BREITBART: 'Baku to the Future'

That's a fact that Artsakh-Karabakh has never been a part of independent Azerbaijan. The problem started when the Turko-Azeri tribes come to Armenian highland, conquered 9/10 of Armenia, and are now trying to unite the two Turkish states of Azerbaijan and Anatolian Turkey. I usually write about is in my 517design blog. Armenia has got no other way, but to save the last independent part of its land, and no matter how much money they invest into their propaganda and pseudo-historians, they can never turn the way back and go back to the Stalin's borders, who once granted Artsakh-Karabakh to newly formed Azerbaijan. Time has gone much forward and things can not turned back, no matter how much money Azerbaijan started gaining by selling oil and how stable partner he is for the USA today. Armenia's possible loss will mean the final defeat of Christianity in Armenian Highland, and defeat of the the most eastern located , oldest Christian nation.

To Mr. Breitbart: Sir, I do understand that during your trip to Azerbaijan you were exposed to huge amount of misinformation and intensive propaganda. I am glad that you didn't give in and refrained from pouring the lies to Washington Times' pages. Now, if you have professional interest in the subject - I'd suggest a couple of readings. First of all - Tomas De Waal's book "Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War" - which is despite being forcibly balanced (for understandable reasons) has lots if interesting original information. Searching wikipeia would be another good idea. In a nutshell, Nagorno-Karabakh, a majority Armenian populated, historically Armenian and 'granted' to Azrbaijani SSR by Joseph Stalin (under Turkish pressure, BTW) piece of land, declared - in accordance with the hitherto laws of USSR - a secession from Azerbaijani SSR in 1988. Azerbaijan responded with pogroms (Sumgait in 1988 and Baku in 1990) of its Armenian population, and unleashed a war against the tiny Nagorno-Karabakh. Lots of Armenians from "mainland" Armenia volunteered to help the Karabakhi Armenians avoid the fate of others, and, despite being outnumbered and outgunned (Azeris inherited far, far more weapon from Soviet Army than Armenia did) Armenians won the independence war, also creating a security belt around Karabakh proper. Unfortunately, that caused the exodus of Azeri population from these lands, but since then the Karabakh Armenians stated more than once - in return for recognition of the independence, they are ready to return the security belt and allow the displaced Azeris to reclaim their homes. Unfortunately, "drunk" by the petrodollars, the Azeri government refuses to accept any reasonable compromise, and instead threatens with a renewed devastating war, spiraling unprecedented anti-Armenian hysteria at home and torpedoing any piece initiative in the region. Looks like you were able to experience the propaganda by your own.

It is both interesting and curious that foreign journalists were asked on camera to comment on the Nagorno Karabagh issue, and Mr. Breitbart is to be commended for his handling of the matter. For anyone interested in doing more research into the conflict, I have found "The Making of Nagorno Karabagh: From Secession to Republic" edited by Levon Chorbajian to be one of the more valuable overviews.

What you guys are telling is complete lie. What is your evidence or proof that Karabakh is a historical Armenia? Before Russian-Iranian war at the beginning of XIX century there was a Karabakh khanate, which was ruled by the people of Azerbaijani origin, official language was Azerbaijani (Turkic), majority of the population were Azerbaijanis. There were Armenians living in Karabakh, but they were minority. After the victory of Russia over Iran Russia began to populate regions like Karabakh, Irevan, Nakhcivan, Zangazur with the ethnic Armenians living in Northern Iran (Southern Azerbaijan). Then. Karabakh was a part of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic established in 1918. Although Armenians were attacking this region throughout the independence of Azerbaijan, Karabakh stayed as a part of Azerbaijan. According to the laws of USSR, only Union Republics, the republics that are now de-jure independent, had a right to declare independence. This law was not about autonomous republics or regions. So, the secession of Karabakh from Azerbaijan was illegal and also decison of Armenian SSR to merge Karabakh with itself was illegal as well. Pogroms were held in Armenia as well, ethnic Azerbaijani population was forcefully exiled from Armenia in 1988. And, don't lie to yourself. The Karabakh war was between Azerbaijan and Armenia (seriously supported by Russia), not between Azerbaijan and virtual "Karabakh freedom fighters". So there could not be any peace agreement, embracing independence of Karabakh, or its merge with Armenia. My personal view is that, local Karabakh Armenians should be given high level of autonomy.

