New details of ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijanis in Armenia – from Armenian nationalist

Blogger Albert Isakov posted on his Facebook page an excerpt from the book by Armenian nationalist Svetlana Markarian, which reveals the details of ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijanis in Armenia in the late 80s of the last century. 

The main, if I may say so, "hero" of what the nationalist wrote is Vazgen Sargsyan, a thug who later became Minister of Defense and then prime Minister and was shot by his own people during a terrorist attack in the Armenian parliament.

The author of the book describes in detail the expulsion of Azerbaijanis from the village of Khalisa in the Ararat region.  As follows from the book, during the period of ethnic cleansing in Soviet Armenia, all areas inhabited by Azerbaijanis and all Azerbaijani villages were divided between gangs of nationalists. Each gang was robbing the other's space for slaughter and robbery. The purpose of the massacre was not only to expel the Azerbaijanis, but also to appropriate their property. Vazgen Sargsyan also enriched himself by attacking Azerbaijani villages. And this process is described in great detail by Markarian. Everything was happening before her eyes.

Although Markarian's descriptions undoubtedly pursue their own goals, namely debunking the image of Sargsyan, who imprisoned her and her brother after the collapse of the Union, nevertheless, her testimony is very important. They destroy the arguments of today's revanchist circles in Armenia, who claim that there was no genocide of Azerbaijanis, but there was a voluntary departure with the sale of houses, compensation and removal of property. Today's Armenia wants to show that it does not owe anything to Azerbaijani refugees. However, Markarian's testimony refutes this.

She describes how the gang of Vazgen Sargsyan and his accomplice Kamo robbed the village of Khalisa. How cruelly people were treated, who were thrown out of their homes, and how a 70-year-old old woman and a pregnant woman were beaten. The Azerbaijanis were treated like cattle. Sargsyan and his gang were in a hurry to clear the village of its owners in order to start looting. At the same time, money and jewelry were taken from people, which they tried to hide and take away with them. The Azerbaijanis left their native village, where the graves of their ancestors remained, half-dressed, beaten, exhausted and robbed. What kind of compensation and signatures under the purchase and sale documents are the Armenian revanchists talking about today? Let them read Markarian's book before talking such nonsense.

Unfortunately, it is very rare to find real evidence of what was happening in Soviet Armenia in the late 80s in the Armenian media space. For the most part, those who witnessed and participated in the atrocities of the nationalists prefer to remain silent about it. Perhaps if Markarian and her brother had not been imprisoned during the "rise" of Vazgen Sargsyan, she would not have taken out the trash from the hut either.

Meanwhile, our neighbors have a lot to tell. The older generation of Armenian citizens remembers those times very well. Azerbaijanis were the second largest ethnic group. They were once the majority, but after two acts of genocide and three deportations, the indigenous population was drastically reduced. At the time of the outbreak of the conflict, Azerbaijanis were in second place in demographic terms. There were hundreds of Azerbaijani villages in Armenia, and the total number of our tribesmen was 250,000. The majority of Armenian citizens participated in the ethnic cleansing. And it was done with all the hatred and with special calculation. Vazgen Sargsyan was not the only one who wanted to profit with impunity under the noble pretext of allegedly raising funds to help "Armenian refugees" who did not exist at that time.

Svetlana Markarian was also from this biomass, molded by hatred, which, as they say in Baku, only a psychiatrist can understand, because there is no reasonable explanation for her. Therefore, there are also many inconsistencies in her attempt to tell the truth, and it is impossible not to notice them. In Armenia, the atrocities against Azerbaijanis have always been justified by the fact that it was "revenge." This is how our neighbors have tried and are trying to stifle the torments of their own conscience. The bloodshed, vandalism, robbery, and unimaginable atrocities committed against the indigenous population of Armenia will not disappear from the history and energy field of this country. They will negatively affect her fate until she repents.

So Markarian tells tales about "victims of violence from Baku" who allegedly flooded Armenia in the late 80s, which is why, they say, Azerbaijanis began to be evicted. They say that when they arrived with these "victims" in the village of Khalisa and looked at the atrocities committed by the Sarkisians, they saw what they had experienced themselves. Survived where? In Baku? In the late 80s, when Armenians were living happily in Baku, even though the city was already flooded with refugees from Armenia? These "refugees" could not even be from Sumgayit, as there was no mass exodus of Armenians from the city after the riots. Armenians fled Baku and other cities only in the early 90s, when it became clear that the conflict was dragging on and the Soviet government was crumbling. For this, let them thank their fellow tribesmen, who destroyed a well-fed, well-provided and safe life in Azerbaijan.

The nationalist who exposes the scoundrel could not resist falsifications designed to whitewash and romanticize the image of Armenian nationalism, to cover up the bestial grin of the Miatsuam movement with a mask. According to her writings, the Soviet army was on the side of the Azerbaijanis. It is a pity that this was not the case, otherwise the history of the Karabakh conflict was completely different and ended back in the late 80s. What is she talking about? Probably, that the Soviet military had been protecting the enclave Azerbaijani villages from the brutalized Armenians for some time. Residents turned to Moscow, finding themselves surrounded by well-armed Dashnak gangs. But this support did not last long, and very soon the enclave villages were "cleared" and destroyed.

All these facts have long been known and described in detail. Any Armenian who wants to know what really happened can find information online.

Nationalist Markarian did not seek to restore justice with her book, she only wanted to expose Vazgen Sargsyan, who was elevated to the rank of "hero of Armenia" after his death at the hands of other Armenian scoundrels. There were legends about this type in the neighboring country, they were almost canonized. But in fact, as an excerpt from the revelations of the nationalist shows, he was an ordinary scoundrel, a scumbag for whom human life was not worth a penny and who used Nzhdeh's bloody ideas for personal enrichment. There were many of them, their hatred and thirst for easy prey knew no bounds. And peaceful, unarmed Azerbaijanis had nothing to oppose this evil.

Anyway, the nuggets of truth that have made their way into the opus of the Armenian nationalist are still useful. They are a small contribution to the formation of a new consciousness of the Armenian people, closer to reality.