsakh and Utik from
the First to the Fifth Centuries
Patrick Donabedian
2 The Marzpanate of Albania and the Provinces of Artsakh
and Utik from the Fifth to the Seventh Centuries
Patrick Donabedian
3 The Near East and Transcaucasia
Claude Mutafian
4 Transcaucasia
Claude Mutafian
5 The Autonomous Region of Mountainous Karabagh
Patrick Donabedian and Claude Mutafian
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Levon Chorbajian is Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts-
Lowell. He specializes in racial and ethnic minorities and has edited two
xvii sociology texts. In 1986-1987 he lived and taught in Soviet Armenia as a
Fulbright Senior Lecturer. He has translated Pierre Verluise's Armenie: La
Fracture, published in English as Armenia in Crisis: The 1988 Earthquake
(Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994).
xviii
Patrick Donabedian is cultural attache at the French Embassy in Yerevan.
xix Trained as an art historian, he is a graduate of the University of Paris X—
Nanterre and holds a PhD from the Academy of Fine Arts in Leningrad. His
work on the medieval art of Transcaucasia, in particular Karabagh, has taken
xx him to the USSR, where he lived for several years. He is the author of numerous
studies published in specialized journals, and the co-author of Les Arts
Armeniens (Paris: Mazenod, 1987), published in English as Armenian Art (New
xxi York: Abrams, 1989).
Claude Mutafian is a former student at the Ecole Normale Superieure and a
graduate of the University. He is a Senior Lecturer in mathematics at the
University of Paris XIII—Villetaneuse. He is particularly interested in regions
of the Near East whose history is linked with that of Armenia. He has
published a series of algebra texts with Editions Vuibert and, more recently, La
Cilicie au carrefimr des empires (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1988).