Guys, you say what you heard from liers. But I lived there, im Kharabakh. There were not much armenians and my grandfather told us how their fathers were helping first armenians who were moving to kharabakh. So let's don't lie. I although saw how this "ethnical immigrants" cut mu newly born cousin's neck whithout any reason. So, let's don't lie about very sensitive matters. I am ethnical azerbaijani. Kharabakh were azerbaijanian, and we encountered moest crucial murder from the side that we even didn't expect, because we helped you... From side, it looks like that you are totally true, but it's just whitest lie...

To Too_Good> What you claim is too good to be truth, man :) Artsakh and Utik (the latter is currently under occupation of Azerbaijani Turks) are one of 15 states of Armenia Major. Has been rulesd by local Meliqs within the ruling Persian Empire for many years. Meliqs were Armenians, but Meliq Israelyans of Jraberd meliqdom, who came from Utik and were ethnic Udins, but spoke and wrote Armenian, were Christians and soon assimilated. The rullers of Artsakh remained formally dependent of Persian Khans, but de-facto were the princes of the area, were passing the throne to their sons, were collecting taxes, participated Persian military actions, and the dependency was only in once a year paying taxes to the Persian Throne, to the tax men, who came, were invited to the thrones of meliqs, were given rich presents and moved back to Persia. No muslim was allowed to enter Artsakh (Karabakh) for centuries, but the 17th century infamous events, when the meliq of Varanda Shahnazar invited ethnic turkish Panakh khan to Artsakh, built the Shuhi fortress for him and with the use of Panakh invaded the whole Artsakh, murdering most of meliqs and their families. But the turkish Artsakh remained about half-a-century till the Russian-Persian war, when Persia was defeated and Christian Armenian people under patronage of Christian Russians again got the rule of the area. The lie is not what we wrote below, but that pro-azeri propoganda about Turkish or Albanian origins of Artsakh, which one, they don't know, various tale-teller-historians invent in various ways. If you want to base your statements on history, first learn the real history which is hidden by Azerbaijani Turkish pseudo-science, the objective, unbiased history, which proves the Armenian origin of Artsakh (Karabakh). Look, this is the dynasties of Artsakh Meliqdom houses [ru] - http://517design.livejournal.com/270729.html This is the map of Armenian historical monuments of Artsakh [ru] - http://517design.livejournal.com/182761.html Here is another shorter coverage of Artsakh meliqdom houses [ru] - http://www.genealogia.ru/projects/lib/catalog/rulers/2.htm Data about Armenian Tigranakert in Artsakh [ru] - http://artsakhwebcombat.am/forum/showthread.php?t=381 Data about foundation of Stepanakert, Artsakh capital - http://ahousekeeper.livejournal.com/7183.html I can continue the list, although I doubt it changes anything, because the one who wants to know, seeks and finds what he wants, and no correction may affect his point of view. Anyway I hope you understand. Thank you.

To Honesty> Your words seem honest, but one fact - talking about any aggressive actions of Armenian during the war needs to be mentioned as well the fact that the first aggression was made by Azerbaijani turks in Sumgait. When talking about the unequal powers during the war initiated by Azerbaijan exactly, it is worth to mention the Koltso operation, which the Azerbaijani and Russian forces implemented (http://sumgait.info/ring/operacia-kolco.htm). It is interesting to analyze how the facts stays in memories of people - only the fact the nation is interested in remains, the rest vanishes with time.