Armenia
Country Profile PART I OF IV (Bibliography in IV)
ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN, AND GEORGIA: COUNTRY STUDIES
Armenia Country Profile
Formal Name: Republic of Armenia. Short Form:
Armenia.
Term for Citizens: Armenian (s). Capital: Erevan.
Date of Independence: September 23,1991.
Geography
Size: Approximately 29,800 square kilometers.
Topography: Dominated by Lesser Caucasus
range, running
across north and then turning southeast to Iran. Armenian Plateau
to southwest of mountains. Plateau, major feature of central
Armenia,
slopes gradually downward into Aras River valley, which forms border
with
Turkey to west and Iran to south.
Climate: Mountains preclude influence from
nearby seas;
temperature and precipitation generally determined by elevation: colder
and wetter in higher elevations (north and northeast). In central
plateau, wide temperature variation between winter and summer.
Society
Population: By official 1994 estimate,
population 3,521,517;
in 1994 annual growth rate about 1.1 percent; 1991 population density
112.6
persons per square kilometer.
Ethnic Groups: In 1989 census, Armenians 93.7
percent,
Azerbaijanis 2.6 percent, Kurds 1.7 percent, and Russians 1.6 percent.
NOTE-The Country Profile contains updated
information
as available.
Languages: Official state language Armenian,
spoken by
96 percent of population. Russian first language of 2 percent,
second
language for about 40 percent of population.
Religion: Approximately 94 percent of
population belongs
to Armenian Apostolic Church. Other religions include Russian
Orthodox,
Roman Catholic, Protestant denominations, and Islam.
Education and Literacy: Education compulsory
through
secondary school. Literacy estimated at 100
percent.
In early 1990s, substantial changes, begun in previous centralized
Soviet
system, emphasized national heritage.
Health: Nominal continuation of Soviet-era
guarantee of
universal care, but health care system deteriorated under stress of
independence
and Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Severe shortage of basic medical
supplies
in early 1990s, and many clinics and hospitals closed.
Economy
Gross National Product (GNP): Estimated at
US$2.7 billion
in 1992, or US$780 per capita. In 1992 growth rate -46
percent.
Economic growth crippled after 1989 by Azerbaijani blockade of fuel and
other materials and by demands of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Agriculture: After privatization in 1990,
assumed larger
share of economy; most land privately owned by 1993. Farms small
but relatively productive. Main crops grains, potatoes,
vegetables,
grapes, berries, cotton, sugar beets, tobacco, figs, and olives.
Industry and Mining: Dominant light
manufacturing products
include footwear, woven clothing, and carpets. Nonferrous
metallurgy,
machine building, electronics, petrochemicals, fertilizers, and
building
materials most important heavy industries. Mining resource base
broad,
including copper, molybdenum, gold, silver, and iron ore, but little
developed.
Energy: Nearly all energy supplied from
abroad, causing
severe shortage under blockade of early 1990s. Natural gas,
delivered
from Turkmenistan via Georgia pipeline, frequently blocked.
Hydroelectric
plants main domestic source; natural gas supply from Russia
intermittent
because of pipeline damage.
Exports: In 1990 worth US$2.1 billion.
Principal
items textiles, shoes, carpets, machines, chemical products, processed
foods, and metal products. Postcommunist export markets shifted
toward
Turkey and Iran, but traditional ties with Russia and Eastern Europe
remained.
License controls eased in 1992. Total export trade, severely
constricted
by blockade, about US$135.6 million in 1993.
Imports: In 1990 worth US$2.8 billion.
Principal
items light industrial products, industrial raw materials, fuels, and
energy.
Principal import suppliers Russia, Turkmenistan, Belarus, Ukraine, and
Kazakhstan. Nearly all energy and much food imported.
Balance of Payments: Estimated in 1992 as
US$137 million
deficit.
Exchange Rate: Dram introduced November 1993,
to become
exclusive national currency early 1994. May 1994 rate about 390
drams
per US$I. Second national unit, luma (100 to the dram) introduced
February 1994.
Inflation: Dram devalued as Russian
ruble devalued,
early 1994, against United States dollar. Prices raised in steep
periodic increments, including 30 percent rise March 1994. Prices
in 1993 rose 130 percent as fast as wages.
Fiscal Year: Calendar year.
Fiscal Policy: Highly centralized government
system, with
no regional authority. Indexation of salaries and prices and
currency
devaluation used to balance supply and demand. Taxes added and
changed
1992-93 to improve national income.
Transportation and Telecommunications
Highways: In 1991 about 11,300 kilometers of
roads, of
which 10,500 hard-surface.
Railroads: In 1992 total mainline track about
825 kilometers,
none o which standard gauge. International lines to Azerbaijan,
Georgia,
Iran, and Turkey. Service disrupted in early 1990s.
Civil Aviation: Ten usable airports, six with
hard-surface
runways. Zvartnots Airport, near Erevan, only airport
accommodating
large jets. State Airlines Company of Armenia national airline.
Inland Waterways: None.
Ports: None.
Pipelines: Natural gas pipelines 900 kilometers
in 1991;
service disrupted in early 1990s.
Telecommunications: Direct-dial telephone
system with
200 circuits and international service in 1991. Radio and
television
controlled by State Committee for Television and Radio
Broadcasting.
