2023-10-17 14:30:09
The misfortune of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh is the happiness of the 460,000 inhabitants of Nakhchivan, an isolated region of 5,500 square kilometers, the size of a French department, located in western Azerbaijan. Like Nagorno-Karabakh, Nakhchivan lived in virtual autarky because of the wars waged by Armenians and Azerbaijanis for three decades.
An Azerbaijani soldier waits for the departure of a train at Nakhchivan station (Azerbaijan), October 11, 2023. LUCAS BARIOULET FOR “LE MONDE”
“The war of 2020, which led to the liberation of Nagorno-Karabakh [et le départ par la force de 100 000 Arméniens, début octobre]has completely changed the regional context”explains, in his office, Anar Ibrahimov, vice-president of Ali Majlis (Parliament) of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. “Nakhichevan can now move forward and escape the blockade to which it has been subjected for thirty years by the Armenians”, assures this tall mustachioed man with glasses, standing straight under the double portrait of the last two presidents of Azerbaijan since the proclamation of its independence in 1991; the father, Heydar Aliev, 1993-2003, and his son, Ilham. The latter, in camouflage uniform, went to Nagorno-Karabakh for the first time on October 15 to trample the flag of the Armenian separatists in front of state television cameras. Twenty years to the day after inheriting power from his father.
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The rugged terrain of the South Caucasus had made Nakhichevan a natural corridor linking Yerevan to Baku and Tehran. But politics, in its most abhorrent form, has transformed it into an exclave – a territory under the sovereignty of a nation from which it is separated by a country or by a sea. Cut off from Azerbaijan to the north and to the is by a mountain massif belonging to enemy Armenia and known under the name of Zangezour. On its southwest flank, the Araxe River demarcates the border with Iran, a neighbor with whom Baku maintains checkered relations. The only land route connecting Nakhchivan with the rest of Azerbaijan passed through Iran, making a detour of several hundred kilometers to avoid going along the Armenian border. Tehran cut this route during the 2020 war.
Anar Ibrahimov, vice-president of the Nakhichevan parliament, in his office in Nakhichevan (Azerbaijan), October 11, 2023. LUCAS BARIOULET FOR “THE WORLD”
What Mr. Ibrahimov, who has spent his entire career within the ruling party, does not say is that its former leader, Vasif Talibov, speaker of the Supreme Assembly of the autonomous republic of Nakhichevan, had himself strongly contributed to locking down the region. “Talibov controlled everything, directed everything and immediately suppressed everyone who resisted him. No one moved a finger without his permission. Heydar Aliyev, with whom he is related, gave him Nakhichevan as a personal fiefdom. Baku quickly lost all authority here. Talibov took great pleasure in dictating his own laws, for example imposing uniforms for schoolchildren, banning the purchase of cars in Azerbaijan.testifies Ismaïl, a local businessman who requests anonymity.
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