There was great love in Demirchyan's curse on the Meghri issue

Karen Demirchyan

A remarkable episode was told to me by one of the people who held a leading position in the Soviet years, who asked not to publish his name.

Fortunately, some of the people who worked in the state administration system in the Soviet years are still alive. Their memories and testimonies can help to understand some of the processes of that period, which are being discussed again today.

My interlocutor said that the 1.5 km wide area in question is exactly the part of Meghri where it is possible to build infrastructure. According to his description, the area beyond it is rocky and canyon-like.

If this description corresponds to reality, a natural question arises: what does such a territorial solution mean for Meghri?

But the story he told me is especially remarkable. He said that Fadey Sargsyan, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Armenian SSR, came to Dzoraghbyur and told him the following:

“I was in Moscow with Karen Demirchyan. At that time, Heydar Aliyev was not only a former official of the head of Azerbaijan, but also a representative of the highest power of the Soviet Union. In November 1982, Aliyev became a full member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU and was appointed First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, effectively becoming a representative of one of the highest echelons of the Soviet Union leadership. Heydar Aliyev had been a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for twenty years, and for five years, Vice Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Aliyev had called us to Moscow about the Meghri issue. He said that all the documents were almost ready, we just had to sign them. He said that it would benefit both Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Karen Serobich could not resist. No matter how much he cursed, he did not utter a word of profanity. But I did not feel any profanity in his words; it was pain, insult, anger, and a sincere human outburst. He took all the “almost ready” papers and tore them up.”

According to my interlocutor, Demirchyan had not only an official status but also political authority to express such a position. And, according to that story, that’s how the issue was closed at that moment.

It is important to make one clear distinction here.

I present this specific story attributed to Fadey Sargsyan in the way it was transmitted to me as the memory and testimony of my interlocutor. Its individual details, of course, can and should be verified with archival documents and the memories of other witnesses.

But this is where the episode becomes interesting.

If the story is true, then the Meghri issue was discussed at the highest levels of the Soviet Union’s government. And it was discussed not with the participation of some secondary official, but with the participation of Heydar Aliyev, who was in one of the highest echelons of the USSR leadership at that time. And it is against this background that the description of Karen Demirchyan’s reaction is most telling.

He, whom we usually imagine as a man of restrained, balanced and measured speech, according to this memory, lost his self-control at that moment.

But for me, the strongest part of the story is not even that.

The strongest is the interpretation of the person, in this case Fadey Sargsyan, who was present at the transmission of that story. He said that he did not see any swearing in Demirchyan’s words. He saw pain, insult, anger and great love for the homeland.

Perhaps this is the most important message of this episode.

You can talk about territory in maps, kilometers, infrastructure, economic calculations and political agreements. But when it comes to the territory of Armenia and a strategically important community like Meghri, there is also a very simple question under all that: what do we consider our homeland and what price are we willing to pay for any part of it?

Therefore, this story, regardless of what details further research will confirm or clarify, deserves to be studied with documents, not ignored.

Because Meghri is not just 1.5 kilometers on the map.

Meghri is a community, it is people, it is history, and it is a matter of the territorial integrity of Armenia.