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Declassified Documents Reveal Long-Standing CIA Recognition That Nagorno Karabagh is Part of Armenia Press Release - Armenian National Committee of America |
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-- Confidential Agency Studies Acknowledge Nagorno Karabagh as "Armenia's Cultural and Religious Center" WASHINGTON, DC - An analysis of recently declassified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) documents reveals a pattern over the past twenty-five years of official - although confidential -acknowledgement of the fact that Nagorno Karabagh is a historic part of Armenia, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA). The declassified documents - some from as back as the 1970s, confirm that successive U.S. Administrations have known that: 1) Nagorno Karabagh is historically Armenian; 2) Nagorno Karabagh has always maintained a legitimate claim to be reunited with Armenia; 3) Azerbaijani hostility toward Armenians in the late 1980s and early 1990s was not based on an Azerbaijani claim to Nagorno Karabagh, but, rather, was the outlet for growing domestic Azerbaijani frustrations over political, economic and demographic shifts that increased the gap in living standards between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Key excerpts of these reports are provided below: * A 1990 CIA chronology of Nagorno Karabagh, prepared in August of 1990, included the following entry: "1921-23: New Soviet Government makes Nagorno Karabakh - historically an Armenian area - an autonomous region within the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan." anc0009.gif * A CIA 1988 study on the Caucasus confirms the historical record of
Nagorno Karabagh's status as "Armenia's cultural and religious center."
The study specifically noted that, "Karabakh through the centuries
remained semiautonomous under the rule of Armenian princes even when the
rest of Armenia was under Persian and Turkish tutelage." * The same 1988 study, reports that, "Azeri animosity toward the
Armenians has been intensified by political, economic, and demographic
trends that have adversely affected the political status of Azeris and
increased the gap in living standards between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
In particular, the rapid expansion of Azerbaijan's young adult population
has put enormous strains on the republic's capacity to provide adequate
jobs, housing, and education. Azeri frustration has found an outlet in
attacks on * A 1978 CIA report on Soviet minorities issues, notes that, "the
inhabitants of another turbulent area in the Caucasus, the Nagorno- Karabakh
Autonomous Oblast, are able to make a better argument that their oblast
should be transferred from one republic to another. The Karabakh Oblast
is part of Azerbaydzhan, yet over 80 percent of its population is Armenian
and it lies close to the border of the To access images of these and other public CIA documents, visit: |
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