Soviet Azerbaijan Research Articles

Evaluating the Triadic Relationship between the Armenian Diaspora, Armenia’s Cultural Identity, and the Artsakh War: Toward a Sustainable Map of Peace

The Nagorno-Karabakh war is an ethnic, religious, and territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Artsakh, an Armenian enclave situated within Azerbaijan. The modern conflict began in 1988 when Armenians demanded that Artsakh be transferred from Soviet Azerbaijan to Soviet Armenia. The dispute escalated into a full-scale war in the early 1990s. A ceasefire signed in 1994 provided for two decades of relative stability, but escalations in April 2016, and most recently in October 2020, renewed the antagonism. More than 30 years have passed with no resolution, costing thousands of lives and millions of dollars. Culture and heritage shape values, beliefs, and aspirations, defining a people’s identity. Here I explore the relationship between Armenia’s cultural identity and its survival and assess whether Armenia can preserve its cultural identity even if it relinquishes the territory of Artsakh. Armenia’s withdrawal from the remaining areas of Artsakh, in exchange for renumeration from Azerbaijan, financial and military assistance from the European Union (EU), and financial and logistical assistance from Azerbaijan, the EU, and the United States, with relocation of Artsakh Armenians to Armenia proper, would trigger a permanent end to unnecessary human suffering.

Հայերի նկատմամբ զանգվածային բռնությունների նախահիմքերը Ադրբեջանի քաղաքականությունում

This work aims at revealing the premises of the mass violations’ policy in different periods of Azerbaijani statehood and the grounds which the Armenian pogroms were later carried out on. The objective of the work is to substantiate the consistent and continuous nature of the state-level policy of ethnic discrimination based on the study of separate episodes of such a policy pursued by the Azerbaijani authorities, regardless of the phase features of the Azerbaijani statehood formation and development. The work is written by a combined examination of facts, applying the principles of historical analysis. Based on the results of the study, the 1988-1990 mass violations against Armenians in the Soviet Azerbaijan, which expressed themselves in the form of ethnic cleansing and genocidal manifestations, were not just reactive localized crimes, and consequently, the circle of those responsible for them could not have been limited to separate implementers. The violence against Armenians has been an extreme manifestation of a decades-long policy.

Observing Iran from Baku: Iranian Studies in Soviet and Post-Soviet Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani national identity emerged in post-Persian Russian-ruled East Caucasia at the end of the nineteenth century, and was finally forged during the early Soviet period. After the fiasco of the short-lived independence period of 1918–20, Azerbaijan became Soviet. Soviet power then instrumentalized Azerbaijan for political and ideological penetration into Iran by galvanizing local separatist movements. Azerbaijani Iranology was shaped within Soviet oriental studies and put into service of Azerbaijani nation-building. Exiled Iranian communists found asylum in Baku, joined local research institutions, wrote the first Persian academic and school textbooks, and contributed to the translation of classic Persian poetry into Azerbaijani. Soviet Azerbaijani Iranologists were sent as translators to the Soviet missions to Iran and Afghanistan. After Azerbaijan regained independence in 1991, its Iranological infrastructure was represented by several departments at the National Academy of Sciences and the Iranian Studies Program at Baku State University. While the number of Persian classes at schools during the last three decades diminished, a new generation of post-Soviet Iranologists—those who studied in Iran—emerged. While Soviet Azerbaijani Iranologists never created a solid bilingual dictionary of Persian, several Persian–Azerbaijani and Azerbaijani–Persian dictionaries were published in the 2010s. Post-Soviet Azerbaijani Iranology is still trying to find its place within humanities in the transitional nation.

THE PREPARATION OF SUMGAIT MASSACRES

This article aims at analyzing the facts and data on the mass violence including the facts about the preparation phase of murders and tortures against Armenians in the city of Sumgait in Soviet Azerbaijan from February 27th to 29th, 1988. The objective of the work is to substantiate the organized and coordinated nature of the mass violence through the analysis of actions aimed at preparing for the Sumgait massacres. The work is written by a combined examination of facts, applying the principles of historical analysis. Based on the results of the study, it can be asserted that in the period from February 27th to 29th, 1988, the persecution, murders, physical and psychological violence against Armenians in the city of Sumgait were thoroughly prepared. The massacres had organized nature. There is a lot of evidence proving that the actions of the slaughterers, the sowing of artificial hatred against Armenians, the systematic collection of data on the Armenian population of the city were planned and coordinated and the items used by criminals as weapons were prepared for that very purpose.

