Russia considers Crimea its own, which is close to the truth. They warred with the Turks 6 times over Crimea, while even the British officers, particularly during the last ones, fought on Turkey’s side in some of those wars. Crimea became a part of the USSR as a territory of RSFSR. The Russian elite today considers the 1954 Crimea handover to Ukraine a treason. Vladimir Putin righted Khruschev’s mistake 60 years later.

The fake national policy in the USSR had neither started nor ended with Crimea. There were several similar exchanges after Crimea throughout the USSR, especially in Central Asia. The USSR’s fake national policy filled the entire Central Asia with ‘cluster bombs’ rather than ‘delayed-action mines’.

Although Central Asia was the main focus for USSR’s fake national policy, it was first executed when they took Zangazur district from the Azerbaijan SSR and annexed it to Armenian SSR in 1923. Joseph Stalin, the USSR leader at the time, was rather jealous of both Ataturk and Lenin, as those two were friends. This jealousy later resulted in Turkey becoming a NATO member.

It was precisely due to that jealousy that Zangazur, with a population of 80% ethnic Azerbaijanis, was given to Armenia. It had historically been an Azerbaijani land, never Armenian.

These national policy wrongs by the USSR must be righted. Central Asia is already going through a new type of processes. The strategic stability once created by Nursultan Nazarbayev and the late Islam Karimov is now yielding to other kind of politics. As China enters the Central Asian region, the process will greatly accelerate.

Russia, as the successor to the USSR, must return Zangazur to Azerbaijan. Ultimately, Russia will be the biggest beneficiary of the deed, as Moscow’s Caucasus policy might collapse at any given point.

Mubariz Ahmadoghlu

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