SOCIALIST
OUTLOOK
Wrong on Azerbaijan
We agree with the title and much of the contents of the editorial on Azerbaijan in SO 21, but it is ambiguous and inaccurate on three important questions.
First, it is quite wrong to state that the invasion was "certainly intended to stop the bru tal. ethnic slaughter..." It is absolutely clear from the Kremlin's statements, and from those of the military commander of the invasion, that it had only one purpose: to crush the Azeri nationalist movement. Frankly, any claim to the contrary is an excuse - and has the unfortunate effect of prettifying Moscow's brutal and criminal recourse to repression in Azerbaijan.
Second, to assert that "a more enlightened policy towards the nationalities issue" has been an "essential comerstone of glasnost" is factually untrue. Gorbachev's new thinking on relations between the republics did not see the light of day until eighteen months into his leadership - and then only as a response to the development of the mass movements. One must look not only at the Soviet leadership's rhetoric but also at its practice, which has not exactly been "enlightened" (remember Tbilisi, the repression in the aftermath of the Armenian earthquake and so on).
Finally, we cannot agree that socialists should call for "maintaining sufficient state
REVIEWS/ LETTERS forces to prevent further pogroms". Available evidence suggests that the initial pogroms were orchestrated and carried out by forces linked to the Azeri Communist party (see The Guardian, 15.2.90). Before the invasion it was forces within the Azeri Popular Front which organised workers' patrols to defend Armenians against the pogroms, at a time when the state forces were doing nothing at all to defend them. After the invasion, it was precisely the role of the troops to back up the bureaucratic leaders in Azerbaijan and smash the Popular Front! Defence of Armenians doesn't come into it.
It is therefore wrong to give any concession to the notion that the presence of the troops is in any way progressive of justified. On the contrary, it serves to exacerbate the tensions that could lead to further inter-ethnic conflict. The editorial is right to argue that a precondition for the resolution of such con flicts is the establishment of genuine nationaldemocratic rights in the various republics. But this means that socialists should make absolutely no concessions to the type of brutal repression which is the legacy of the Stalinist policy on the national question.
Patrick Baker David Shepherd
Hackney
History repeating itself?
Despite being six feet under, that old renegade Gerry Healy laughed to himself when he read SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no.21. But it wasn't because Alan Thornett failed to nail down the coffin lid in his obituary.
And Healy didn't chuckle at Emest Mandel's speech: Pablo was right, except that he was 37 years ahead of his time in announc ing the historic defeat of Stalinism.
No, Healy found the real ghost of Pablo in the editorial: "Azerbaijan: End the military occupation". Good enough title but you can't have your cake and eat it! Since when have the armed forces of the Soviet state played a progressive role in relation to the national question?
You call for an end to the military occupation 'while maintaining sufficiewnt state forces to prevent further pogroms". You consider this minimum presence justified because "The Armenians ... called on Moscow to intervene': but didn't this also happen in Afghanistan?
fail to understand that Moscow created the situation which then "demanded" their intervention. The question is not: is this an isolated mistake by Gorbachev? but "should the masses of Transcaucasia determine their own future?' We must answer this by demanding:
NO SOVIET TROOPS IN AZERBALAN AND ARMENIA WHATSOEVER!
comradely.
Roy Wall London NW2 We welcome letters on any subject: but please keep them brief! Letters over 400 words will be cut.
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