Armenian and Russian television broadcasts available to 100 percent of
population via International Telecommunications Satellite Organization
(Intelsat) satellite. Thirteen radio stations broadcast
domestically
in Armenian, Kurdish, and Russian.
Government and Politics
Government: National government with most
administrative
powers. Thirty-seven districts with local legislative and
executive
organs. National legislature unicameral Supreme Soviet of 248
members.
Highest executive organ, Council of Ministers, appointed by president
with
consent of Prime Minister, named, by president with consent of
parliament.
Presidency, given broad emergency powers during Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict,
most powerful government office. Legislative process cumbersome
and
fragmented, delaying passage of new constitution and other vital
legislation.
As of 1994, reform of Soviet-era judicial system awaited new
constitution.
Politics: Since independence in 1991,
presidency, most
ministries, and parliamentary plurality held by members of Armenian
Pannational
Movement. Main opposition parties Liberal Democratic Party and
Armenian
Revolutionary Federation. First multiparty election 1991.
Many
minority parties represented in parliament, with coalitions on specific
issues.
Foreign Relations: In early 1990s, foreign
policy determined
strongly by Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan. Some
rapprochement
with traditional enemies Turkey and Iran.
Limited relations established with Western
Europe.
Close ties with Russia and accords with other members of the
Commonwealth
of Independent States. Worldwide Armenian diaspora facilitates
foreign
support.
International Agreements and Memberships:
Member of United
Nations, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, European Bank for
Reconstruction
and Development, and Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.
National Security
Armed Forces: Armenian Army divided into army,
air force,
and air defense forces; total forces about 50,000, including
reserves.
In 1994 about 20,000 active troops, including border guards and
internal
security troops supplied mainly by conscription. About 2,000
troops
in air force and 2,000 in air defense forces. Reserve call-up
available
in crisis, although reserves support weaker in postcommunist era.
One Russian division remained in Armenia in 1994.
Major Military Units: National army formed in
1992 to
emphasize maneuverability and response to attack. Highest
organizational
level brigades each with 1,500 to 2,500 troops and divided into three
or
four battalions. Air defense forces reinvigorated and new
military
aviation program established in early 1990s. Most of two Russian
motorized divisions transferred to Armenian control in 1992. Much
equipment obtained from Russian units formerly stationed in Armenia.
Military Budget: Estimated in ' 1992 at US$
33.8 million.
Internal Security: Run by State Administration
for National
Security. Border troops supplemented by Russian forces along
Iranian
and Turkish borders. Militia used as regular police force of
somewhat
over 1,000 troops; duties include drug detection. Some units of
former
Committee for State Security (KGB) function under Armenian control.
ARMENIAN CIVILIZATION HAD its beginnings in
the sixth
century B.C. In the centuries following, the Armenians withstood
invasions
and nomadic migrations, creating a unique culture that blended Iranian
social and political structures with Hellenic-and later
Christian-literary
traditions. For two millennia, independent Armenian states
existed
sporadically in the region between the northeastern corner of the
Mediterranean
Sea and the Caucasus Mountains, until the last medieval state was
destroyed
in the fourteenth century. A landlocked country in modern times,
Armenia was the smallest Soviet republic from 1920 until the
dissolution
of the Soviet Union in 1991 (see fig. 4). The future of an
independent
Armenia is clouded by limited natural resources and the prospect that
the
military struggle to unite the Armenians of Azerbaijan's
Nagorno-Karabakh
Autonomous Region with the Republic of Armenia will be a long one.
Historical Background
The Armenians are an ancient people who speak
an Indo-European
language and have traditionally inhabited @e border regions common to
modern
Armenia, Iran, and-Turkey. They call themselves hai (from the
name
of Hayk, a legendary hero) and their country Haiastan. Their
neighbors
to the north, the Georgians, call them somekhi, but most of the rest of
the world follows the usage of the ancient Greeks and refers to them as
Armenians, a term derived according to legend from the Armen
tribe.
Thus the Russian word is armianin, and the Turkish is ermeni.
The Ancient Period
People first settled what is now Armenia in
about 6000
B.C. The first major state in the region was the kingdom of Urartu,
which
appeared around Lake Van in the thirteenth century B.C. and reached its
peak in the ninth century B.C. Shortly after the fall of Urartu
to
the Assyrians, the IndoEuropean-speaking proto-Armenians migrated,
probably
from the west, onto the Armenian Plateau and mingled with the local
people
of the Hurrian civilization, which at that time extended into Anatolia
(present-day Asian Turkey) from its center in Mesopotamia. Greek
historians first mentioned the Armenians in the mid-sixth century B.C.
Ruled for many centuries by the Persians, Armenia became a buffer state
between the Greeks and Romans to the west and the Persians and Arabs of
the Middle East. It reached its greatest size and influence under
King Tigran II, also known as Tigranes or Tigran the Great (r. 95-55
B.C.).
During his reign, Armenia stretched from the Mediterranean Sea
northeast
to the Mtkvari River (called the Kura in Azerbaijan) in present-day
Georgia
(see fig. 5). Tigran and his son, Artavazd II, made Armenia a center of
Hellenic culture during their reigns.
By 30 B.C., Rome conquered the Armenian Empire,
and for
the next 200 years Armenia often was a pawn of the Romans in campaigns
against their Central Asian enemies, the Parthians. However, a
new
dynasty, the Arsacids, took power in Armenia in A.D. 53 under the
Parthian
king, Tiridates 1, who defeated Roman forces in A.D. 62. Rome's
Emperor
Nero then conciliated the Parthians by personally crowning Tiridates
king
of Armenia. For much of its subsequent history, Armenia was not
united
under a single sovereign but was usually divided between empires and
among
local Armenian rulers.
