Carnegie Endowment and US National Security Archive organized an international conference titled “Ethnic relations after the USSR collapse” in Moscow. US and Russian analysts expressed their opinions about the history and contemporary tendencies of Azerbaijan-Armenian conflict.
US political analyst and historian William Taubman, known for his books about former USSR leaders Nikita Khrushchev and Mikhail Gorbachev, said one the factors causing the collapse of USSR was helplessness of Gorbachev with regard to Nagorno Karabakh conflict. “Mikhail Gorbachev wanted to solve the conflict peacefully without use of force. He thought that it would be possible to solve the conflict by bringing the intellectuals together and using the internal resources of the Soviet people. Later he acknowledged that he couldn’t solve the conflict”.
Touching upon the Nagorno Karabakh problem, Taubman said according to the international law, Karabakh is a territory of Azerbaijan. “According to the international law, intention of Nagorno Karabakh’s Armenians to unite with Armenia is separatism. But it is not my authority to describe them as the separatists or in other status”.
Heretofore secret documents were publicized during the conference. US expert Tom Blanton introduced some CIS documents taken from the US National Security Archive. Top secret label on these documents have been removed. The documents are about the activity of Russian and US intelligence services concerning the collapse of USSR. Audiotapes of phone talks between Gorbachev and Bush were among the materials.
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