ARMENIAN ISSUE IN SOVIET-TURKISH RELATIONS IN 1921

The article studies Soviet and Turkish approaches to Armenia and its territorial problems after Sovietization of the republic. Traditionally Russia and Turkey were adversaries and the Caucasus was the main area of their active rivalry. The research shows that Moscow Treaty on Friendship and Brotherhood signed in 1921 was as not the final point of geopolitical contest. It proceeded after the treaty but was not as apparent as in the past. The unsolved Armenian issue became one of the obstacles to the full inclusion of the Transcaucasia into the Bolsheviks sphere of power. The Kemal and Bolshevik governments weren’t able to begin state building without getting over conflicts in the national peripheries. In the Armenian question, Soviet Russia turned out to be more compliant than in other Caucasian contradictions. It was important to maintain influence in Soviet Azerbaijan, to gain a foothold in Georgia and not to cede Batum to Turkey. On the other hand, Turkey refused to implement the Treaty of Alexandropol, as it needed Russian assistance in the struggle for independence. The novelty of the research lies in the study of Armenian issue as a part of Soviet and Turkey within international and regional framework of both governments policy. The author introduced into scientific use the archival documents of the Foreign Policy Archive of the Russian Federation and the Russian Archive of Social and Political History. The unpublished material shows the diplomatic backstage that accompanied the seemingly peaceful interaction between Turkey and Soviet Russia. First, the order of events in 1921 was studied consistently, which became a turning point in the solution of the Armenian question. Armenia, having found itself an object of rivalry between two quite young states with an unstable position, lost a number of territories and the chances for restoration within the boundaries defined by the Treaty of Sevres. The denouement was also possible in connection with the position of the leading world powers, which actually left the Caucasus as a sphere of influence and were keen on resolving other problems of the post-war world

Informal Practices in the Making of Professionals: The Case of Engineers in Soviet and Post-Soviet Azerbaijan

This study expands the understanding of the role of informality in post-socialist professions by examining the use of informal practices by an under-researched professional group of engineers in Azerbaijan. We use in-depth interviews with engineers educated in Soviet and post-Soviet periods to trace changes and continuities in the use of informal practices in their education and work. The study found that although many practices inherited from the Soviet period (e.g. bribery in higher education and nepotism in employment) have undermined professional standards, others, such as reliance on interpersonal professional networks and reputations, have helped to transmit professional knowledge and preserve professional values. We argue that informality has a dual impact on the engineering profession in Azerbaijan: some informal practices undermine professionalism while others help to sustain it.

