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Viewpoint: Armenia's last best chance

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  • Viewpoint: Armenia's last best chance

    Viewpoint: Armenia's last best chance
    Raffi K. Hovannisian

    _http://www.metimes.com/articles/norm al.php?StoryID=20060501-063914-5198r_
    (http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?Story ID=20060501-063914-5198r)
    May 1, 2006

    YEREVAN, Armenia -- Yerevan-Armenia, the great regional power that
    extended from sea to sea in the first century before Christ and for
    ages played a central role in the history of Western Asia, has been
    reduced to a land-locked rump in modern times.

    Millennia of foreign conquest and domination, occupation and
    genocide, have delivered to today's world a nation that is long on
    culture and civilization, but short in statecraft. The catastrophic
    dispossession of the Armenian homeland by the rulers of the Ottoman
    Empire; the subsequent Bolshevik-Turkish pact partitioning Armenia
    and effectively tendering Karabagh, Nakhichevan and other integral
    parts of the Armenian patrimony to Soviet Azerbaijan; and Armenia's
    inclusion in the Soviet empire may form the basis of an explanation,
    but they do not excuse Armenia's current smallness.

    The nation's historic losses and intermittent statelessness are only
    prologue. The real story is in a failed leadership that seeks to
    rationalize the steady decline of the Armenian factor in world affairs
    by reference to external adversaries and geopolitical limitations.

    In fact, the major constraint is the insecure myopia of a semi-feudal,
    soft-authoritarian regime with a parochial mindset that makes a mockery
    of Armenia's ancient values and, in the very name of democracy,
    smothers human rights, civil liberties, free speech and assembly,
    and the rule of law. Of course, Armenia is not alone in this demeanor.

    In the 15 years of the country's newly rediscovered statehood,
    authority has never been transferred from incumbent to challenger by
    free and fair elections. They have always been forged - unfortunately
    always by the administration. The sitting presidency is no exception
    to this deplorable rule of illegitimate government.

    For Armenia to reclaim its democratic advantage in the region, to
    become a competitive contributor to peace, development and security,
    and to realize its strategic credentials at an increasingly critical
    crossing on the global map, it must transform itself both at home
    and abroad.

    Fresh Elections: In view of its series of falsified elections,
    and most recently the constitutional referendum held last November,
    Armenia requires an electoral transformation. Our American, European,
    and other international partners have the capacity to make this happen
    through the empowerment of Armenian citizen and society alike. This
    is the expectation of the Armenian body public. An orchestrated theft
    of votes and conscience is alien to the long-standing Armenian quest
    for rights and redemption. Armenia must satisfy the highest possible
    criteria for electoral legitimacy and accountable governance.

    Rule of Right: The supremacy of rights with due process and an equal
    application of laws needs in short order to become the foundation of
    the state. From corruption and conflicts of interest to responsibility
    for grave crimes and other misconduct, all citizens must face the
    same standard of justice - starting from the very top and going all
    the way down the hierarchy. The self-confidence of an independent
    judiciary, elusive as it may seem, is pivotal on this score. Raise
    their salaries and strictly hold them to the law.

    International Standing: Armenia's democratic transformation, much
    like Georgia's attempt, will find its reflection in international
    affairs. The republic's sovereignty is a supreme value and the most
    meaningful means for pursuit of vital national interests. Armenia must
    become a bridge of balance and understanding in the wider region,
    intersecting as it does Western civilization and Eastern tradition,
    the CIS and the Middle East, and the future linkage between its
    southern neighbors and the trans-Atlantic hemisphere. Official Yerevan
    should take its rightful place in the regional security system and,
    in dialogue with NATO, the European Union, Russia, China, and other
    centers, strive within the next decade to achieve security and energy
    independence - or at least diversification.

    Turkey: In all of history, no bilateral agreement, concord or treaty
    has ever been negotiated or entered into force between the sovereign
    republics of Armenia and Turkey.

    A brave new discourse and enlightened statesmanship must guide
    the initiative to normalize the Turkish-Armenian relationship in
    a multi-track process that takes into account, not escapes, the
    historical record and hammers out solutions to a comprehensive agenda
    of outstanding issues, including but not limited to establishment
    of diplomatic ties without preconditions; political, economic and
    ultimately security-related cooperation; the restoration of rights
    of the dispossessed; the guaranteed voluntary return of deportees or
    their progeny to their places of origin; respect for and renovation
    of the Armenian cultural heritage; and delimitation of boundaries
    directly between the parties involved.

    As it stands, however, Turkey continues to enforce a blockade against
    Armenia, an act of war and a material breach of the pact that Turkey's
    Kemalist regime and Soviet Russia signed in 1921 and on which Ankara
    relies for assertion of its eastern frontier. Without resolution
    of this strategic connection - rather the absence thereof - neither
    Turkey nor Armenia can ever join the EU, and no enduring settlement
    will ever be found in the case of Mountainous Karabagh and its struggle
    for liberty, democracy and self-determination.

    Karabagh and Azerbaijan: There can be no true movement on this
    regional conflict as long as a) Armenia and Azerbaijan remain in
    essentially undemocratic hands and thus without civic mandate;
    b) the republican entity of mountainous Karabagh, which declared
    its independence according to a plebiscite held in 1991 under the
    Soviet Constitution and relevant norms of international law, is
    excluded from the peace process; c) Azerbaijan refuses to cease and
    desist from its xenophobic rhetoric and its outrageous desecration
    of Armenian religious treasures, including an entire cemetery of
    medieval khachkars (cross-stones) finally and fully destroyed in
    broad daylight by uniformed soldiers in Nakhichevan last December;
    and d) the Turkish-Armenian divide stays intact and insurmounted.

    Short of this, the consequences of the war unleashed by Azerbaijan
    against Karabagh in 1988, resulting in thousands of casualties,
    hundreds of thousands of refugees and scores of reciprocal expulsions
    on both sides, must be approached on the humanitarian level. A
    pilot program to demilitarize a local segment of the conflict zone,
    allowing for the conditional return and restitution of both Armenian
    and Azerbaijani refugees, might under the circumstances be the only
    rational avenue for the initial cultivation of mutual confidence and
    gradual reconciliation of peoples. In all events, for the long-term
    development, prosperity, and equity of the region, Azerbaijan,
    Karabagh, Armenia and Turkey must abide by the same supervisory
    regime and terms of engagement as they relate to demilitarization,
    repatriation, opening of frontiers, transportation and communication
    and potential peacekeeping.

    An old nation with a young state, Armenia does indeed face a
    constellation of contemporary challenges, foreign and domestic,
    which must be overcome creatively and fundamentally. Neither wishful
    evolution nor artificial revolution will carry the day. Only a
    peaceful, system-wide, citizen-driven transformation - anchored in a
    correlation of the national will and international imperatives - can
    shift the paradigm and provide the land of Ararat with one ultimate
    opportunity to close the democratic deal, to turn swords into shared
    interests, and to redefine its identity, place and promise in the
    new era.

    Freedom and justice in the world begin at home.

    Raffi K. Hovannisian, Armenia's first minister of foreign affairs,
    is chairman of the Heritage Party and founder of the Armenian Center
    for National and International Studies in Yerevan. Acknowledgement
    to United Press International
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