Early Christianity
After contact with centers of early
Christianity at Antioch
and Edessa, Armenia accepted Christianity as its state religion in A.D.
306. The traditional date-the actual date may have been as late
as
A.D. 314. This happened following miracles said to have been performed
by Saint Gregory the Illuminator, son of a Parthian nobleman.
Thus,
Armenians claim that Tiridates III (A.D. 238-314) was the first ruler
to
officially Christianize his people, his conversion predating the
conventional
date (A.D. 312) of Constantine the Great's legalization of Christianity
on behalf of the Roman Empire.
Early in the fifth century A.D., Saint Mesrop,
also known
as Mashtots, devised an alphabet for the Armenian language, and
religious
and historical works began to appear as part of the effort to
consolidate
the influence of Christianity. For the next two centuries,
political
unrest paralleled the exceptional development of literary and religious
life that became known as the first golden age of Armenia. In
several
administrative forms, Armenia remained part of the Byzantine Empire
until
the mid seventh century. In A.D. 653, the empire, finding the
region
difficult to govern, ceded Armenia to the Arabs. In A.D. 806, the
Arabs established the noble Bagratid family as governors, and later
kings,
of a semiautonomous Armenian state.
The Middle Ages
Particularly under Bagratid kings Ashot I
(also known
as Ashot the Great or Ashot V, r. A.D. 862-90) and Ashot III (r.
A.D. 952-77), a flourishing of art and literature accompanied a second
golden age of Armenian history. The relative prosperity of other
kingdoms in the region enabled the Armenians to develop their culture
while
remaining segmented among jurisdictions of varying degrees of autonomy
granted by the Arabs. Then, after eleventh-century invasions from
the west by the Byzantine Greeks and from the east by the Seljuk Turks,
the independent kingdoms in Armenia proper collapsed. A new Armenian
state,
the kingdom of Lesser Armenia, formed in Cilicia along the northeastern
most shore of the Mediterranean Sea. As an ally of the kingdoms
set
up by the European armies of the Crusades, Cilician Armenia fought
against
the rising Muslim threat on behalf of the Christian nations of Europe.
Internal rebellions and court intrigue brought its downfall, at the
hands
of the Central Asian Mamluk Turks in 1375. Cilician Armenia left
notable monuments of art, literature, theology, and
jurisprudence.
It also served as the door through which Armenians began emigrating to
points west: notably Cyprus, Marseilles, Cairo, Venice, and even
Holland.
The Mamluks controlled Cilician Armenia until
the Ottoman
Turks conquered the region in the sixteenth century. Meanwhile,
the
Ottoman Turks and the Persians divided Caucasian Armenia to the
northeast
between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. The Persians
dominated
the area of modern Armenia, around Lake Sevan and the city of
Erevan.
From the fifteenth century until the early twentieth century, most
Armenians
were ruled by the Ottoman Turks through the millet (see Glossary)
system,
which recognized the ecclesiastical authority of the Armenian Apostolic
Church over the Armenian people.
Between Russia and Turkey
Beginning in the eighteenth century, the
Russian Empire
played a growing role in determining the fate of the Armenians,
although
those in Anatolia remained under Turkish control, with tragic
consequences
that would endure well into the twentieth century.
Russian Influence Expands
In the eighteenth century, Transcaucasia (the
region including
the Greater Caucasus mountain range as well as the lands to the south
and
west) became the object of a military-political struggle among three
empires:
Ottoman Turkey, tsarist Russia, and Safavid Persia. In 1828
Russia
defeated Persia and annexed the area around Erevan, bringing thousands
of Armenians into the Russian Empire. In the next half-century,
three
related processes began to intensify the political and national
consciousness
of the ethnic and religious communities of the Caucasus region. The
imposition
of tsarist rule; the rise of a market and capitalist economy; and the
emergence
of secular national intelligentsia's. Tsarism brought Armenians
from
Russia and from the former Persian provinces under a single legal
order.
The Tsarist system also brought relative peace and security by
fostering
commerce and industry, the growth of towns, and the building of
railroads,
thus gradually ending the isolation of many villages.
In the mid-nineteenth century, a major movement
toward
centralization and reform, called the Tanzimat, swept through the
Ottoman
Empire, whose authority had been eroded by corruption and delegation of
control to local fiefdoms. Armenian subjects benefited somewhat
from
these reforms; for instance, in 1863 a special Armenian constitution
was
granted. When the reform movement was ended in the 1870s by
reactionary
factions, however, Ottoman policy toward subject nationalities became
less
tolerant, and the situation of the Armenians in the empire began to
deteriorate
rapidly.
National Self-Awareness
The Armenians themselves changed dramatically
in the mid-nineteenth
century. An intellectual awakening influenced by Western and
Russian
ideas, a new interest in Armenian history, and an increase in social
interaction
created a sense of secular nationality among many Armenians.
Instead
of conceiving of themselves solely as a religious community, Armenians
especially the urban middle class-began to feel closer kinship with
Christian
Europe and greater alienation from the Muslim peoples among whom they
lived.
