Dear patriots, Ladies and gentlemen!
Referring to the events taken place in Azerbaijan, I consider them to be illegal, hostile to democracy, totally contradicting the principles of humanism and the establishment of the legitimate state. There are certain reasons why this situation developed in Azerbaijan. I would not like to go into details, it would take too much time. The notorious ethnic conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia has been going on for two years already. This conflict has arisen in connection with the conflict in Nagorny Karabakh and around it. Two years is quite a long time for the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia, the top officials of the party and political leaders of the country to settle this matter, to stop the intestine conflicts, ethnic conflicts and to allow all people to live a free life, irrespective of their nationality in our common Federative Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
However, to my opinion, necessary measures in this respect have not been taken for the past two years.
Had there been taken necessary measures by the top party leadership in the country over the Nagorno-Karabakh events in right time, we would not now observe the escalation of the tension and losses on both sides and that military assault undertaken over the night from 19 to 20 January 1990 that brought heavy losses.
For all that, the former first secretary of Central Committee of Azerbaijan Communist Party Abdurahman Vezirov is to be blamed.
Being in the top leadership of the Republic, he practically did nothing to stabilize the situation in Azerbaijan. On the contrary, by his attitude and manner of work, political maneuvers, he opposed himself to people, could not inspire trust, and created a gap between himself and people. People were indignant.
At the meetings held lasting for months in Baku and in other towns and regions of the Republic, there were demands made for the party leaders of Azerbaijan to resign, and that especially concerned Vezirov. It seems strange that this problem had not been solved up to now. Only yesterday, after military troops were brought into the city and massacre was carried out, Vezirov escaped from Azerbaijan. It is a serious mistake. But the fatal mistake was to appoint this man, inappropriate for the position, the first secretary of Central Committee of Azerbaijan Communist Party. However, it is not the main point.
I would like to talk in detail about tragic event that happened over the night of 20th of January and is still going on. I think there was too much opportunities to settle the political instability and take control over the situation in Azerbaijan. Unfortunately the leaders of Azerbaijan and top political leaders of the country did not make use of all the opportunities. The incident on the borders could have been prevented. People expressed their demands in connection with frontier line three months ago. But nobody wished to meet them, or see what was the way out.
I would like to say it again: there still were possibilities to calm people then. If 2-3 months ago the problem of the party leadership in Azerbaijan had been strengthened, then maybe the situation in the country would be stabilized and there would not have been a necessity to bring military troops in. I still think that political solution was possible, but the possibilities were not used, and as a result, the internal regular troops of the Soviet Army and Ministry of Defense were brought to Baku over the night of 20-th of January. Tragic consequences of this action are well known. I regard this decision as a great political mistake. They were not able to assess the actual situation in the Republic and the peculiarities of the Azerbaijani people's psychology, they were not in contact with different circles of the public and, thus, could not foresee the consequences.