Milli Bilincin İdame Ettiricisi Olarak Din: Sovyet Azerbaycan'ında İslam

Milli Bilincin İdame Ettiricisi Olarak Din: Sovyet Azerbaycan'ında İslam

Turkey’s July 15th Coup: What Happened and Why

Turkey’s July 15th Coup: What Happened and Why

Looking at the past

The article describes the reminiscences of Oleksnadr Bozhko, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Armenia. Having arrived to Yerevan as the first Ambassador of independent Ukraine, the author became a witness to the events that initially led to a long-lasting political crisis, and subsequently to the unconstitutional change of Armenian government. The article analyses the tumultuous events that Ukrainian Embassy faced immediately after its opening in September 1996. At that time, the Armenian society, which for years had been patiently overcoming numerous abuses of power, the arbitrariness of oligarchs, bureaucratic corruption and bribery at courts, broke out with a riot of peaceful disobedience. It was the time when the reminiscences of the fierce Armenian-Azerbaijani War for Nagorno-Karabakh of 1991–1994 were still in minds of people when society had been drawn into an exhaustible internal political confrontation on the eve of the presidential elections. The more electoral confrontation grew, the more dissatisfying was the population with the leadership of the state. Eventually the state of emergency was introduced in the country. These factors affected further activities of Ukrainian diplomats. It was important to quickly find premises suitable for a diplomatic mission and to carry out the diplomatic procedures necessary for the launch of Embassy’s activities. The author states with sorrow that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia did not even find money to fuel a car and bring Ukrainian delegation to Yerevan. Shattered roads that have long been unrepaired, queues near bakeries and kerosene selling points, semi-empty store shelves and even faded eyes of those, with whom the author communicated, – those were sad realities of the Armenian life in the mid-nineties. The formation of the diplomatic services in both countries was carried out under difficult conditions, likewise the maintenance of diplomats’ activity in Ukraine was similarly poor then. The article also describes that the stumbling point in Ukrainian-Armenian relations was an issue of Nagorno-Karabakh. The principle of territorial integrity was one of the fundamental in security sphere of Ukraine, whereas Armenia, which acted as guarantor of Nagorno-Karabakh security, adhered to the principle of self-determination of the nation. In this respect, Armenian politicians considered everything related to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. This dramatic problem was originated from 1921, when Nagorno-Karabakh was included to the Azerbaijani SSR. The policy of displacing the Armenians from their ancestral lands, which was deliberately carried out by the authorities of Soviet Azerbaijan, caused frustration of Armenians, dozens of thousands of whom had lived in that territory for centuries. The author analyses the cooperation with the Directorate for Political Analysis and Planning of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine regarding the defining Ukraine’s possible position in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. The author emphasizes that the article is not just a diplomatic memoirs but also an attempt to comprehend what has happened to us over the past two decades, looking back at the past experience. Keywords: Armenia, Embassy of Ukraine, Nagorno-Karabakh, Ukrainian-Armenian relations.

Soviet Civilization through a Persian Lens: Iranian Intellectuals, Cultural Diplomacy and Socialist Modernity 1941–55

During the Second World War and its immediate aftermath the Soviet All-Union Society for Cultural Ties Abroad (VOKS) engaged in an aggressive campaign of cultural outreach in Iran to promote socialist modernity amongst Iranian leftists. Iran represented VOKS’ first serious expansion outside Europe and one which the Soviet Union was uniquely poised to exploit. VOKS tapped into the Soviet Union's orientalist scholarly establishment inherited from the Russian Empire to advance the argument that not only were Iran and the Soviet Union geographically contiguous, they were both inheritors of the same Persianate cultural legacy—ironically a legacy that the Soviet Union had actively displaced in favor of Turkic national SSRs. Meanwhile, Iranian leftists were not passive receivers of Soviet propaganda. They exploited VOKS resources to found the Iranian Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR and establish regional branches throughout the country. In particular, Iranian intellectuals fixated on Soviet Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan as evidence of the abundant possibilities for a specifically Persianate articulation of socialist modernity. This article uses both Russian archival sources and Persian-language periodicals and interview transcripts to explore this unique confluence of Soviet and Iranian ambitions.

The Soviet Union and the Construction of Azerbaijani National Identity in the 1930s

Although the titular nation of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic was Turkic speaking and had strong cultural and historical ties with Iran, the Soviet regime constructed a national identity that was divorced from its Turkic and Iranian past. The current literature cannot provide the exact period when this construction was put forward and generally argues that the Azerbaijani identity was artificially created as part of a broader “divide-and-rule” policy that was applied to all the Turkic nations in the Soviet Union. However, this thesis by itself does not explain why this change from a Turkic identity to an Azerbaijani one happened seventeen years after the Bolsheviks assumed power in Baku, and its simple causation makes it sound more like a conspiracy theory, which had a certain popularity in the Cold War era, than a scholarly argument. By presenting a broader view, the paper explains why and when the national identity in Soviet Azerbaijan was altered from Turkic to Azerbaijani. It argues that there were many factors that induced the Bolsheviks to take this extraordinary step in 1937. In fact, the change in defining national identity in Azerbaijan was a result of a combination of developments in the 1930s in Turkey, Iran, Germany, and the Soviet Union. The article concludes that these developments left Soviet rulers no choice but to construct an independent Azerbaijani identity.

