Comments on: Armenia’s Presidential Election and its Ramifications for Relations with Turkey

By: Allen

Allen — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:48:27 +0000

1. the conflict does not have its roots in the early soviet period, it has its roots to the turkic invasions of that region that began centuries earlier. The last major conflict over karabakh occured bw 1918-1921 but there was another one in 1905 and many more before it.

2. your timeline is skewed and missing very critical information
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Nagorno-Karabakh did not experience a string of bloody conflicts until major Azeri pogroms against Armenians in the Azeri port city of Sumgait (Feb 1988) and later in baku. This is telling when one actually presents all the facts. Because a reader understands what happened better when he/she knows that the people of that region have suffered pogroms at the hands of their turkish overloards in the past (1905, 1918). You also ignore that the Armenians have been the victims of massacres in Turkey bw 1894-96, wide scale pogroms in Cilicia in 1909 and a genocide in 1915 (which wiped 1.5 mil Armenians from turkey and their ancestral homeland). What does one expect when a nation with such a history is faced with renewed massacres?

3. your sources are themselves skewed and inaccurate. Your conclusion that karabakh armenians have taken over the country because a handful of politicians and oligarchs from karabakh are now in governing positions in Armenia is absurd. The previous administration of Levon Ter Petrosyan established a very large oligarchic structure that was composed of Armenians from Armenia—they are still there and in power.

Quite frankly the karabakh conflict has only one solution and that is its unification with Armenia. Any other reality will eventually signal the end of Armenian statehood and that is not acceptable to armenia. karabakh and nakhichevan are vital pieces in a larger geopolitical game that has been ongoing for a century. You touched upon it briefly yourself. Turkey tried in 1921 to connect nakhichevan, Zangezur (souther armenia connecting it with iran) and karabakh to create a turco-azeri corridor linking the two countries. such a scenario is still possible and therefore precludes any possibility that armenia will seek a karabakh solution that does not involve unification b/w the two territories.

By: gary

gary — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:08:42 +0000

la turquia y azerbaijan son asesinos de pueblos.hay que condemnar a esos barbaros para siempre.

By: Armenia’s Presidential Election and its Ramifications for …

Armenia’s Presidential Election and its Ramifications for … — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:20:01 +0000

[...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]

By: Leo

Leo — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 02:35:31 +0000

nihat the turk doesn’t mention why some civilians were killed. Because like the rest of their coward brothers in the region they plant innocent civilians where weapons caches are kept so as to deter attacks on those areas. Armenians refused to allow them to use this tactic and attacked them. He also doesn’t mention the century long harassment and murder Armenians endured under their soviet rule in Artsakh. As for those few hundred turks killed after the Armenian Genocide, it was done by a group of Armenians who lost their family members in the Genocide and where enraged about the lack of help and recognition by the world thus sadly resulted to the same tactics of seek and destroy.

By: Leo

Leo — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:54:37 +0000

…whose ansectors throughout history have been systematically murdered (women, children and all) by the turkic mongols with no support or even a second glance by anyone in the world. Naxijevan (my ansectral land) is next to be liberated if they want to start a war. I would never stand for ethnic cleansing by the way. I love diversity but when an ultimatum is set, I stand with Armenians only because no one else will. Our ancestors welcomed foreigners into our lands and it was only the turks who took advantage of a peaceful Christian people and ruined our great existence. Where once stood a Pantheons of Gods, great Christian Monestaries and beautiful civilizations is a deserted landscape under turkic occupation (other than some kurds who often use our Monestaries as barns). Hally I suggest you gather more knowledge about Armenians and our history if you are interested about these issues.

By: Nihat

Nihat — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:35:36 +0000

Tartars or Mongols? Or my ass?..

I am surprised by the fact that the author manages to avoid any mention of the civilian casualties (massacres) inflicted upon Azeris, and the resulting refugee crisis, and yet can pontificate about pros and cons, rights and wrongs of Turkish sanctions on Armenia.

Apart from that, the logical integrity of the last four paragraphs or so beats me.

By: R

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:29:06 +0000

Contrary to the assertion of this post the Armenian economy has done remarkably well given its relative lack of natural resources and the blockade imposed on this tiny country by Turkey and Azerbaijan. The economy is considered as one of the most liberal in the ex-Soviet Union, Armenia having privatized most industries early on. The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom has Armenia ranked in 28th place with Turkey in 74th place and Azerbaijan in 107th. http://www.heritage.org/Index/countries.cfm

GDP has grown at a double digit rate for the last 10 years with the economy expanding by almost 14% in 2007, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/am.html and GDP per capita (on a PPP basis) was $5,700 in 2007 compared to Georgia at $4,200, oil-rich Azerbaijan at $9,000, and Turkey at $9,400.

The country has been dubbed the ‘Caucasian Tiger’. http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTABOUTUS/IDA/0,,contentMDK:21201851~pagePK:51236175~piPK:437394~theSitePK:73154,00.html

In terms of corruption there is certainly a problem although no worse than in most other ex-Soviet countries. In its 2007 Corruption Perception Index, Transparency International has the country in 99th place, Russia in 143rd, and Azerbaijan in 150th http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2007

The current unrest is actually a sign that the population now demands that Armenia follow the rule of law and away from rule by oligarchs.

By: Hally

Hally — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:26:31 +0000

"… and will never again be occupied by tatars we will make sure of it."

… said the ethnic cleanser.

By: Leo

Leo — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:32:09 +0000

Firt of all Russia supported both sides to keep the war going and the azeris became "ill-equipped" after getting demolished by us. Most of our weapons came from azeis. I’m not even going to into all the reasons why Artsakh is Armenian land and will never again be occupied by tatars we will make sure of it.

By: Areen

Areen — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:52:44 +0000

You’re entitled to your opinion George, but you have a very one-sided take on the matter that (very surprisingly) this particular PoliGazette post does not hold.