Lacking faith in reform within the empire,
Armenian leaders
began to appeal to the European powers for assistance. In 1878,
Armenian
delegates appeared at the Congress of Berlin, where the European powers
were negotiating the disposition of Ottoman territories. Although
Armenian requests for European protection went largely unanswered in
Berlin,
the "Armenian question" became a point of contention in the complex
European
diplomacy of the late nineteenth century. Russia and Britain acted as
the
chief sponsors of Armenian interests on various issues.
The Armenian independence movement began as
agitation
on behalf of liberal democracy by writers, journalists, and teachers.
By
the last decade of the nineteenth century, moderate nationalist
intellectuals
had been pushed aside by younger, more radical socialists.
Armenian
revolutionary parties, founded in the early 1890s in Russia and Europe,
sent their cadres to organize in Turkey. Because of the
self-destruction
of one major party, the Social Democratic Hnchaks, and the relative
isolation
of the liberals and the "internationalist" Social Democrats in the
cities
of Transcaucasia, the more nationalist of the socialist parties, the
Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (ARF, also known as the Dashnak, a shortened
form
of its Armenian name), emerged by the early twentieth century as the
only
real contender for Armenian loyalties. The ARF favored Armenian
autonomy
in both the Russian and the Ottoman empires rather than full
independence
for an Armenia in which Russian- and Ottoman-held components would be
unified.
In the last decades of the nineteenth century,
the Armenians'
tendency toward Europeanization antagonized Turkish officials and
encouraged
their view that Armenians were a foreign, subversive element in the
sultan's
realm. By 1890, the rapid growth of the Kurdish population in
Anatolia,
combined with the immigration of Muslims from the Balkans and the
Caucasus,
had made the Armenian population of Anatolia an increasingly endangered
minority. In 1895 Ottoman suspicion of the westernized Armenian
population
led to the massacre of 300,000 Armenians by special order of the
Ottoman
government.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Russian
border, Armenian
churches and schools were closed and church property was confiscated in
1903. Tatars massacred Armenians in several towns and cities in
1905,
and fifty-two Armenian nationalist leaders in Russia were tried en
masse
for underground activities in 1912.
The Young Turks
The Armenian population that remained in the
Ottoman Empire
after the 1895 massacre supported the 1908 revolution of the Committee
of Union and Progress, better known as the Young Turks, who promised
liberal
treatment of ethnic minorities. However, after its revolution
succeeded,
the Young Turk government plotted elimination of the Armenians, who
were
a significant obstacle to the regime's evolving nationalist agenda.
In the early stages of World War 1, Russian
armies advanced
on Turkey from the north, and the British attempted an invasion from
the
Mediterranean. Citing the threat of internal rebellion, the
Ottoman
government ordered large-scale roundups, deportations, and systematic
torture
and murder of Armenians beginning in the spring of 1915.
Estimates
vary from 600,000 to 2 million deaths out of the prewar population of
about
3 million Armenians. By 1917, fewer than 200,000 Armenians
remained
in Turkey.
Whatever the exact dimensions of the genocide,
Armenians
suffered a demographic disaster that shifted the center of the Armenian
population from the heartland of historical Armenia to the relatively
safer
eastern regions held by the Russians. Tens of thousands of
refugees
fled to the Caucasus with the retreating Russian armies and the cities
of Baku and Tbilisi filled with Armenians from Turkey. Ethnic
tensions
rose in Transcaucasia as the new immigrants added to the pressures on
the
limited resources of the collapsing Russian Empire.
World War I and Its Consequences
As was the case for most of Europe, World War
I changed
Armenia's geopolitical situation. The war also precipitated an
ethnic
disaster of rare magnitude and brought the Armenians who remained in
their
native territory into a new type of empire.
Postwar Realignment
Between 1915 and 1917, Russia occupied
virtually the entire
Armenian part of the Ottoman Empire. Then in October 1917, the
Bolshevik
victory in Russia ended that country's involvement in World War 1, and
Russian troops left the Caucasus. In the vacuum that remained,
the
Armenians first joined a Transcaucasian federation with Azerbaijan and
Georgia, both of which, however, soon proved to be unreliable
partners.
The danger posed by the territorial ambitions of the Ottoman Turks and
the Azerbaijanis finally united the Caucasian Armenian population in
support
of the ARF program for autonomy. In May 1918, an independent
Armenian
republic was declared; its armies continued to fight on the Allied side
south of the Caucasus until the Ottoman Empire surrendered in October
1918.
The independent republic endured from May 1918 to December 1920.
In the new government, ARF leaders R.I. Kachazuni and A.I. Khatisian
became
Prime Minister and foreign minister, respectively.
The Republic of Armenia included the northeastern
part
of present-day eastern Turkey, west along the Black Sea coast past
Trabzon
and southwest past Lake Van. But Armenia's precarious
independence
was threatened from within by the terrible economic conditions that
followed
the war in the former Ottoman Empire and, by 1920, by the territorial
ambitions
of Soviet Russia and the nationalist Turks under Kemal Atataturk.
