Xenophon Paper 2 pdf - ICBSS

Karabakh. Armenia, one of the smallest dissident republics of the former Soviet Union,
was one of the first to form an agenda toward independence from the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics (USSR). During the final phase of the collapse of the USSR, Armenia
refused to take part in the referendum for the latter’s preservation. Armenia thus proved
in practice, and at a high price, the ineptness of the Soviet Empire and its administrative
system in protecting human and peoples’ rights. Since 1988, in response to their demand
for self-determination, ‘Armenian heretics’ of the USSR living in Soviet Azerbaijan,
Mountainous Karabakh, Northern Caucasus, and Central Asia were subjected to pogroms
and deportations organised on a state level. 2 The Kremlin-Soviet Azerbaijan joint police
and semi-military operations and repressions continued until the end of 1991. Thereafter,
newly-independent Azerbaijan’s large-scale military attacks against Mountainous Karabakh
and Armenia entered the conflict into a military phase. After the closure of Armenia’s
window toward the East following the Karabakh conflict, the country now looked more
in the direction of the Black Sea region as a bridge to the outside world (another access
was Iran) and in the direction of the civilisation whose part it once was. Such security
challenges were further obligating Armenia to distance itself from the Soviet empire and
to turn toward Europe and the West, wherein rights, self-determination and sovereignty
are respected and protected values. Besides, the Western World was the greatest
supporter of the Soviet republics in their fight for de-colonisation.
Thus, the history of the Armenian people, its past and present geography, and the
modern-day challenges of independent statehood and security played a substantial
role in defining Armenia’s strategic vision in the early 1990’s. These interests were
interwoven into the country’s foreign and domestic policies because: a) a considerable
part of the history of the Armenian people is outside its present-day Caucasus geography;
it can be found in the Black Sea basin and, as is the case in numerous ancient nations,
history is likewise an essential political resource and benchmark for the Armenian people;
b) the objectives toward the consolidation of sovereignty and statehood, and steady
political and economic development, were common interests for those countries of the
Black Sea basin which were emancipated from the communist disease and that declared
final de-colonisation and European integration as a priority; c) security challenges
compelled Armenia to make additional efforts toward peace and security, collaboration
and good neighbourly relations in the huge Black Sea basin, and toward economic
cooperation, which is beneficial for them. Apparently, the integral vectors of these three
sets of interests were passing through the Black Sea basin en route to Europe, where
solidarity with those European countries seeking similar interests had vital importance.
2 Armenia in a Transforming World, Armenian Center for National and International Studies, Yerevan, 2006, pp. 701-708.
X E N O P H O N P A P E R no 2 13