Washington Times, DC
Sept 30 2007

Breakaway state still struggling for recognition

By Levon Sevunts
September 30, 2007

STEPANAKERT, Nagorno-Karabakh

Even if a draft law forcing the government of Armenia to recognize
the independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is rejected by the
Armenian parliament, residents of this breakaway republic say they
will continue their struggle for international recognition.

Populated mostly by Armenians this lush mountainous region, slightly
larger than Rhode Island, broke away from Azerbaijan after a bitter
war between 1990 and 1994.

Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, supported by their brethren in Armenia,
emerged victorious from a bloody conflict that killed more than
35,000 people on both sides.

The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic formally declared its independence in
1992. At the time, many critics dismissed the move as a shrewd
political maneuver by Armenians – who were starting to win the war –
to deflect international criticism from Armenia proper.

Today, Karabakh possesses almost all the trappings of a state. It has
its own flag and its own army. It issues entry visas to foreign
visitors and its residents regularly vote in elections to all levels
of government.

But Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto independence hasn’t been recognized
by any country, not even its closest ally: Armenia.

And Armenian authorities have made it clear they have no plans to
recognize the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic as an independent state
despite pressure from a major opposition party.

"The recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh by Armenia has always been and
remains in Armenia’s diplomatic arsenal," Vladimir Karapetian, a
spokesman for the Armenian Foreign Affairs Ministry, told Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty. "That must come at a time when it can be
maximally effective and can help achieve a lasting resolution. That
time has not yet come," he said.

These comments came in response to a draft law circulated in late
August by Raffi Hovannisian, the U.S.-born leader of the opposition
Zharangutyun (Heritage) party and Armenia’s former foreign affairs
minister. The bill would have forced the Armenian government to
officially recognize Karabakh’s independence. However, fearing that
such a drastic move could derail the fragile peace process, the
pro-government factions in the parliament and another opposition
party rejected the bill.

Yet many residents of Nagorno-Karabakh say they’ll persevere, hoping
the international community will one day recognize their
independence.

"You know a lot of countries haven’t been recognized but people still
live in these countries," said Karina Sarkissian, a retired
accountant. "But still we’re hoping that one day the international
community will recognize us. We are peaceful people, like every
normal people anywhere else in the world we want peace, we want to
raise our children in peace."

Fifteen years of de facto sovereignty have also produced a tectonic
shift in popular attitudes toward independence of Nagorno-Karabakh,
both from Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Twenty years ago, Karlen Avanessian dreamed of reunification with
Armenia.

In February of 1988, he was one of the activists who went door to
door to gather signatures for a petition asking the Soviet Politburo
to transfer authority over the Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh
from Azerbaijan to Armenia.

Two years later, when the confrontation with Azerbaijan degenerated
into a vicious war, he picked up a gun to defend his family and fight
for his dream, said Mr. Avanessian, a 66-year-old former
welder-turned-shopkeeper at Stepanakert’s main bazaar.

But if a referendum on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh were held
today, Mr. Avanessian said he’d vote for full independence, not a
union with Armenia.

"We want to have our own, separate Armenian state, a small state, but
our own state," said Mr. Avanessian as neighboring shopkeepers nodded
in agreement. "For seventy years, thanks to a decree by Lenin,
Karabakh was made part of Azerbaijan. But for centuries Karabakh was
an independent state. Now the international community wants to
remember those 70 years and forget about the centuries we were
independent."

Only his neighbor to the right, a settler from Armenia proper,
disagreed.

"Uncle Karlen, you can’t say things like that, we have to have one
unified Armenian state," she said. But she was in the minority. As
the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has dragged on for
almost two decades, many in this breakaway republic have come to
realize their dream of reunification with "Mother Armenia" might
never happen.

But independence is a different matter. It’s seen by many as more
acceptable to the international community. And Western designs for
Kosovo’s independence are seen as setting a precedent for Karabakh’s
eventual international recognition.

Thus, despite close political, economic and military ties with
Armenia – Nagorno-Karabakh uses Armenian currency, the dram,
Armenia’s current president, Robert Kocharian, is the former
president of Nagorno-Karabakh – independence has become the preferred
option for many Karabakh Armenians.

And they see democracy as the ticket to international recognition of
Karabakh’s de facto independence.

Sergei Markedonov, a prominent Caucasus specialist from the Institute
of Political and Military Analysis, an independent Russian think
tank, said promoting democracy in Nagorno-Karabakh provides not only
for a sustainable and self-sufficient form of government, but also an
effective instrument for its campaign of international recognition.

Since Nagorno-Karabakh started its campaign of independence in the
late eighties, Mr. Markedonov said, it has conducted three successful
presidential election campaigns, parliamentary elections, and three
campaigns of local self-government elections.

These elections have been officially rejected as illegitimate by the
international community, which stresses that without the
participation of the Azeri population of Nagorno-Karabakh, driven out
during the war, no election can be considered fully democratic.

Despite this international criticism, Nagorno-Karabakh compares
favorably to Azerbaijan, where the current president, Ilham Aliev,
"inherited" power from his late father Geidar Aliev, Mr. Markedonov
said.

"I think those democratic tendencies could not be ignored by the
West," he said. "Now Azerbaijan can be characterized as a ‘soft
sultanate,’ where power was passed from father to son. In many cases
Azeri leaders appeal to Nagorno-Karabakh as the primordial territory
of Azerbaijan, but are they ready to guarantee high standards of
democracy for the Armenian population?" Mr. Markedonov said the
question of "democracy gap" between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh
will be raised during any final-status negotiations and be used by
the Armenian side as another argument against the rebel territory’s
reintegration with Azerbaijan.

"We have to compare democratic standards in Nagorno-Karabakh and in
Azerbaijan," Mr. Markedonov said. "And we have to understand that the
liquidation of Nagorno-Karabakh would mean the liquidation of
democracy here."

Photos at
EIGN/109300034/1003