Atataturk
had rehabilitated Turkey rapidly under a new democratic sys- tem, but
the
ruling party still hoped to create a larger state by taking territory
in
western Armenia from which Armenians had been driven. In
defending
its independence, the Republic of Armenia waited in vain, however, for
the material and military aid promised at the Paris Peace Conference in
1919. The Allies' memories of the 1915 massacre faded as war
weariness
and isolationism dominated their foreign policy. In agreeing to the
1920
Treaty of Se'vres, the World War I Allies and Turkey recognized
Armenian
independence; as part of the treaty, Armenia received some disputed
territory
in what had been the Ottoman Empire. However, most of western
Armenia
remained in Turkish hands. Eastern Armenia, ravaged by warfare,
migration,
and disease, had an Armenian population of only 720,000 by 1920.
Caught between the advancing Turks and the Red Army, which had already
occupied neigh- boring Azerbaijan, in November 1920 the ARF government
made a political agreement with the communists to enter a coalition
government.
The Treaty of Aleksandropol', signed by this government with Turkey in
1920, returned Armenia's northern Kars district to Turkey and
repudiated
the existence of Armenian populations in newly expanded Turkey
Into the Soviet Union
In 1922 Armenia was combined with Azerbaijan
and Georgia
to form the Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (TSFSR),
which was a single republic of the Soviet Union until the federation
was
dissolved and each part given republic status in 1936. When the
TSFSR
was formed, the new Soviet government in the Armenian capital of Erevan
ruled over a shrunken country with a devastated economy and few
resources
with which to feed the populace and rebuild it. In integrating
their
republic into the newly forming Soviet Union, Armenian communists
surrendered
the sovereignty that the independent republic had enjoyed
briefly.
Although it eliminated rival political parties and restricted the range
of public expression, the new government promoted Armenian culture and
education, invited artists and intellectuals from abroad to return to
Armenia.
It managed to create an environment of greater security and material
well-being
than Armenians had known since the outbreak of World War 1.
The Communist Era
During the rule of Joseph V. Stalin (in power
1926-53),
Armenian society and its economy were changed dramatically by Moscow
policy
makers. In a period of twenty-five years, Armenia was
industrialized
and educated under strictly prescribed conditions, and nationalism was
harshly suppressed. After Stalin's death, Moscow allowed greater
expression of national feeling, but the corruption endemic in communist
rule continued until the very end in 1991. The last years of
communism
also brought disillusionment in what had been one of the most loyal
republics
in the Soviet Union until the late 1980s.
Stalinist Restructuring
Stalin's radical restructuring of the Soviet
economic
and political systems at the end of the 1920s ended the brief period of
moderate rule and mixed economy under what was known as the New
Economic
Policy (see Modern Economic History, this ch.). Under Stalin the
Communist
Party of Armenia (CPA) used police terror to strengthen its political
hold
on the population and suppress all expressions of nationalism. At
the height of the Great Terror orchestrated by Stalin in 1936-37, the
ranks
of CPA leaders and intellectuals were decimated by Lavrenti Beria,
political
commissar for the Transcaucasian republics.
Stalin's enforced social and economic engineering
improved
literacy, education, built communications, and industrial
infrastructures
where virtually none had existed in Tsarist times. As they
emerged
from the Stalin era in the 1950s, Armenians were more mobile, better
educated,
and ready to benefit from the less repressive policies of Stalin's
successor,
Nikita S. Khrushchev (in power 1953-64). The years of
industrialization
had promoted an upward social mobility through which peasants became
workers;
workers became foremen or managers; and managers became party and state
officials.
Communism after Stalin
After Stalin's death in 1953, Moscow granted
the republic
more autonomy in decision making, which meant that the local communist
elite increased its power and became entrenched in Armenian politics in
the 1950s and 1960s. Although overt political opposition remained
tightly restricted, expressions of moderate nationalism were viewed
with
greater tolerance. Statues of Armenian national heroes were
erected,
including one of Saint Vartan, the fifth-century defender of Armenian
Christianity.
Even as Armenia continued its transformation from
an
agrarian nation to an industrial, urban society by the early 1980s only
a third of Armenians lived in the country side the ruling elite
remained
largely unchanged. Consequently, corruption and favoritism
spread,
and an illegal "second economy" of black markets and bribery
flourished.
In 1974, Moscow sent a young engineer, Karen Demirchian, to Erevan to
clean
up the old party apparatus, but the new party chief soon accommodated
himself
to the corrupt political system he had inherited.
The New Nationalism
Three issues combined by 1988 to stimulate a
broad-based
Armenian nationalist movement. First, the urbanization and
industrialization
of Armenia had brought severe ecological problems, the most threatening
of which was posed by a nuclear power plant at Metsamor, west of
Erevan.
Second, many Armenians were angered by the pervasive corruption and
arrogance
of the communist elite, which had become entrenched as a privileged
ruling
class. Third and most immediate, Armenians were increasingly
concerned
about the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, an autonomous region of
Azerbaijan
having nearly 200,000 Armenians living under Azerbaijani rule, isolated
from mainstream Armenian culture.
Control of Nagorno-Karabakh (the conventional
geographic
term is based on the Russian for the phrase "mountainous Karabakh") had
been contested by the briefly independent republics of Armenia and
Azerbaijan
after World War 1. In 1924, the Soviet government designated the region
an autonomous region under Azerbaijani jurisdiction within the
TSFSR.
