Karabakh Secession from Azerbaijan Was Justified in Many Respects, Gorbachev said

PanARMENIAN.Net - "Moscow prepared to allocate 1 billion rubles for development of Nagorno Karabakh, which population was 180,000 people, to force Baku restore all the donations, open ties with Armenia and grant autonomous republic status to Nagorno Karabakh," first USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev stated in an interview with Moskovsky Komsomolets when asked whether Moscow could put an end to the Nagorno Karabakh separatist regime and urge Azerbaijan to grant Nagorno Karabakh more independence without its joining Armenia. "But at that moment Nagorno Karabakh was declared integral part of the Armenian territory at a session of the Armenian Supreme Council. What should do then? Introduce troops in Armenia? From my point of view, the question of Nagorno Karabakh secession from Azerbaijan was justified in many ways." Asked "how this compromise could be reached?" Gorbachev answered that it was possible only within frameworks of the USSR: "Use of force would have given no results. A vivid example of it is Chechnya." When the journalist remarked that under Gorbachev "troops were introduced in Tbilisi, Baku, Vilnius," Mikhail Gorbachev replied that the troops were introduced under his order only in Baku: "The events in Baku were completely out of control, and both the Supreme Council and the Central Committee fell into compete paralysis, the state border of 200 km length was breached, attacks at local institutions were held. I immediately sent Evgeny Primakov and Andrey Girenko to Baku, they informed me on the situation and proposed to declare state of emergency and introduce troops. I still think that by those measures we managed to escape more bloodshed."