By VK
Last week, a group of Russian historians arrived in Baku, which along with many other CIS capitals, is celebrating the ‘Year of Russian history’. As the vice-dean of MSU Historical Faculty and the chief editor of VK, Alexei Vlasov, told his colleagues during the round table discussion, “this year is an anniversary of many important events in Russian history. All these festive and tragic events of our common history is what unites our countries. Today we discuss the ways to preserve the common historical space in which Russia and Azerbaijan exists. We need to openly and impartially discuss the tragic pages of our common history, to repair the damage done by non-professionals and politicos who had been treating these issues earlier. In order to do that we should, first of all, try to avoid clichés and common places used by the gutter press”.
The head of the IA ‘News-Azerbaijan’ Gulnary Mamedzade, however, pointed out that after the disintegration of the USSR a lot of significan events have occurred, so Russia and Azerbaijan have new grounds to build their relations, and it is the task of the historians and political experts to help the governments do it.
Ismail Agakishiev, the head of the Caucasian Studies Center under the RSUH, associate MSU professor, said that “a well-balanced and impartial covering of the historical events could help resolve some timely problems. Today a lot of MSU Historical Faculty graduates live in Baku and participate in Azerbaijani political life, however, in Russia there are not many people who truly understand the history and culture of the ex-Soviet peoples, even though we lived together side by side for quite a long while. So we need to turn this cooperation of historian into a permanent institution to give our peoples a true notion of their history”.
Political experts Fikret Sadykhov and Vladimir Yevseev both pointed out that today Russia and Azerbaijan enjoy strategic partnership and that the good neighborly relations are characteristic not only of the states’ governments, but also of the peoples.
One of the expert meetings held in Baku was dedicated to the Khojali Tragedy. According to Alexei Vlasov, the principle task of a historian Is to objectively study the facts. “However, in such cases as the Khojali Tragedy one shouldn’t forget the human lives that stand behind the statistical data. If we can find out the true reasons that led to this even, we could better understand the true nature of all similar tragedies that occurred in the time of the USSR’s collapse. The level of cruelty in Khojali passed all thinkable borders, and we need to find out how ex-neighbors and compatriots could do such things to one another.
Chief research officer of the International Security Center under the World Economics and International relations Institute Vladimir Yevseev pointed out that in tragedies like this the exact number of casualties isn’t as important as the tragedy itself. He also suggested that Azerbaijan covers the Khojali issue via Internet mass media so that the youth that constitutes the major part of the Internet users would know the truth.
Gulnary Mamedzade said that ‘Azeri media should response proportionally to the Armenian propaganda that distorts historical facts regarding the Khojali tragedy. It would be wise to create an independent commission that would investigate those events”. Ismail Agakishiev supported this suggestion and stressed that Azerbaijan should promote the truth about the tragedy on global scale by all means possible.
Fikret Sadykhov stressed the great role of the Azeri Youth Organization in Russia headed by Leila Alieva in this process. According to the expert, the information campaign ‘Justice for Khojali’ led by this organization was initiated by Leila Alieva on the date of Shusha occupation, May, 8 in 2008. The campaign takes places in 30 states and the volunteers try to make the world see the Kojali events for what they really were – an act of genocide.
The CEO of Interfax-Azerbaijan, Alexander Ivanov, suggested that the true role of Gorbachev and Yeltsin in the events of the 1980s and 1990s should be revealed. He suggested that it would affect the public opinion greatly.
In the frames of the ‘Year of Russian history’ program, Alexei Vlasov also held a press-conference – this time more in the quality of a political expert. According to him, there’s a great chance that Azerbaijan would take part in the Eurasian Union project, if it proves to be economically stable. The expert also pointed out that there are no irresolvable issues between Russia and Azerbaijan, there are just some questions that need to be answered. As for the official status of the Caspian Sea, Vlasov stressed that the positions of Moscow, Baku and Astana in this issue are quite clear, while Turkmenistan awaits the final decision of Teheran, who, in its turn, uses this question as a political leverage. The expert is also convinced that there will be no full-scale military operation in Iran any time soon: the US presidential elections and the unrest in Syria are the restraining factors for the US.
Vlasov also pointed out that a war in Iran would be a catastrophe for Armenia, as it would find itself in complete isolation.
As for the prospects of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, Vlasov stressed that any progress here is vital for Russia’s image as a mediator. “Initially, in 2008, the expectations of Medvedev’s tri-lateral meeting diplomacy were exaggerated. The lack of progress is due, among other things, to the complex internal political situation in Armenia, where different forces fight each other, some of them ready to compromise, others refusing to make any concessions”.
The expert also mentioned the lack of unity within the OSCE Minsk Group of mediators: “You know what uproar was caused by France accepting the ‘Armenian genocide bill’. Some say that France should be excluded from the Group as it lost its impartial status. It is obvious that the Minsk Group is incapable of unanimous action right now”. According to Mr Vlasov, the process of Karabakh settlement is stuck right where it was at the moment when the Meyendorff declaration was sealed and is unlikely to move from the dead point in 2012-2013. “I don’t think that after the Russian presidential elections the problem of Karabakh, as well all other foreign politics issues will be on the top of the new government’s agenda.
The expert also commented on the presidential elections in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia that are due to take place in 2013. “If the region goes through this complex period without any cataclysms, the peaceful dialog could become more welcome by the new governments. Of course, Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict isn’t something that could be resolved overnight, but the slightest sign of progress would be very good for a change’.
