German Sterligov (Source: Mitya Aleshkovsky / Wikicommons)
YEREVAN (ARMENPRESS)—German Sterligov, the Russian businessman who now lives in the city of Shushi in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, has called claims that Nagorno-Karabakh is “Azerbaijani” land, “a satanic deception for millions of naïve Azerbaijanis.” The billionaire, who plans on starting an eco-friendly food production business in Nagorno-Karabakh, took to his personal Vkontakte page, a Russian social networking site, to post his note.
In his announcement titled, “Letter from Karabakh,” addressed to Azerbaijanis, Sterligov speaks about the absurdness of Azerbaijani authorities for calling Karabakh “historically Azerbaijani land.”
“That satanic deception addressed to millions of honest and naïve Azerbaijanis provokes readiness to sacrifice their lives for a false aim,” Sterligov wrote.
Sterligov blames the, “corrupted historians and writers of the Soviet Union,” for the false claims, who were assigned, “to write something near reality about that issue,” as far as 100 years ago. According to Sterligov, the inaccuracy has been repeated by several Soviet generations.
In his post, Sterligov advises Azerbaijanis to study ancient annals and graves with Armenian inscriptions to find out the truth.
“I want to deliver to you the idea that confessing historical truth, which is that Karabakh is an ancient Armenian land, eliminates any motive for war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Only by exposing the initial fraud is it possible to prevent a new, bigger bloodshed which is being prepared by the enemies of the Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples,” Sterligov wrote.
According to Sterligov, “it turns out that Armenians die for truth and Azerbaijanis for deception in a war for Karabakh.”
“Do you need that?” he asks, addressing the people of Azerbaijan.
Sterligov suggests the two sides, “sit around [a] peaceful and transparent table and put on it ancient annals and testimonies, [to] find out where the truth is and where the fraud is.”
“It is better than killing each other. Let that round table become an open and democratic diplomacy between Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Russians,” he suggests.