At the time, 94.4 percent of the estimated 131,500 people in the
district
were Armenian. Between 1923 and 1979, the Armenian population of
the enclave dropped by about 1,000, comprising only about 76 percent of
the population by the end of the period. In the same period, the
Azerbaijani population quintupled to 37,000, or nearly 24 percent of
the
region's population. Armenians feared that their demographic
decline
in Nagorno-Karabakh would replicate the fate of another historically
Armenian
region, Nakhichevan, which the Soviet Union had designated an
autonomous
republic under Azerbaijani administration in 1924. In Nakhichevan
the number of Armenians declined from about 15,600 (15 percent of the
total)
in 1926 to about 3,000 (1.4 percent of the total) in 1979. In the same
period immigration and a higher birth rate had increased the
Azerbaijani
population from about 85,400 (85 percent) to 230,000, or nearly 96
percent
of the total.
In addition to fearing the loss of their
numerical superiority,
Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh resented restrictions on the development
of the Armenian language and culture in the region. Although the
Armenians generally lived better than Azerbaijanis did in neighboring
districts,
their standard of living was not as high as that of their countrymen in
Armenia. Hostile to the Azerbaijanis, whom they blamed for their
social and cultural problems, the vast majority of Karabakh Armenians
preferred
to learn Russian rather than Azerbaijani, the language of
Azerbaijan.
As early as the 1960s, clashes occurred between the Karabakh Armenians
and the Azerbaijanis, and Armenian intellectuals petitioned Moscow for
redress of their situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.
A series of escalating attacks and reprisals
between the
two sides began in early 1988. Taking advantage of the greater
freedom
introduced by the glasnost (see Glossary) and perestroika (see
Glossary),
policies of Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev (in power 1985-91) in
the
late 1980s, Armenians held mass demonstrations in favor of uniting
Nagorno-Karabakh
with Armenia. In response to rumored Armenian demands,
Azerbaijanis
began fleeing the region. A two-day rampage in the industrial
town
of Sumgait, northwest of Baku, resulted in the deaths of more than 100
Armenians. During 1988, while Moscow hesitated to take decisive
action,
Armenians grew increasingly disillusioned with Gorbachev's programs,
and
Azerbaijanis sought to protect their interests by organizing a powerful
anti-Armenian nationalist movement.
Nagorno-Karabakh and independence
The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh (often called
simply
Karabakh) served as a catalyst for nationalist movements following the
precipitous decline of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. In the
early 1990s, the struggle defied all negotiating efforts of the West
and
Russia.
Karabakh as a National Issue
The protests of the Armenians of
Nagorno-Karabakh against
Azerbaijani rule began in the spirit of perestroika, but the movement
evolved
quickly into a political organization, the Karabakh Committee, a broad
anticommunist coalition for democracy and national sovereignty.
In
the confusion following the earthquake that devastated northern Armenia
in December 1988, Soviet authorities tried to stem the growing
opposition
to their rule by arresting the leaders of the committee. The
attempt
by the CPA to rule in Armenia without support from Armenian
nationalists
only worsened the political crisis. In March 1989, many voters
boycotted
the general elections for the Soviet Union's Congress of People's
Deputies.
Massive demonstrations were held to demand the release of the members
of
the committee, and, in the elections to the Armenian Supreme Soviet,
the
legislative body of the republic, in May, Armenians chose delegates
identified
with the Karabakh cause. At that time, the flag of independent
Armenia
was flown for the first time since 1920. The release of the
Karabakh
Committee followed the 1989 election; for the next six months, the
nationalist
movement and the Armenian communist leadership worked as uncomfortable
allies on the Karabakh issue.
Gorbachev's 1989 proposal for enhanced
autonomy for Nagorno-Karabakh
within Azerbaijan satisfied neither Armenians nor Azerbaijanis, and a
long
and inconclusive conflict erupted between the two peoples. In
September
1989, Azerbaijan began an economic blockade of Armenia's vital fuel and
supply lines through its territory, which until that time had carried
about
90 percent of Armenia's imports from the other Soviet republics.
In June 1989, numerous unofficial nationalist organizations joined to
form
the Armenian Pan-national Movement (APM), to which the Armenian
government
granted official recognition.
The Karabakh Conflict Escalates, 1989
The Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict escalated
steadily in
the summer and fall of 1989. Both the APM and the newly formed
Azerbaijani
Popular Front (APF) called for abolition of the Special Administrative
Committee that Gorbachev had established to manage
Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Armenians held to their position that the region must become part
of
Armenia, and radical Azerbaijanis called for abolition of Karabakh
autonomy.
As hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis demonstrated in Baku, their
government
further restricted the flow of goods and fuel into Karabakh and
Armenia.
In August 1989, Karabakh Armenians responded by electing their own
National
Council, which declared the secession of Karabakh from Azerbaijan and
its
merger with Armenia. The Armenian Supreme Soviet then declared
the
Karabakh National Council the sole legitimate representative of the
Karabakh,
people. The Azerbaijani Supreme Soviet responded by abrogating
the
autonomy of both Karabakh and Nakhichevan.
Although the declarations and
counter-declarations of
mid1989 were ultimately declared invalid by the Supreme Soviet of the
Soviet
Union, and although both Armenia and Azerbaijan continued to be
governed
by communist parties, neither republic was willing to obey Moscow's
directives
on the Karabakh issue. In November 1989, in frustration at its
inability
to bring the parties together, the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
abolished
the Special Administrative Committee and returned direct control of
Karabakh
to Azerbaijan. Rejecting Moscow's decision, the Armenian Supreme
Soviet declared Karabakh a part of Armenia in December 1989.
