KARABAKH CONFLICT STARTED IN 1988 BUT NOT IN 1992
ArmInfo
2010-04-13 13:38:00
ArmInfo. The Karabakh conflict started in 1988 but not in 1992,
when the Karabakh people responded to the pressure of Azerbaijanis
by demanding their right for independence, that has become the reason
of initiation of the war by Azerbaijan, NKR ex-Foreign Minister Arman
Melikyan told journalists today.
"Unfortunately, the current logic in the negotiating process is
stemming from the fact that the war was provoked by Armenia in 1992,
when Azerbaijan started losing the first territories. That is why the
logic of the Karabakh conflict settlement process is wrong, while
the problem of the world community could be correctly imagined if
the negotiations started from the right starting point", Melikyan said.
According to him, it is inadmissible to continue the negotiation
process in the same course as Armenia does not need making concessions
and demonstrating such a readiness to the whole world.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict broke out on February 28 1988 in the
Azerbaijani Sumgait with massacre of Armenians as a peculiar response
of Azerbaijanis to the peaceful demand of the Nagorno-Karabakh
autonomous Region, part of the Azerbaijani SSR, to unite with the
Armenian SSR. This resulted in other pogroms of Armenians in Baku,
Kirovabad and other regions of Azerbaijan populated with Armenians. In
1991 Azerbaijan unleashed war against peaceful populations of
Nagorno-Karabakh, expulsing ethnic Armenians from the territory of
Azerbaijan. Dozens of thousands of peaceful residents on both parties
were killed in the military actions, and hundreds of thousands were
left homeless and have become refugees. In 1994 in Bishkek in mediation
of the OSCE MG, the NKR, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a Protocol on
Ceasefire that is observed more or less so far.