ARMENIA’S FOREIGN POLICY GUIDELINES

Eurasian Home Analytical Resource, Russia
Nov 22 2006

Vagan Shrikhanian, Former Vice-Prime Minister of Armenia, Yerevan

The pivotal task for Armenia today is survival of its nation.

The uncontrollable criminalization of power is a major obstacle to
solving this task. The problem is rather caused by external factors.

Some countries and international agencies were involved in corrupt
practices with the Armenian authorities. When the national interests
are replaced by personal or group interests, the manipulation of
Armenia and the achievement of the goals defined become easier.

As regards the abovementioned task, it vanished long ago from the
Armenian internal agenda as well as from the list of issues examined
at the Russian-Armenian summits.

The October visit of Armenian President Robert Kocharian to Russia
lends support to this fact.

The Armenian party was searching to strengthen its power, while
the Russian party wanted to expand its influence over Armenia. The
Armenian society perceives those goals as incompatible. The support
lent to Robert Kocharian by Moscow decreases the number of advocates
of the pro-Russian orientation of Armenia and creates more favorable
conditions for the pro-Western forces that already dominate Armenia’s
mass media.

After the visit of Robert Kocharian to Russia comments have appeared in
Armenia that Russia appropriated the telephony, that the gas pipeline
from Iran to Armenia and Armenia’s railroad will also become Russia’s
property, and that after all, Armenia will become Russia’s ‘province’.

This undermines Russia’s reputation in the eyes of Armenians and shows
that when supporting the Armenian authorities Russia tries to get
(in exchange for its support) the country’s strategically important
infrastructure as the only reliable tool for keeping Armenia under
its influence.

As for the prospects of Armenia’s mediation in the settlement of
the Georgian-Russian conflict, against a background of the existing
Russian-Armenian relations it is necessary to specify what political
forces in Armenia, Georgia and Russia will participate in the conflict
resolution.

If we are talking about the forces in power, there will be no problems
here. At a certain "price" it will be possible to arrange any deal
on any matter; but these arrangements will only be valid until more
lucrative proposals come from the USA, European Union, Turkey etc.

Evidently, there are such proposals now. Armenia’s mediation in the
Georgian-Russian conflict is relevant and even necessary. But the
current Armenian government is likely to shirk this mission like it
once shirked the peacekeeping operation in Lebanon.

So, no wonder that in the case of Iraq, Kocharian took up the call
of the USA at once, and Armenia has been participating in Iraq’s
destructive "democratization" up to now.

If we are talking about national consensus on Armenia’s mediation in
the Georgian-Russian conflict, it hasn’t yet been reached.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress