Armenia’s Future, Relations with Turkey, and the Karabagh Conflict PDF
Preview Armenia’s Future, Relations with Turkey, and the Karabagh Conflict
ARMENIA’S FUTURE, RELATIONS WITH TURKEY, AND THE KARABAGH CONFLICT Levon Ter-Petrossian Edited by Arman Grigoryan ’ Armenia s Future, Relations with Turkey, fl and the Karabagh Con ict Levon Ter-Petrossian ’ Armenia s Future, Relations with Turkey, and the Karabagh fl Con ict EditedbyArmanGrigoryan Editedby LevonTer-Petrossian ArmenianNationalCongress ArmanGrigoryan Armenia,Armenia DepartmentofInternationalRelations LehighUniversity Bethlehem,Pennsylvania USA ISBN978-3-319-58915-2 ISBN978-3-319-58916-9 (eBook) DOI10.1007/978-3-319-58916-9 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017946712 ©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s)2018 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsaresolelyandexclusivelylicensedbythePublisher, whetherthewholeorpartofthematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation, reprinting,reuseofillustrations,recitation,broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinany otherphysicalway,andtransmissionorinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation, computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthis publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesare exemptfromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformationin thisbookarebelievedtobetrueandaccurateatthedateofpublication.Neitherthepublisher northeauthorsortheeditorsgiveawarranty,expressorimplied,withrespecttothematerial contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Coverillustration:©TigranHayrapetyan/GettyImages Printedonacid-freepaper ThisPalgraveMacmillanimprintispublishedbySpringerNature TheregisteredcompanyisSpringerInternationalPublishingAG Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland A CKNOWLEDGMENT Anumberofindividualshavemadeimportantcontributionstothisproject. Several of the documents have been translated by Ara Arabyan, Alexander Arzoumanyan, Melissa Brown, Gerard Libaridian, and Rouben Shougaryan. Meline Toumani has done a superb job editing the entire text. Ashot Sargsyan has provided invaluable help with many of the anno- tations. Avetis Avagyan has compiled the index, helped with editing the text,andactedasago-topersonforanyproblemthathasarisenduringthe process of preparing the manuscript for publication. I would also like to thank the Palgrave Macmillan team, and Alina Yurova and Ben Bailey in particular,fortheirpatienceanddedicationtothisproject. ArmanGrigoryan v C ONTENTS 1 Foreword:TheStruggletoChangetheLogicof Armenia’sHistory 1 2 TheEarlyChallengestotheTraditionalNarrative, 1989–1991 13 3 Armenian-TurkishRelationsAfterIndependence andtheContinuedStrugglewiththeTraditionalNarrative 23 4 TheKarabaghConflictandtheFutureofArmenian Statehood 35 5 ViewsontheKarabaghConflictandtheArmenianTurkish RelationsFollowingtheReturntoPolitics 61 6 ThePoliticsandGeopoliticsoftheProcessofNormalization ofArmenian-TurkishRelations 79 7 PeacewithNeighborsHasNoGoodAlternatives 131 vii viii CONTENTS Appendix 153 Bibliography 169 Index 171 CHAPTER1 Foreword: The Struggle to Change the Logic ’ of Armenia s History LevonTer-Petrossian,whoseselectarticles,speeches,andinterviewsdealing withArmenian-Turkishrelations,theKarabaghconflict,andthefutureofthe Armenian statehood are presented in this volume, was the first president of independentArmenia.Heservedinthatcapacityfrom1991 to1998 when heresignedfollowingapoliticalcrisistriggeredbyhisendorsementofaplan for settling the Karabagh conflict.1 Ter-Petrossian had briefly served as the ChairmanofArmenia’sSupremeSovietpriortoArmenia’sindependenceand adoptionofapresidentialsystem.Hehadassumedthatpostinthesummerof 1990 when the Armenian National Movement (ANM) unseated the Com- munists in the elections to the Supreme Soviet in the summer of 1990, becoming the first noncommunist government of a constituent republic of theSovietUnion.Ter-PetrossianwasoneoftheleadersoftheANM,which had started as a movement demanding the transfer of the jurisdiction of the Nagorno Karabagh Autonomous Region from the Azerbaijani to the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic,2 but which then transformed into a movement for democratic rule and independence from the Soviet Union. Assuch,itbecameanintegralpartofthewiderdemocraticmovementinthe Soviet Union, while Ter-Petrossian became a highly respected figure in it, providingimportantcritiquesofthe Sovietsystem,and formingparticularly closetieswithBorisYelstinandtheRussianliberals. Afterhisresignationin1998,Ter-Petrossianreturnedtohisvocationasa historian of the medieval Middle East,3 and maintained total silence on political matters for an entire decade. Concerned about the direction in ©TheAuthor(s)2018 1 L.Ter-Petrossian,Armenia’sFuture,RelationswithTurkey,andthe KarabaghConflict,DOI10.1007/978-3-319-58916-9_1 2 1 FOREWORD:THESTRUGGLETOCHANGETHELOGICOF... whichArmeniawasheadedandrespondingtopublicdemand,hereturned