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Only receiving half of the story
Belleville Intelligencer (Ontario)
July 15, 2006 Saturday
Scott Taylor is the editor of Esprit de Corps magazine, the author
of several books, and a member of the Osprey Writers Group.
In May of this year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a public
statement reaffirming his support for the controversial Bill M-380.
Essentially, this motion brought forward by Bloc MP Madeleine
Dalphond-Guiral was a formal condemnation of the mass deportation of
Armenians from eastern Anatolia in 1915. According to M-380, this
tragedy was recognized as a deliberate genocide on the part of the
Ottoman Empire.
On April 21, 2004, the motion was approved after a free vote in
the House of Commons. However, as the procedure was non-binding,
the then-Liberal cabinet voted against it because it would be an
impediment to current Turkish-Canadian relations. Two years later,
Harper's revival of the subject did indeed spark an immediate response
from the Turks, who temporarily recalled their ambassador in protest.
While some may question why Canadian parliamentarians would spend their
time passing historical judgment on events that transpired 90 years
ago, it is even more puzzling when you realize that a humanitarian
crisis is currently taking place in this very region that is receiving
no consideration from our government.
The ongoing situation comes in the aftermath of the Azerbaijan-
Armenia border war of 1992-1994. With the international media focused
on the break-up of the former Yugoslavia and the genocide in Rwanda,
this border dispute in the Caucasus region garnered very little press
coverage in North America. It was a brutal clash that spanned 24
months and left 30,000 killed (mostly civilians), 100, 000 wounded
and nearly one million people "ethnically cleansed."
Armenia and Azerbaijan were both former republics of the Soviet
Union and formally granted (along with Georgia) their independence
with the signing of the Tashkent Agreement in May 1992. Under
the terms of the agreement, all three republics were allocated
the same amount of Soviet military material from which they could
constitute their own independent armies. A sizable Armenian minority
resided in a mountainous region known as Nagorno-Karabakh within the
recognized borders of Azerbaijan. Taking advantage of Azerbaijan's
post-independence internal political disorder and using the Nagorno-
Karabakh Armenians as a pretext, the Armenian army entered the
territory in 1992.
After completely securing the Nagorno-Karabakh region, the Armenians
continued to push into the territory controlled by Azerbaijan -
securing not only a land corridor with Armenia proper, but also
extending into seven Azerbaijani provinces to create a buffer zone.
In the wake of these military operations some 800,000 Azeri citizens
were forcibly removed from the newly-occupied territories.
However, within 12 months the Azeris had managed to train and field
six full infantry brigades and their deployment to the front contained
the Armenian advances. The establishment of a balance between the
combat forces turned the campaign into a stalemate and eventually a
ceasefire agreement was signed in 1994.
Despite this, the root causes for the conflict still remained
unresolved. The Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe
established the Minsk Group to oversee and monitor the 1994 ceasefire
agreement. The United Nations has passed a total of four resolutions
calling upon the Armenians to withdraw their military forces from the
occupied territories as a first step to resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh
self-determination question. The second phase of these resolutions
is the immediate resettlement of the 800,000 Azerbaijani displaced
residents into their former homes. However, with no realistic threat
of any international military force being deployed to enforce these
resolutions, the Armenians have steadfastly refused to pull back
their forces.
If Canada wishes to retain a reputation of neutral peace-broker,
it seems ludicrous that we would recognize an historical injustice
perpetuated against the Armenians in 1915 while ignoring the UN
violations that the Armenians are perpetrating upon the Azerbaijanis.
A first step might be for Ottawa to establish a diplomatic presence
in Azerbaijan. We presently have a permanent consulate office open
in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, but Canada has only sent two
small official delegations to visit Azerbaijan since its independence
in 1991.
Perhaps the fact that we are only getting one side of the story in
this complex conflict is leading to an apparent imbalance in our
foreign policy.
To comment please send e-mail to [email protected]
Belleville Intelligencer (Ontario)
July 15, 2006 Saturday
Scott Taylor is the editor of Esprit de Corps magazine, the author
of several books, and a member of the Osprey Writers Group.
In May of this year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a public
statement reaffirming his support for the controversial Bill M-380.
Essentially, this motion brought forward by Bloc MP Madeleine
Dalphond-Guiral was a formal condemnation of the mass deportation of
Armenians from eastern Anatolia in 1915. According to M-380, this
tragedy was recognized as a deliberate genocide on the part of the
Ottoman Empire.
On April 21, 2004, the motion was approved after a free vote in
the House of Commons. However, as the procedure was non-binding,
the then-Liberal cabinet voted against it because it would be an
impediment to current Turkish-Canadian relations. Two years later,
Harper's revival of the subject did indeed spark an immediate response
from the Turks, who temporarily recalled their ambassador in protest.
While some may question why Canadian parliamentarians would spend their
time passing historical judgment on events that transpired 90 years
ago, it is even more puzzling when you realize that a humanitarian
crisis is currently taking place in this very region that is receiving
no consideration from our government.
The ongoing situation comes in the aftermath of the Azerbaijan-
Armenia border war of 1992-1994. With the international media focused
on the break-up of the former Yugoslavia and the genocide in Rwanda,
this border dispute in the Caucasus region garnered very little press
coverage in North America. It was a brutal clash that spanned 24
months and left 30,000 killed (mostly civilians), 100, 000 wounded
and nearly one million people "ethnically cleansed."
Armenia and Azerbaijan were both former republics of the Soviet
Union and formally granted (along with Georgia) their independence
with the signing of the Tashkent Agreement in May 1992. Under
the terms of the agreement, all three republics were allocated
the same amount of Soviet military material from which they could
constitute their own independent armies. A sizable Armenian minority
resided in a mountainous region known as Nagorno-Karabakh within the
recognized borders of Azerbaijan. Taking advantage of Azerbaijan's
post-independence internal political disorder and using the Nagorno-
Karabakh Armenians as a pretext, the Armenian army entered the
territory in 1992.
After completely securing the Nagorno-Karabakh region, the Armenians
continued to push into the territory controlled by Azerbaijan -
securing not only a land corridor with Armenia proper, but also
extending into seven Azerbaijani provinces to create a buffer zone.
In the wake of these military operations some 800,000 Azeri citizens
were forcibly removed from the newly-occupied territories.
However, within 12 months the Azeris had managed to train and field
six full infantry brigades and their deployment to the front contained
the Armenian advances. The establishment of a balance between the
combat forces turned the campaign into a stalemate and eventually a
ceasefire agreement was signed in 1994.
Despite this, the root causes for the conflict still remained
unresolved. The Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe
established the Minsk Group to oversee and monitor the 1994 ceasefire
agreement. The United Nations has passed a total of four resolutions
calling upon the Armenians to withdraw their military forces from the
occupied territories as a first step to resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh
self-determination question. The second phase of these resolutions
is the immediate resettlement of the 800,000 Azerbaijani displaced
residents into their former homes. However, with no realistic threat
of any international military force being deployed to enforce these
resolutions, the Armenians have steadfastly refused to pull back
their forces.
If Canada wishes to retain a reputation of neutral peace-broker,
it seems ludicrous that we would recognize an historical injustice
perpetuated against the Armenians in 1915 while ignoring the UN
violations that the Armenians are perpetrating upon the Azerbaijanis.
A first step might be for Ottawa to establish a diplomatic presence
in Azerbaijan. We presently have a permanent consulate office open
in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, but Canada has only sent two
small official delegations to visit Azerbaijan since its independence
in 1991.
Perhaps the fact that we are only getting one side of the story in
this complex conflict is leading to an apparent imbalance in our
foreign policy.
To comment please send e-mail to [email protected]