Latest / The Story of Armenia: Survival Through Empires and Genocide — Fexingo History / The Karabakh Movement: Armenia's Fight for Self-Determination
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about the genocide, the fedayee, the Hamidian massacres — the suffering and resistance under Ottoman rule. But after episode 101 on Soviet Armenia, I wanted to come back to a moment that really reshaped modern Armenian identity: the Karabakh movement of 1988. Luna: That's the push to unify Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, right? Lucas: Exactly. But to understand it, you have to go back to 1923, when the Soviet authorities created the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast — NKAO — within Soviet Azerbaijan, even though the population was over 75 percent Armenian. It was a classic divide and rule move by Stalin, and for decades, Armenians in Karabakh felt their cultural and economic rights were being squeezed. Luna: So what changed in the 1980s that made them finally speak up? Lucas: Two things. First, Gorbachev's perestroika and glasnost created a tiny opening for political expression. And second, there was a growing sense that if Armenians didn't act, Karabakh would be lost demographically — Azerbaijan was encouraging Azeri settlement, and the Armenian birth rate was lower. In 1987, a group of Karabakh Armenian intellectuals, led by Igor Muradyan and Zori Balayan, began circulating petitions to Moscow. Luna: And these weren't radicals — they were academics and writers? Lucas: Exactly. They framed it as a request to correct a Leninist error — the original 1923 decision. They were loyal Soviet citizens asking for justice within the system. But Moscow was deaf. So in February 1988, things escalated. On February 13, a rally in Stepanakert, the Karabakh capital, drew thousands. Then on February 20, the NKAO Soviet — the regional parliament — voted 110 to 17 to request transfer to Armenia. Luna: That was unheard of — a Soviet autonomous region voting to secede from its republic. Lucas: It was a bombshell. In Yerevan, the response was immediate. Huge crowds gathered in Opera Square — eventually the whole square was packed, day after day. The Karabakh Committee formed, a group of intellectuals and activists that included a young philologist named Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who would later become Armenia's first president. They demanded Moscow accept the vote. Luna: How did Moscow react? Lucas: Gorbachev initially tried to calm things. He sent a delegation, promised economic aid, but refused to change borders. Then on February 28, the Sumgait pogroms began. Sumgait is an industrial city near Baku, and over three days, mobs attacked Armenian residents. Official Soviet figures say 32 dead, but Armenian sources claim hundreds. It was the first outbreak of ethnic violence in the late Soviet period, and it changed everything. Luna: That must have radicalized the movement instantly. Lucas: Absolutely. Before Sumgait, the Karabakh movement was a reformist, loyalist campaign. After, it became a national survival movement. Armenians realized that Moscow would not protect them, and that Azerbaijan's anger was real. In Yerevan, the demonstrations swelled to a million people — a third of the republic's population. They carried signs saying 'Karabakh is Armenian' and 'No to genocide.' Luna: And what about the Karabakh Armenians themselves? Were they united? Lucas: Remarkably so. There was a general strike in Stepanakert that lasted months. Schools and factories closed. People refused to pay taxes. They organized their own defense units. The Soviet authorities tried to arrest leaders, but new ones kept emerging. In July, the NKAO voted again to secede, and Moscow sent in troops to enforce order. Luna: It sounds like the entire Armenian population of Karabakh was in open civil disobedience. Lucas: It was. And the movement in Armenia proper kept growing. In May 1988, a group of intellectuals began a hunger strike at the Matenadaran — the ancient manuscript repository in Yerevan. That became a symbol of the movement's moral authority. The strikers demanded that Moscow accept the NKAO vote. They lasted weeks. Luna: And how did the diaspora respond? Lucas: The diaspora was electrified. For the first time since 1918, Armenians outside the Soviet Union saw a chance to influence events. They organized protests in Paris, Los Angeles, Beirut. They raised money. They lobbied Western governments. But they also had to be careful — any hint of interference could be used by Moscow to paint the movement as foreign-inspired. Luna: So at this point, it's still peaceful — marches, strikes, petitions. When did the violence really begin? Lucas: The first direct clashes between Armenians and Azeris in Karabakh happened in the fall of 1988. In September, there were skirmishes near Stepanakert. Then in November, a massive pogrom of Armenians in Baku — the capital of Azerbaijan — forced tens of thousands to flee. The Soviet Army eventually intervened, but they often sided with Azerbaijan. Luna: So by the end of 1988, it's effectively a low-grade war. Lucas: Not officially, but yes. Armenians were being expelled from most of Azerbaijan, and Azeris from Armenia. The Soviet government declared a state of emergency in Karabakh in January 1989, and imposed direct rule from Moscow. That calmed things for a bit, but it also meant the Karabakh Armenians had no local autonomy at all. Luna: And that's when the political movement in Yerevan got more confrontational. Lucas: Exactly. The Karabakh Committee became the de facto opposition. In December 1988, the Spitak earthquake devastated northern Armenia, and Gorbachev's slow response infuriated people. The Committee organized relief efforts and gained more legitimacy. In May 1989, they were arrested and spent six months in Moscow's Matrosskaya Tishina prison. That made them martyrs. Luna: And by the time they were released, the Soviet Union was crumbling. Lucas: Right. In 1990, violence escalated — the January 1990 pogrom of Armenians in Baku, the Soviet army's brutal crackdown in Baku that killed over a hundred Azeri civilians. Armenia and Azerbaijan were sliding toward full war. In August 1990, Levon Ter-Petrosyan was elected chairman of the Armenian Supreme Council, and in September 1991, Armenia declared independence. Luna: So the Karabakh movement essentially launched Armenia's independence. Lucas: Absolutely. Without the Karabakh movement, it's hard to imagine the national awakening that led to independence. The movement also created the political leadership — Ter-Petrosyan, Vazgen Sargsyan, and others who would lead Armenia through the war and the early years of statehood. Luna: It's a pretty remarkable story of peaceful protest that turned into a national liberation struggle. Lucas: And one that's still not over. The 2020 war and the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive have left Karabakh under full Azerbaijani control, and almost all Armenians have fled. But the movement of 1988 showed something profound — that Armenians, even under Soviet dictatorship, could organize, demand justice, and change the course of history. Luna: It's the kind of story that reminds you why these conversations matter — why we keep coming back to Armenia's history. Lucas: And honestly, that's exactly the kind of thing that keeps this show going. A couple of dollars a month from listeners — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo — genuinely covers the research time, the hosting costs, the small things that let us keep producing these episodes ad-free. If you've gotten something out of them, it really makes a difference. Luna: Yeah, it's a small way to support something you believe in. Lucas: And speaking of belief — one of the most remarkable aspects of the Karabakh movement was the role of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The church had been suppressed under Soviet rule, but in 1988, it became a rallying point. The Catholicos Vazgen I publicly supported the movement, and churches across Armenia held services for Karabakh. Luna: So the church, which had been a keeper of national identity for centuries, stepped back into that role. Lucas: Exactly. The movement revived the idea of Artsakh as a sacred Armenian land. Pilgrimages to the ancient monastery of Gandzasar, which had been a seat of the Armenian Catholicosate in medieval times, became a form of political protest. The movement was nationalist, but it was also spiritual. Luna: That's a powerful fusion — faith and nation. Lucas: It's what carried Armenians through centuries of foreign rule. And in 1988, it gave them the courage to stand in the streets and demand what was theirs. The Karabakh movement wasn't just about a piece of land — it was about the right to exist as a people with a history, a culture, and a future.