From Landscapes to Labscapes: Malaria Research and Anti-Malaria Policy in Soviet Azerbaijan, 1920–41

From Landscapes to Labscapes: Malaria Research and Anti-Malaria Policy in Soviet Azerbaijan, 1920–41

Red Passage to Iran: The Baku Trade Fair and the Unmaking of the Azerbaijani Borderland, 1922–1930

Резюме: С 1922 по 1930 г. Бакинская торговая ярмарка играла ключевую роль в экономических отношениях СССР и Ирана. Задуманная азербайджанскими лидерами как способ усилить свое влияние в Закавказской Советской Федеративной Социалистической Республике в противовес Москве, ярмарка поддерживала традиционно глубокую экономическую интеграцию хозяйства советского Азербайджана и приграничных провинций Северного Ирана. Пространственная революция, сопровождавшая становление и консолидацию большевистского режима, стала причиной изменения характера советских окраин и разрушения традиционных трансграничных экономических и культурных связей. Свертывание нэпа усилило напряжение между иранскими купцами и советскими торговыми организациями, подрывая экономическое значение ярмарки. После первого кризиса Бакинской ярмарки (1926−1927) она стала объектом нарастающей критики и в итоге была закрыта в 1930 г. Прекращение Бакинской ярмарки свидетельствовало об успешной трансформации советских окраин и окончательном разрушении традиционных связей Азербайджана с Ираном и Ближним Востоком.

HISTORICAL CONDITIONS OF ETHNIC AND POLITICAL CONFLICTS IN SOUTH CAUCASUS – SELECTED PROBLEMS

The main subject of this article is the presentation of the historical backgrounds of the contemporary conflicts over the Mountainous Karabagh, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The author describes the history of these regions from the beginning of the 19th century till 1992. The conquest of the South Caucasus by Imperial Russia in the 19th century resulted in the immigrations of Armenians to the Mountainous Karabagh, Ossetians to South Ossetia and Georgians to Abkhazia. These immigrations completely changed the ethnic compositions of these region. The Russian authorities supported the immigrations of pro-Russian Armenians and Ossetians.The political situation in these regions changed in 1918, when the independence of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan was declared. South Ossetia and Abkhazia were parts of independent Georgia, and the Mountainous Karabagh was dependent on Azerbaijan. Ossetians and Abkhazians resisted the Georgian authorities and Karabagh Armenians fought against Azerbaijan’s rule.After the conquest of the South Caucasus by Soviet Russia in 1920-1921, the Mountainous Karabagh remained part of Soviet Azerbaijan, and South Ossetia and Abkhazia remained part of Soviet Georgia. The Autonomous Oblast of Nagorno-Karabagh was created in the Mountainous Karabagh in 1923. The authorities of the Mountainous Karabagh were dominated by Karabagh Armenians and this region was practically independent of Soviet Azerbaijan. A similar situation was in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, especially after 1956.The development of Abkhazian and Ossetian national movements at the end of the 1980s led to the situation in which Abkhazians and South Ossetians claimed the political autonomy of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia, and then the independence of these regions. The Georgian authorities were against these claims, as they considered these regions to constitute the historical parts of Georgia. The political hostility between Georgia and South Ossetia resulted in South Ossetian-Georgian armed fighting in January 1991, and South Ossetia proclaimed its independence in November 1991. Moreover, the political conflict between the Georgian government and the Abkhazian authorities in the first half of 1992 turned into open war in August 1992.Karabagh Armenians claimed the incorporation of the Mountainous Karabagh into Soviet Armenia because of historical, ethnic, cultural and regional connections between the Mountainous Karabagh and Armenia. These claims were very strong from the end of 1980s, but Azerbaijan’s communist authorities and the Azerbaijan anti-communist movement wanted to retain the Karabagh region in Azerbaijan. The hostility between the local Armenian and Azerbaijan population of the Mountainous Karabagh turned into armed fighting in 1989. The Mountainous Karabagh proclaimed its independence in December 1991.