After more than two years of the Karabakh
conflict, Armenia
had gone from being one of the most loyal Soviet republics to complete
loss of confidence in Moscow. Gorbachev's unwillingness to grant
Karabakh to Armenia and his failure to end the blockade convinced
Armenians
that the Kremlin considered it politically advantageous to back the
more
numerous Muslims. Even the invasion of Azerbaijan by Soviet
troops
in January 1990, ostensibly to stop pogroms against Armenians in Baku,
failed to dampen the growing anti-Soviet mood among Armenians (see
Within
the Soviet Union, ch. 2).
A New Political Climate
The resignation of Suren Harutiunian as first
secretary
of the CPA in April 1990 and the triumph of the APM in the elections of
the spring and summer of 1990 signaled the end of the old party elite
and
the rise of a new Armenian political class that had matured during the
two years of tensions over Karabakh. The newly elected Armenian
parliament
(which retained the Soviet-era name Supreme Soviet or Supreme Council)
chose Levon Ter-Petrosian instead of the new CPA first secretary as its
chairman, and hence as head of state of the republic.
With the APM in power and the communists in
opposition,
the transition from Soviet-style government to an independent
democratic
state began in earnest. The new government faced a nearly
complete
collapse of order in the republic. Buildings were seized by armed
men in Erevan, and several independent militia groups operated in
Erevan
as well as on the Azerbaijani frontier. Frustrated by the
Azerbaijani
blockade and determined to defend their republic and Karabakh, members
of Armenia's Fidain (whose name was taken from an Arabic term literally
meaning "one who sacrifices himself " and recalling the Armenian
freedom
fighters of the turn of the century) raided arsenals and police
stations
to arm themselves for the coming battles. In July Gorbachev
demanded
immediate disarmament of the Armenian militias and threatened military
intervention if they did not comply. In response, Ter-Petrosian's
government itself disarmed the independent militias and restored order
in Erevan.
On August 23, 1990, Armenia formally declared its
intention
to become sovereign and independent, with Nagorno-Karabakh an integral
part of what now would be known as the Republic of Armenia rather than
the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. The Armenian nation was
defined
broadly to include not only those living in the territory of the
republic
but also the worldwide Armenian 6migrE population.
In redefining Armenian national interests, the
government
acknowledged-but temporarily put aside-the painful question of Armenian
genocide, having in mind, improved relations with traditional enemies
Turkey
and Iran. This policy prompted strong criticism from extreme
nationalist
groups that wanted to recover territory lost to Turkey in World War 1.
The CPA was also vehemently critical.
Independence
In January 1991, the Armenian Supreme Soviet
decided not
to participate in Gorbachev's planned referendum on preserving the
Soviet
Union. In March, the parliament announced that, instead, the
republic
would hold its own referendum in September, in compliance with the
procedure
outlined in the Soviet constitution for a republic to secede.
Although
literal compliance would mean that Armenia would not be fully
independent
for five years after the referendum, Moscow soon moved to change
Armenia's
course. Without notifying the Armenian government, Moscow sent
paratroopers
to the republic in early May, ostensibly to protect Soviet defense
installations
in Armenia. Ter-Petrosian's official statement in reaction
characterized
the move as a virtual declaration of war by the Soviet Union.
In August 1991, when a self-proclaimed emergency
committee
attempted to overthrow Gorbachev and take control in Moscow, the
Armenian
government refused to sanction its actions. Fearing an extension
of the Soviet incursion of May, Ter-Petrosian approached the Moscow
coup
very cautiously. The republic's Defense Committee secretly
resolved
to have the Armenian armed forces go underground and wage guerrilla
warfare.
Ter-Petrosian, who believed that Gorbachev's personal blunders,
indecisiveness,
and concessions to conservative communists were to blame for the coup,
was overjoyed when the conservatives were defeated. But the coup
itself convinced Armenians of the need to move out of the Soviet Union
as rapidly as possible and it validated Ter-Petrosian's refusal to
participate
in the revival of the Soviet Union advocated by Gorbachev.
Within two months of the coup, Armenians went
to the polls
twice. In September 1991, over 99 percent of voters approved the
republic's commitment to independence. The immediate aftermath of
that vote was the Armenian Supreme Soviet's declaration of full
independence,
on September 23, in disregard of the constitution's restraints on
secession.
Then in October, Ter-Petrosian was elected overwhelmingly as president
of the republic. He now had a popular mandate to carry out his
vision
of Armenian independence and self-sufficiency.
As political changes occurred within the
republic, armed
conflict continued in Nagorno-Karabakh during 1991. Armenia
officially
denied supporting the "Nagorno-Karabakh defense forces" that were
pushing
Azerbaijani forces out of the region; Armenia also accused the Soviet
Union
of supporting Azerbaijan as punishment for Armenia's failure to sign
Gorbachev's
new Union Treaty. In turn, Azerbaijan called Armenia an aggressor
state whose national policy included annexation of Azerbaijani
territory.
Post independence Armenia
Two immediate tasks facing independent Armenia
were rebuilding
its devastated economy and strengthening its fledgling democratic
institutions.
But the escalating war in Nagorno-Karabakh and the effective blockade
of
the republic by the Azerbaijanis led to a total collapse of the
economy.
