ARMENIAN PAPER CRITICAL OF RUSSIAN MP’S INITIATIVE ON CIS BREAKAWAY REGIONS

Armenian newspaper 168 Zham, Yerevan
7 Sep 06

Text of Armen Bagdasaryan’s report by Armenian newspaper 168 Zham
on 7 September headlined "’Deputy commander for political affairs’
of the outpost"

Yesterday [6 September] the number of "great friends of the Armenian
nation" has increased. The deputy speaker of the Russian State Duma,
Vladimir Zhirinovskiy, said in Moscow that referendums should be
held in the post-Soviet unrecognized states: Dniester, South Ossetia,
Abkhazia and Karabakh and those states should become independent. But
do not think that Zhirinovskiy is a holy man as five minutes later
he said that it would be better if the unrecognized states join
Russia. Generally speaking, he thinks that all former Soviet republics
should also join Russia so that to live better.

They say in Russia: "What the authorities think, Zhirinovskiy
says." What he said was really painful for us as it showed real
traditional politics of Russia towards Armenia.

Let us explain. Abkhazia is striving to become independent from Georgia
and there is impression that it would not be against unification
with Russia.

South Ossetia also wants to join Russia as it intends to unite with
Russia’s North Ossetia. The Dniester region is not an ethnic entity
as Russians and Ukrainians live there jointly, and they simply do not
want to remain within Moldova. It is no secret that in all these three
conflicts Russia has secretly supported the unrecognized republics.

The situation is absolutely different in case of Karabakh. Here there
is an independent state: the Republic of Armenia (which incidentally
does not border Russia). It is not clear why the NKR [Nagornyy Karabakh
republic] should fight for the secession from a foreign state and
join another foreign state where more Armenians have been killed
over the recent several months than during the liberation of Shushi
[fighting over the Karabakh town of Shushi in 1992].

The most funny thing is that the Russian traditional political
establishment thinks that we are simply softies. The reality is that
Russia has interfered in Karabakh’s destiny three times (during the
rule of tsars, in Soviet times and nowadays), and all three times
the problem was settled in favour of Azerbaijan. Russia, in fact,
only verbally is our "strategic partner", but in reality it treats
Armenia as a slave: it closes roads when it likes, takes what it
wants for debt and so on.

As for the unsettled conflicts, it is evident that here Russia plays a
serious role as well. The point is that a settlement of the post-Soviet
conflicts, including Karabakh, is not beneficial for Russia. If
the Karabakh conflict is settled, Armenia will get rid of Russia’s
influence and will stop being Russia’s outpost. For this reason it is
clear that Russia should do its best that the conflict is not settled.

But they in Russia already see that Armenians have already started
realizing this. They see that two simultaneous processes go on
in Armenia: anti-Russian mood is growing and processes around the
Karabakh settlement are becoming more active. How to stop that? This
is what Vladimir Volfovich [Zhirinovskiy] said in this regard: "What
compromise is all this about? Never. They are your historical lands
including [Azerbaijani exclave of] Naxcivan. Do not agree to anything,
we are with you."

We have already seen several times what their "we are with
you" means. As a rule, not a single Armenian remains on these
territories. Instead, patriotic spirit grows certainly in accordance
with the slogan "forever with the Russian people".