Definitions of national identity, nationalism and ethnicity in post-Soviet Azerbaijan in the 1990s

This article examines the major political debates in post-Soviet Azerbaijan vis à vis the very assumptions of individual autonomy, equality, national culture and citizenship, and universalism upon which modern nation-states have historically been based. The information presented in this article is based on personal interviews conducted with the leading and influential members of the Azerbaijani political elite in 1998. The interviews were based on two broad themes. The first relates to the perceptions of the Soviet period and on what grounds the Azerbaijanis differentiate the new Republic of Azerbaijan from the former Soviet Azerbaijan. The second relates to their perceptions of both the outside world and themselves with regards to differing understandings of nationalism, national culture, and national/ethnic or local identities. The study of the Azerbaijani example of post-Soviet political culture may help us to understand the dynamics of nation-building on the basis of the major political debates and of conflicting national, ethnic and local identities in Azerbaijan.

The Kurds and the Kurdish Language in Soviet Azerbaijan according to the All-Union Census of December 17, 1926

The Kurds and the Kurdish Language in Soviet Azerbaijan according to the All-Union Census of December 17, 1926

The Kurds of Soviet Azerbaijan, 1920-91

(2000). The Kurds of Soviet Azerbaijan, 1920-91. Central Asian Survey: Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 41-77.

The Kurds and the Kurdish Language in Soviet Azerbaijan according to the All-Union Census of December 17, 1926

The Kurds and the Kurdish Language in Soviet Azerbaijan according to the All-Union Census of December 17, 1926

The Ethnic dimension in international relations

Introduction: Ethnic-Nationalism and the New World Order of International Relations Ethno-Nationalism and International Relations Textbook Literature The Miskito Nation and the Geopolitics of Self-Determination Tibetan Ethno-Nationalism and International Politics Players or Playing Cards? The Palestinians and the Gulf Crisis Ethno-Nationalism and International Relations in Soviet Azerbaijan Harmonizing Competing Ethno-Nationalisms?: A Bill of Rights for a New South Africa Ethno-Nationalism in the Soviet Union: The Case of the Baltic States The Kurds The International Political Activism of Indigenous Peoples and the World System The Eritrean National Question

Civil-military relations in changing communist societies: A comparative study of China and the Soviet Union

The events that happened in 1989 in different parts of the communist world-in Yugoslavia’s Kosovo, in Soviet Georgia and Azerbaijan, in China’s Tiananmen Square, and in Bucharest, Romania-all have one thing in common; the conspicuous role played by the military. Indeed, as communism crumbles from Europe to Asia, it appears that the only force that might be able to stop the process is the armed forces controlled by the communist party. Suspicion and speculation of a possible Red Army coup against Mikhail Gorbachev and his reforms have existed both inside and outside the Soviet Union since Gorbachev came to power. Could and will the Tiananmen massacre be repeated in the Soviet Union? Why did the People’s Liberation Army act as it did in the spring of 1989? What factors facilitate the use or non-use of military force in the process of systematic change in communist societies? Have reforms produced different army behavior and divergent civil-military relations in the Soviet Union and China? If so, why? These important questions, surprisingly, have been addressed inadequately by Western academics. Before June, 1989, there was a general lack ofattention by Western analysts to internal developments within the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Consequently, the PLA’s action in Tiananman Square on June 4 shocked China-watchers in the West as well as the rest of the world.’ Research on the Soviet military in the last five years has, by and large, focused on disarmament, military strength, military doctrine and strategy, and issues related to East-West security. Few studies have concentrated on changes within the Soviet army and its relations with the communist party and with civilian society.? This study analyses internal developments in the armed forces and civil-military relations, and assesses the changing nature of the military in the PRC and the USSR. On the theoretical level, an effort to evaluate past theories under new circumstances is long overdue. From the late 1960s through the 1970s an extensive literature on civil-military relations in communist states, especially in the USSR and China, became available after many scholars rejected the totalitarian model of communist studies.3 Of