topoliticsin2007andstoodasacandidateforpresidentintheelectionsof 2008. The ruling regime clung to power by falsifying the elections then resortingtoforceafterTer-Petrossian’ssupporterslaunchedacampaignof protests.4Followingthecrackdown,Ter-Petrossianstartedanoppositional mass movement, which he christened the Armenian National Congress (ANC), and embarked on a protracted struggle for the two things that havedefinedhispoliticalcareer—ademocraticArmeniaandArmeniathatis atpeacewithitsneighbors. Thecollectionofarticles,speeches,andinterviewscontainedinthisvolume providesauniquewindowintothatstruggle.Butitismorethaninformation aboutasinglepolitician’sviews.Itisaninvaluableresourcefortracingthemost importantissues,problems,anddisputesthathaveanimatedArmenianpolitics forthelastthreedecades.Thisisnotamemoirdesignedtojustifycontroversial decisionsortorespondtoaccusations.Itisalsonotsomethingthatwaswritten toappealtoaforeignaudience.Ratherthematerialcontainedinthisvolumeis adebatewithopponentsinArmeniaaboutwhyArmenianeedstonormalizeits relationswithTurkeyandtosettletheKarabaghconflict.Assuchitrevealsa fascinatingpoliticalpictureofacountrythathasbeenengagedinaprotracted conflictwhiletransitioningfromcommunism.Thepictureismadethatmuch morefascinatingbythefactthatitisradicallydifferentfromtheonepainted inmostWesternmediaandacademicwritingsonArmenia. The preponderant opinion on the conflict in Karabagh in the Western media and academia, as on “ethnic conflicts” in general, draws inspiration fromtwogeneralarguments.Theydifferintheirtheoreticallogicsinsignifi- cantways,butwhattheyhaveincommonistheinsistencethattheseconflicts are always irrational as faras the “real” interests of the ordinary members of the groups in question are concerned and that the ideas driving them are profoundly illiberal. According to the first of these arguments, “ethnic conflicts”arethedirectconsequenceofnationalistnarratives,whichsimulta- neouslycontainhostilemythsaboutcertain“others”asvictimizersorinferiors and myths of martyrdom and chosenness about the group itself. These narrativesbecomethefuelfornationalistmobilizationsespeciallywhenmul- tiethnicstatesandempirescollapse,takingthedeterrenceagainstsuchpolitics withthem.TheKarabaghconflictfeaturesprominentlyintheliteratureasan example of such a conflict. In what is perhaps the most straightforward articulation of this argument and its application to the Karabagh conflict, Stuart Kaufman maintains that the conflict was the result of Armenians’ peculiarinterpretationoftheirhistoryasthatofvictims,andespeciallyvictims 1 FOREWORD:THESTRUGGLETOCHANGETHELOGICOF... 3 inthehandsofTurksandtheirethnickin—theAzeris.Armenians,infact,did notevendistinguishbetweenTurksandAzeris,hefurtherexplains,andsaw the problem of Karabagh as part of a larger existential conflict with the “Turks.”ThegenocidecommittedbyTurkswasseenbythemasawarning forwhatwasinstoreforKarabaghArmenians.Healsotellsthereadersabout theArmenianmythologyofChristianmartyrdomdatingallthewaybacktoa sanctifiedfifth-centurybattle,whichArmeniansfoughtagainstSassanidIranas theyresistedthelatter’sattempttoconvertArmenianstoZoroastrianism.The subsequenthistoryofasubjugatedChristianminorityinvariousIslamicstates cementedtheArmenianself-imageofChristianmartyrs.Kaufmaninsiststhat thecombinationofhatreds,fears,andasenseofarighteousmissionthatthis narrativegeneratedledtothebloodshedinKarabagh.5 MichaelCroissanthitsonallthesamepointsandmore—theimportance of the unique religious identity in the Armenian nationalist narrative, the sufferingasChristiansubjectsofIslamicempires,andespeciallyatthehands ofTurks, thegaze toward Russiaas aChristiansavior,Armenianclaims to historic rights over Karabagh as the indigenous group in the region, the Armenian contempt for Azeris, and, last, but not least, the overwhelming, existential fear of Pan-Turkism combined with a desire to correct historic wrongsostensiblycommitted inthenameofthat doctrine.6The conflict in Karabaghwasalmostinevitable,giventhisnarrative,orsoarguesCroissant.7 Inanotherwisewell-informedandintelligentbook,which,infact,isthe book of reference on the Karabagh conflict, Thomas de Waal writes along similarlines: A...morecrucialfactorinstartingthe[Karabagh]conflictwastheeasewith whichhatredoftheothersidecouldbedisseminatedamongthepopulation. The Turkish historian Halil Berktay calls these mass expressions of fear and prejudice“hatenarratives.”Theywerethedarksideofthe“renaissance”ofthe 1960s...ArmenianandAzerbaijaniacademicshadbeendenigratingtheclaims ofrivalscholarsothers’republicfortwentyyears.In1988,allthatwasneeded wasinjectionofpolitics—offull-strength“alcohol”—intothemixture.Inawar ofpamphlets,drawingonyearsoftendentiousscholarship,sarcasm,andinnu- endo,andselectivequotationincitedordinarypeopleintohatred.8 Thisgeneraloutlookpervadesthemediacoverageaswell.Forexample, it is difficult to find a reference to the Karabagh conflict in the New York Times that fails to call it a conflict between “Christian Armenians and
Description:The list of books you might like
