The Communist Party 55

On September 19, Azerbaijan once again launched an offensive against the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Nagorno-Karabakh is an Armenian enclave in the larger region of Karabakh, the rest of which has an Azerbaijani majority. The Republic of Arstakh relied entirely on Armenian support although it was not even recognized by Armenia. Since December 2022, Nagorno-Karabakh was cut off from Armenia as the Lachin corridor connecting it to the rest of the world was blockaded by Azerbaijan and Russian “peacekeepers” permitting only limited traffic. Traditionally, Russia had safeguarded Armenian interests against Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey. This time, however, the Russians gave no support to Armenia, who in turn could give no support to the Armenian government in Nagorno-Karabakh. Consequently, the Republic of Arstakh was forced to surrender in a day and the region was occupied by the Azerbaijani army. While the short war left few casualties, over 100,000 Armenians were forced to leave their homes and move to Armenia.

A century ago, the revolutionary proletarians of the Caucasus intended to resolve the border disputes between the two nations on completely different terms. On December 1, 1920, two days after the victory of Soviet power in Armenia, Nariman Narimanov read the following declaration at the Baku Soviet on behalf of Azerbaijani communists: “Soviet Azerbaijan, which intends to appease the fraternal Armenian working people fighting the Dashnaks who have spilled and are spilling the innocent blood of our best Communist comrades in Armenia and Zangezur, declares that from this time on territorial issues will never cause bloodshed between two peoples who have been neighbors for centuries; the territories of the Zangezur and Nakhchivan uezds are an inalienable part of Soviet Armenia. The toiling peasants of Nagorno-Karabakh are granted the right to complete self-determination”. The declaration made sense in resolving the issue on geographical rather than ethnic terms. Armenian communists immediately responded by recognizing the self-determination of Nakhchivan which had an Azerbaijani majority. Even then, however, the Russian Commissariat of Nationalities was in the hands of a faction who were more interested in advancing its own interests instead of the cause of proletarian internationalism. Thus, Narimanov’s declaration was falsified by Sergo Ordzhonikidze, representing Stalin, the Commissar of Nationalities, and printed in the press in a distorted way that claimed Nagorno-Karabakh too had been ceded to Soviet Armenia, sowing the seeds of distrust and hostility between Azerbaijani and Armenian communists. Thus, a situation arouse which promoted “national communist” tendencies in both the Azerbaijani and the Armenian parties, while the internationalist left currents were forced into a minority. The dispute would later help weaken both the “national communist” right majorities and the internationalist left minorities, paving way to the domination of the Stalinist faction in both countries. Later, demographically larger and diplomatically more influential, Azerbaijan managed to hold Nagorno-Karabakh in its borders as well as to acquire Nakhchivan. Thus the issue was frozen for a few decades under Stalinism.

As the Soviet Union was disintegrating in the 1980s, the tensions previously kept low by Russian domination in the region reemerged. In 1988, the Nagorno-Karabakh parliament resolved to merge with Armenia. Soon, the conflict in the region grew violent, with the Azerbaijanis and Armenians accusing each other of massacres of civilians. In 1991, an independence referendum, boycotted by the Azerbaijani population of the region, was held and the Republic of Arstakh was established. By 1992, the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh had caused a full scale war between Azerbaijan and Armenia, referred to as the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. By the end of 1994, Armenia had in effect won the war, establishing full control of the region. Russia brokered a ceasefire, and the conflict was over for the time being, leaving nearly 40,000 dead on both sides and over 200,000 Armenians from Azerbaijan and 800,000 Azerbaijanis from Armenia and Karabakh displaced, essentially cleansing Armenia and Karabakh from Azerbaijanis and Azerbaijan of Armenians. Armed clashes between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis in the region continued after the ceasefire, leading to 3,000 dead on both sides by 2009. The clashes between 2010 and 2019 were not as bloody, leaving only a few hundred dead. Eventually things culminated in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020 where Azerbaijan, utilizing Turkish drones, made significant advances. Once again, Russia eventually brokered a ceasefire after the bloodshed which claimed almost 8,000 was considered to be sufficient. The ceasefire did not prevent border clashes in 2021 and 2022, eventually leading to the blockade of late 2022 and the recent Azerbaijani offensive which finally “resolved” the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh by cleansing the region of Armenians once more.

Certainly, the main reason the Republic of Artsakh could offer no resistance to the Azerbaijani offensive was that Armenia did not back it. And the reason Armenia could not back it was because Russia did not give it any support whatsoever. This was due to the fact that the Pashinian government in Armenia had been flying dangerously close to the United States, organizing joint military drills and signing agreements that would necessitate it to arrest Putin in case he set foot in Armenia. Accordingly, it can easily be assumed that the Armenian government sacrificed its unrecognized satellite republic in Nagorno-Karabakh like a piece on a chessboard. The “resolution” of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue will only lead to further wars, however, as now Azerbaijan has its eyes on the Zangezur, the capture of which will enable it to connect its lands with Nakhchivan and consequently Turkey. Armenia is not engaging in military drills with the United States for no reason.

In the Caucasus, as elsewhere, proletarians have nothing but displacement, destruction and massacres from local bourgeois governments and their regional and global imperialist backers. Only genuine internationalist communism can end nationalist disputes between the working masses of various nations as well as bloody national wars that serve no one but the bourgeoisie.

The International Communist Party is the sole heir of the tradition of internationalist communism espoused by the Communist International which once preached the unity of proletarians in all parts of the world. Consequently, only our party can resurrect the hydra of communist revolution and unite the working masses of the Caucasus and beyond, ending the vicious cycle of displacement, destruction and massacres.