Chingiz Huseynov: “The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict created a situation for the first time in history when land is being a hostage"

The recent events in Nagorno-Karabakh demonstrated incompetence of some Russian journalists and experts. Not all analysts who have voiced their views on TV know where Karabakh is situated, who owns the territory, what the sides really want… Vestnik Kavkaza asked the Azerbaijani writer, literary critic, culture expert, translator, professor Chingiz Huseynov to express his opinion on how the the Karabakh conflict.

- In early April, when the latest escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict occured, the Russian TV broadcasted several shows devoted to the issue of the settlement. Did they encourage the process? And what is the way to resolve the conflict, to your mind?

- The Russian TV channels are stirring up distractive emotions. This is exactly what happened after the 4-day war. They continue information wars, which are not aimed at finding the truth; they are trying to drown the truth in these noisy and chaotic shows. The show that was aired after a 4-day war was typical, they were discussing who began shooting. However, this is a secondary question, as there is a war, and shooting is taking place all the time. There is a tendency of eliminating opinions that are unfavorable or contradict their line.  For one, the maps are drawn wrong. First of all, Nagorno-Karabakh is a small piece of land within Greater Karabakh. Greater Karabakh, where the Azerbaijani population, prevails is rarely mentioned. Second, there are lands that have nothing to do with Nagorno-Karabakh at all. That is, it is necessary to mark three areas on the map: Nagorno-Karabakh, Greater Karabakh, and those lands that are not related to Karabakh and have been captured. This is the first time ever, when lands are hostages.

There are cases when people become hostages and the captors say: “Meet our conditions, and we will let them go!” In our case, they say: “We will withdraw from these lands, when you recognize independence of Karabakh.” The war brought nothing but deaths on both sides of the conflict. There was no victory in the war. However, maybe it will encourage a diplomatic settlement of the problem. There is no military solution of the problem. Destruction, killing people and turning the land into a non-residential area is not a solution of the problem.

Azerbaijan wants to get back those lands that have no relation to Karabakh and after that begin negotiations on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. If the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is respected, then certain special forms of autonomous or independent governance of Karabakh within the Azerbaijani state are possible.

- Who holds the ‘key’ to the problem’s solution?

- Frankly speaking, the keys are really in the hands of Russia. When the war just broke out, the USSR could solve this problem in a day. There were then the USSR and the Politburo. They could have forced the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to sit at the negotiating table and find a solution. However, they let the dice roll. Moreover, the Soviet troops supported the Armenian side.

Nagorno-Karabakh was an autonomy and was not connected geographically with Armenia. The residents of Nagorno-Karabakh worked mainly in Azerbaijan; they had close economic and everyday contacts. However, the division of Karabakh into the mountainous part and the lowland was a huge mistake. Karabakh could not be divided. Nagorno-Karabakh is an artificial entity.