Karabakh Movement 88: A Chronology of Events on the Road to Independence

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Karabakh Movement, a monumental event in the collective and historical memory of the Armenian nation. Mass demonstrations starting in early 1988 called for the reunification of the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) – an autonomous enclave within Azerbaijan SSR – with Soviet Armenia. The popular movement made headlines around the world and led to the reawakening and transformation of the Armenian nation.

The historic Armenian lands of Nagorno Karabakh were forcibly placed under Azerbaijani rule in 1921 by Joseph Stalin. For the next seven decades, Azerbaijan’s policy of discrimination against Nagorno Karabakh was aimed at artificial suppression of its socioeconomic development and active de-Armenianization. Armenian monuments and cultural heritage were destroyed or presented as having Azerbaijani origin. Because of this ethnic discrimination, the majority Armenian population of Karabakh never abandoned its intent and desire to separate from Azerbaijan SSR.

Indeed, during the Soviet era, a number of attempts by Armenians were made to raise the Nagorno Karabakh issue before the central authorities of the USSR primarily after the Second World War. Representatives of the people of Nagorno Karabakh appealed to Moscow with numerous letters and petitions (1945, 1965, 1967, 1977).

First Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost and perestroika toward the end of the 1980s that were meant to liberalize the Soviet Union’s political and economic landscape, provided a historic opportunity for the Armenians of Karabakh to once again express their grievances and demand reunification with the homeland.

It was a time of sweeping global changes that would lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Starting in 1987, demonstrations were taking place in Soviet Armenia over environmental concerns that included demands for the shut down of the Medzamor Nuclear Power Plant. These environmental concerns would ultimately transform into a wider pan-national movement not only for the people’s right to self-expression, but would pave the path to independence.

When the movement began, it did not bear any anti-Soviet bias and there were no calls for immediate independence for Armenia. However, by the spring of 1988, when it became clear that all possible solutions to the problem of Karabakh were unattainable within the framework of the Soviet system, this all changed. A symbolic moment was on May 28, 1988, the 70th anniversary of the First Armenian Republic (1918-1920) when Movses Gorgisyan hoisted the Armenian tricolor flag in Yerevan’s Opera Square.

A group of young intellectuals, who came to be known as the Karabakh Committee led the movement later transforming into the Pan-Armenian National Movement. The events of 1988 unravelled quickly and by 1991 both Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh had declared independence. Soon after, a full-scale war with Azerbaijan exploded lasting almost four years with the Armenians gaining control of Nagorno Karabakh, officially known today by its Armenian name, Artsakh.

The Karabakh Movement was one of the largest protest movements in Soviet history.

Below is a brief timeline of the major events of 1987-1988.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR responds negatively to the demand by the government of Nagorno Karabakh for unification with Armenia: “Breaching of public order was provoked as a result of irresponsible calls by extremist individuals…Having examined the information about developments in the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, 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.”

The only concession made by Soviet authorities was the naming of Henrikh Poghosyan as the new Communist Party leader in NKAO replacing Boris Kevorkov, who was cited as insensitive to Armenian needs.

While mass rallies continue in Yerevan, the 11-member “Organizing Committee of the Karabakh Movement in Armenia” known as the Karabakh Committee is established under the leadership of Igor Muradyan. The committee was comprised mostly of intellectuals but by May 1988, the two original leaders – Igor Muradyan and Zori Balayan – had been edged aside. In an interview to Thomas de Waal, Levon Ter Petrosyan, one of the later members of the Karabakh Committee who would go on to be independent Armenia’s first President said:

“The first Karabakh Committee – Igor Muradyan, Zori Balayan, Sylva Kaputikyan and others – thought only about Karabakh. For them, issues like democracy or the independence of Armenia simply did not exist. And this was the ground where the split occurred. When they felt that we were already becoming dangerous for the Soviet system, they left. A natural change took place. They thought that the Karabakh question had to be solved by using the Soviet system. And we understood that this system would never solve the Karabakh issue and that the reverse was true; you had to change the system to resolve this problem.”

His Holiness Catholicos Karekin II of the Great House of Cilicia sends a telegram to Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev:

“Your Excellency is aware that geographically, historically and ethnographically Karabakh is part of Armenia. It was a historical error to annex it to the Azerbaijani Republic. The Armenians of Karabakh, of Soviet Armenia, and all over the Diaspora have never ceased to demand that Karabakh be attached to the motherland, to Armenia…We sincerely believe and warmly request from Your Excellency to correct the error committed in 1923 and to make justice work for the Armenian people, by reattaching Karabakh to the Soviet Armenian Republic.”

Also on this day, the leaders of the mass movement in Armenia call for a one month suspension of all demonstrations as Gorbachev promises to personally review the Karabakh situation and appeal for calm.

An emergency session of the USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium rejects the demands by the Armenians for reunification citing Article 78 of the Soviet Constitution, however, promises to enhance self-government, better living conditions, the formation of a task force to supervise the region’s return to order and the formation of a government commission to study additional measures to address and ease Armenian complaints. It is decided to send a delegation of representatives of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR headed by Arkadi Volski to NKAO.

On the same day, Henrik Poghosyan, the First Secretary of the Nagorno Karabakh District Committee of the Communist Party emphasizes the impossibility of NKAO remaining within Azerbaijan SSR.

At a massive rally in Yerevan, Hrant Voskanyan, the Chairman of the Armenian SSR Presidium announces immediate plans for parliament to meet to examine the issue of Karabakh again. Demonstrators decide to continue a general strike until parliament convenes.

Moscow declares a state of emergency in Nagorno Karabakh. A curfew comes into force and foreign journalists are banned from Azerbaijan and Armenia. Despite the ban, protests and general strikes continue in Yerevan. Major cities across the country are paralyzed.

A massive demonstration takes place in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan SSR protesting the death sentence. By November 22, violence that had started in Baku spreads to other towns and villages in Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh and the exclave of Nakhichevan. A curfew is implemented and tanks and troops are deployed to Baku, Kirovabad and Nakhichevan. Approximately 500 Armenian women and children are evacuated from Nakhichevan by troops and sent to Armenia.

Four soldiers are killed in Kirovabad during anti-Armenian riots. On the same day, the session of the Supreme Soviet of Armenian SSR passes a law condemning the 1915 Genocide of Armenians by Ottoman Turkey. The session is cut short, however, as news is received about the acts of violence against Armenians in Baku, Kirovabad, Nakhichevan and other Armenian-populated regions of Azerbaijan. Deportation of Armenians from Azerbaijan commences.

Mass demonstrations take place in Yerevan protesting the arrest of the members of the Karabakh Committee, clashes ensue.

On December 10 and 11, rumors quickly spread that authorities are taking the orphans from the earthquake (more than 10,000) out of Armenia to be adopted by other nationalities within the Soviet Union. The rumors are caused by reports in the Soviet press urging non-Armenian citizens to adopt the Armenian orphans. Several hundred injured children were flown to other parts of the Union to receive medical treatment; it was suspected that the flights were part of the adoption scheme. Armenians are outraged and about 100,000 people gather at Opera Square to oppose this. A melee ensues, protesters clash with police and this is used as a pretext to arrest the seven members of the Karabakh Committee. They are charged with “fomenting public disorder.”