“Voluntary” Deportation

"Zerkalo/Ayna", March 1998, #9.

Fifty years ago Stalin signed a decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the deportation of the Azerbaijanis who lived in the Armenian SSR.

Regrettably, March is not only the period of festive Novruz for the Azeris. This year besides the 80th anniversary of the Azerbaijani Genocide in 1918 we also commemorate another tragic event - 50 years since Stalin, the father of the nations, signed the decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated March 10th 1947 on the forced deportation of Azeris living on the territory of the Armenian SSR.

Today probably most of us know the scale of the tragedy that was inflicted on us. Nevertheless, true scope of the tragic deportation of hundreds of thousands of our compatriots from the Azerbaijani lands is still not accurately determined. Only those who are responsible for that event are known for sure. In this context, the directive of the Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev on The Mass Deportation of the Azerbaijanis from their Historic Home on the territory of the Armenian SSR is a particularly important document that reflects the underlying causes of the events.

Unfortunately, the deportation of the Azeris from the Armenian SSR has not been thoroughly investigated and analyzed from the political and legal standpoint. In order to accomplish this task and provide the international community with all the necessary facts Heydar Aliyev created a state committee in charge of this investigation. The President himself heads the commission.

Mr. Fuad Akhundov from the President's press service courteously handed our associates the texts of the decrees of the Council of the Ministers of the USSR from December 23rd 1947 and March 10th 1948 signed by Stalin: “On the resettlement of the Kolkhoz farmers and other people of the Azerbaijani descent from the Armenian SSR to the Kura-Araz valley of the Azerbaijan SSR”. Just a few quotations from that document will be enough to understand what policy it pursued.

You can notice the cynicism from the first paragraph: “To resettle 100,000 farmers and other workers of the Azerbaijani nationality from the Armenian SSR to the Kura-Araz valley of Azerbaijan SSR on a voluntary basis”. Another sentence in the decree explains how “voluntary” the resettlement was:” The heads of the ministries, enterprises and institutions must terminate the employment of all the citizens moving from the Armenian SSR to the Kura-Araz valley of the Azerbaijan SSR.”

In its second decree (1948) the Council of Ministers even “allowed” the Council of Ministers of Azerbaijan to set up a temporary representative mission in the Armenian SSR in order to implement the deportation decision. One section in the document is inconceivable even for those horrible times. It clearly demonstrates how the Soviet leadership headed by Stalin himself “danced to the Armenian tune”: “To permit the Council of Ministers of the Armenian SSR to settle the FOREIGN ARMENIANS (capitalized in the original text) who arrive in the Armenian SSR in the houses and apartments vacated by the Azerbaijanis because of their move to the Kura-Araz valley of the Azerbaijan SSR.” The allegations that it referred to the residents of the other Soviet republics are preposterous since at that time there was only” one single motherland-USSR”. All these actions were taken in the period when any links with abroad let alone having any relatives behind “the cordon” would inevitable be considered high treason. A slight suspicion in such activities led to the accusations in espionage for foreign secret services and execution of hundreds of thousands of the Soviet citizens. Apparently, this attitude did not pertain to the Armenians and Armenia since we can see that the Council of the Ministers of the USSR legitimized such ties.

The deportation of the Azeris can not be compared to any other deportation. It is fundamentally different from that of Chechens, Ingushs, Kazaks, Crimean Tatars etc. In our case, it was an unprecedented ethnic cleansing that was repeated during the Karabakh war. These facts clarify the issue why Armenia has become a mono-national state. The lessons of the past are used successfully again. Certain people including some in Russia look at these events from a different angle by participating in the celebrations of “the 10th anniversary of Nagorno Karabakh's independence”.

Azerbaijan will soon obtain an access to the International Tribunal at The Hague. Besides other facts of the Azerbaijani Genocide by the Armenians we must raise the question of the mass deportation, one of the darkest pages of our history.

E.Kamiloglu, article in “Zerkalo”

Translated from Russian by Ferhad Abasov.