B early 1993, the government seemed helpless before mounting economic
and
political problems. The last remaining oil and gas pipelines
through
neighboring Georgia, which itself was being torn by civil and
interethnic
war, were blown up by saboteurs. To survive the cold, Armenians
in
Erevan cut down the city's trees and plans were made to start up the
nuclear
power plant at Metsamor. In February 1993, demonstrations called
for the resignation of the government, but Ter-Petrosian responded by
naming
a new cabinet headed by Hrant Bagratian.
While economic and political conditions
deteriorated within
Armenia, the military position of the Armenians in the Karabakh
struggle
improved dramatically. Various peace negotiations sponsored by
Iran,
Russia, Turkey, and a nine-nation group from the Conference on Security
and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE-see Glossary) had begun in 1991 and
sporadically
had yielded cease-fires that were violated almost immediately. In
the spring of 1992, while the Azerbaijani communists and the
nationalist
Azerbaijani Popular Front fought for control in Baku, Karabakh Armenian
forces occupied most of Nagorno-Karabakh, took the old capital, Shusha,
and drove a corridor through the Kurdish area around Lachin to link
Nagorno-Karabakh
with Armenia. However, the immediate result of this victory was
the
collapse of Russian-sponsored peace negotiations with Azerbaijan and
the
continuation of the war.
Beginning a counteroffensive in early summer,
the Azerbaijanis
recaptured some territory and created thousands of new refugees by
expelling
Armenians from the villages they took. In midsummer, this new
phase
of the conflict stimulated a CSCE-sponsored peace conference, but
Armenia
stymied progress by demanding for the first time that Nagorno-Karabakh
be entirely separate from Azerbaijan.
By the end of 1992, the sides were bogged down
in a bloody
stalemate. After clearing Azerbaijani forces from Nagorno
Karabakh
and the territory between Karabakh and Armenia Armenian troops also
advanced
deep into Azerbaijan probe a move that brought condemnation from the
United
Nations (UN) Security Council and panic in Iran, on whose borders
Armenian
troops had arrived. In the first half of 1993, the Karabakh
Armenians
gained more Azerbaijani territory, against disorganized
opposition.
Azerbaijani resistance was weakened by the confusion surrounding a
military
coup that toppled the APF government in Baku and returned former
communist
party boss Heydar Aliyev to power.
The coup reinvigorated Russian efforts to
negotiate a
peace under the complex terms of the three parties to the conflict: the
governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the increasingly independent
and assertive Karabakh Armenians. CSCE peace proposals were
uniformly
rejected during this period. Although Russia seemed poised for a
triumph of crisis diplomacy on its borders, constant negotiations in
the
second half of 1993 produced only intermittent cease-fires. At
the
end of 1993, the Karabakh Armenians were able to negotiate with the
presidents
of Azerbaijan and Russia from a position of power: they retained full
control
of Nagorno-Karabakh and substantial parts of Azerbaijan proper (see
After
Communist Rule, ch. 2).
Physical Environment
Armenia is located in southern Transcaucasia,
the region
southwest of Russia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
Modern
Armenia occupies part of historical Armenia, whose ancient centers were
in the valley of the Aras River and the region around Lake Van in
Turkey.
Armenia is bordered on the north by Georgia, on the east by Azerbaijan,
on the south by Iran, on the southwest by the Nakhichevan Autonomous
Republic
of Azerbaijan, and on the west by Turkey.
Topography and Drainage
Twenty-five million years ago, a geological
upheaval pushed
up the earth's crust to form the Armenian Plateau, creating the complex
topography of modern Armenia (see fig. 2). The Lesser Caucasus
range
extends through northern Armenia, runs southeast between Lake Sevan and
Azerbaijan then passes roughly along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border to
Iran. Thus situated, the mountains make travel from north to south
difficult.
Geological turmoil continues in the form of
devastating
earthquakes, which have plagued Armenia. In December 1988, the
second
largest city in the republic, Leninakan (now Gyumri), was heavily
damaged
by a massive quake that killed more than 25,000 people. About half of
Armenia's
area of approximately 29,800 square kilometers has an elevation of at
least
2,000 meters, and only 3 percent of the country lies below 650
meters.
The lowest points are in the valleys of the Aras River and the Debet
River
in the far north, which have elevations of 380 and 430 meters,
respectively.
Elevations in the Lesser Caucasus vary between 2,640 and 3,280
meters.
To the southwest of the range is the Armenian Plateau sloping
southwestward
toward the Aras River on the Turkish border. The plateau is
masked
by intermediate mountain ranges and extinct volcanoes. The
largest
of these, Mount Aragats, 4,430 meters high, is also the highest point
in
Armenia. Most of the population lives in the western and
northwestern
parts of the country, where the two major cities, Erevan and Gyumri
(which
was called Aleksandropol' during the tsarist period), are located.
The valleys of the Debet and Akstafa rivers form
the
chief routes into Armenia from the north as they pass through the
mountains.
Lake Sevan, 72.5 kilometers across at its widest point and 376
kilometers
long, is by far the largest lake. It lies 2,070 meters above sea
level on the plateau. Terrain is most rugged in the extreme
southeast,
which is drained by the Bargushat River, and most moderate in the Aras
River valley to the extreme southwest. Most of Armenia is drained
by the Aras or its tributary, the Razdan, which flows from Lake
Sevan.
The Aras forms most of Armenia's border with Turkey and Iran as well as
the border between Azerbaijan's adjacent Nakhichevan Autonomous
Republic
and Iran.
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