ARMENIA FEARS RENEWAL OF COLD WAR
Conor Sweeney in Moscow
Irish Times
Feb 28, 2007
RUSSIA: The "biggest fear" for a country such as Armenia would be a
return to Cold War tensions between Russia and the US, the country’s
foreign minister, Vartan Oskanian, has said, just ahead of his visit
to Ireland today.
This is the first to Ireland by a senior figure from the landlocked
country.
"We’re geographically and geopolitically in a very difficult region,"
Mr Oskanian says. "For us, Ireland is an important EU country, and
in the 15 years since Armenia’s independence there has never been a
visit by us, or an Irish visit to Armenia."
Little known in Ireland, Armenia claims to be the first country in the
world to have adopted Christianity. In the last century it suffered
from a genocide at the hand of the Turks, followed by Stalinist purges
under Soviet rule, before finally gaining independence in 1991 and
plunging into a destructive war with neighbouring Azerbaijan.
Apart from their similar population sizes, both Ireland and Armenia
have large diasporas abroad, Mr Oskanian says. Armenia hopes to emulate
Ireland’s economic development and learn from its peace process.
He points to the broad parallels between Northern Ireland and his
own country’s frozen conflict with neighbouring Azerbaijan over
the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, where the majority of the population
is Armenian.
More than a million people were displaced during the war between the
two countries in the early 1990s.
Despite corruption, Armenia has seen double-digit economic growth
for the past seven years, although, as Mr Oskanian concedes, this has
been slow to trickle down through society. Rural poverty is still a
big problem and average wealth is one-eighth of the Irish level.
Apart from the deep tensions with Azerbaijan, Armenia also has borders
with Turkey, Georgia and Iran. The frontier with Turkey is sealed,
Georgia’s dispute with Russia has made exports to the latter difficult
and tensions between the West and Iran could soon lead to problems
on the southern border, too.
So far, Armenia has, unlike Georgia, managed to retain good relations
with Moscow while opening up towards the EU. A few months ago, the
country joined the union’s near neighbourhood policy, although Mr
Oskanian avoids offering any long-term declaration of interest in
EU membership.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
