There was a demonstration in Askeran village of Nagorno-Karabakh on February 22nd, 1988. Representatives of Azerbaijani authorities arrived at Askeran to suppress the expanding Artsakh movement. Being an ordinary Soviet citizen I was informed about the demonstration with a bit of delay and rushed to the place of the demonstration. One of the rally-goers approached us and said that a crowd of several thousand had departed from Aghdam region and was moving in the direction of Khanapat and Askeran destroying everything on its way. I didn’t believe him, since it was impossible to imagine such a thing during the Soviet years.

Having heard the same information from different people I, along with several others, hurried home to get hunter guns and moved towards the east of Askeran (Aghdam direction). Meanwhile, it was obvious that the Azerbaijanis intended to penetrate into Askeran. I am sure if they had succeeded, massacres would have begun which would have turned into genocide on the whole territory of the NKAO. When we took positions, the distance between attacking Azerbaijanis and us was about 100-150 meters. After a few shots were fired the crowd retreated leaving several people injured. My engagement in self-defense forces started from that very moment.

After this incident, I began to organize self-defense detachments and from October 1991, after the removal of Soviet armed forces, I became a regiment commander of regular forces. On August 14th, 1992, I was appointed commander of Askeran self-defense region and had been the regiment commander till October 1996.

Besides defending Askeran, the regiment participated in all defensive and offensive operations in all corners of Karabakh. The borders of today’s Askeran are the bright evidence of the regiment’s heroic path.

The outcome of Karabakhi people’s transition from peaceful life into war was tragic for Azerbaijan. Even today Azerbaijan makes bellicose statements about the military resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. I am sure that Azerbaijan will never have such an opportunity. During the Karabakh war we didn’t have a regular army, appropriate human and material resources. Karabakh was in a double blockade - the only connection with Armenia was the aerial one and the Armenian areas of Artsakh in their turn were surrounded by villages resided by Azerbaijanis. Despite all this, we had an outstanding victory. Today the Republic of Artsakh has a territory with national frontiers ascribed in the Constitution, where ethnic Armenians constitute the majority of the population and the whole territory is effectively controlled by Karabakhi authorities. Today, we have a modern defense army with its mobilization resources and material provision capabilities.

I am sure that the new war will erase Azerbaijan from the world political map. There is an option according to which Azerbaijan may start a trench shelling. In this case, NKR will give an adequate response which will be painful for Azerbaijan. More than one million residents of Azerbaijan live in the bordering regions of NKR, and the Azerbaijani authorities will have to carry the responsibility for their evacuation on their shoulders.

Vitaly Balasanyan is NKR National Assembly member, Hero of Artsakh

These views are his own.