Latency §

Soviet stagnation, the Aliyev dynastic foundation, ASALA and the surface calm of an unresolved question.

The 1953-1985 period is misleadingly quiet. The Karabakh question is shelved at the centre but never settled at the margin. Heydar Aliyev's ascent in Soviet Azerbaijan (1969 First Secretary, 1982 Politburo) lays the foundations of the post-1991 Aliyev dynasty. The ASALA and JCAG diaspora terrorism campaigns of 1975-1988 are the period's most internationally visible Armenian act.