[23 February 1988]
Response of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R. to the demand by the government of Mountinous Karabagh
Part of the Armenian population in the Nagorno-Karabagh Autonomous Region in the Soviet transcaucasian republic of Azerbaijan recently advanced demands that Nagorno-Karabagh be included into the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Breathing of public order was provoked as a result of irresponsible calls by extremist individuals.
Having examined the information about developments in the Nagorno-Karabagh Autonomous Region, the CPSU Central Committee holds that the actions and demands directed at revising the existing national and territorial structure contradict the interests of the working people in Soviet Azerbaijan and Armenia and damage inter-ethnic relations.
Being consistently guided by Leninist principles of the nationalities policy, the CPSU Central Committee has appealed to patriotic and internationalist feelings of the Armenian and Azerbaijani population urging them not to yield to provocations by nationalist elements but to strengthen in all ways the great heritage of socialism – fraternal friendship of the Soviet ethnic groups.
The CPSU Central Committee instructed the central committees of the Communist Parties of Azerbaijan and Armenia to undertake necessary measures for improving the existing situation, to direct all means of political and ideological influence to explain the Leninist nationalities policy, its essence at the current stage.
All work should proceed from the premise that the nationalities issues demands close and constant attention to national peculiarities, psychology and consideration for the vital interests of the working people.
It was suggested that the party and local government bodies in the republics normalize the situation relating to Nagorno-Karabagh, safeguard republic order and strict observance of socialist laws, work out and carry out measures for the further socio-economic and cultural development of the autonomous region.
[Tass, February 23, 1988]
[23 February 1988]
Comments of Ayaz Mutalibov, deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers in Azerbaijan, on Mountainous Karabagh issue
The attempts by individuals in Nagorno-Karabagh to justify their demands for the incorporation of that region into neighboring Armenia, a Soviet republic in Transcaucasia, by its alleged economic backwardness compared to Azerbaijan (another Soviet republic in Transcaucasia) are irresponsible, a senior local government official pointed out today.
Ayaz Mutalibov, deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers in Azerbaijan, of which the Nagorno-Karabagh autonomous region is part, told a TASS correspondent:
“In many areas of the national economy, Nagorno-Karabagh, in which Armenians make up the majority, is noticeably ahead of the average indicators in the entire republic.”
“Industrial output more than trebled in the region over the past 15 years. Nagorno-Karabagh plays an important role in the economy of entire Azerbaijan and is closely connected with all its other regions.”
“They sent to Nagorno-Karabagh various equipment, metal articles, buildings materials, fuel and energy resources, raw materials and consumer goods.”
“In turn, the autonomous region supplies electrical fixtures, silk fabric, musical instruments and foodstuffs.”
Food and light industries were developing especially fast in the autonomous region, Mutalibov said. Machine-building accounted for more than 80 percent of industrial production. Branches of several Azerbaijani industrial enterprises were being set up in the region.
Mutalibov drew attention to the extensive program of Nagorno-Karabagh’s social development, including housing construction. “There are more kindergartens, hospital beds and libraries per capita of its population compared to an average in Azerbaijan.”
[Tass, February 23, 1988]
The Karabagh File, Documents and Facts, 1918-1988, First Edition, Cambridge Toronto 1988, by the ZORYAN INSTITUTE, edited by: Gerard J. LIBARIDIAN, pp. 98-100.
Photo – Ayaz Mutalibov
