Agency WPS
What the Papers Say Part B (Russia)
April 6, 2006 Thursday
ARMENIA: IN SEARCH OF ALTERNATIVES;
Armenia is through with listening to myths about Russia
by Gajane Movsesjan
Armenia may decide that it doesn’t need Russia after all; Armenian
Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanjan’s two-day visit to Moscow begins
today. Oskanjan will meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov
and Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov. He met with US Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington the other day.
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanjan’s two-day visit to Moscow
begins today. Oskanjan will meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei
Lavrov and Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov. Official reports
on the agenda are brief. They indicate that it includes bilateral
relations, the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, regional matters, and
cooperation within the framework of international organizations.
Sources from Armenian diplomatic circles say that this is just a
routine visit, nothing more.
What is interesting, however, is that Oskanjan discussed the same
matters with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington the
other day. Oskanjan and Rice signed an accord on March 27 to the
effect that Armenia will receive $236.5 million under the Millennium
Challenges program over the next five years. The millions will be
used to repair roads in rural areas, reconstruction of irrigation and
drainage systems, and reduction of impoverishment in the agricultural
sector.
Rice herself undermined political undertones of this seemingly
economic event at the signing ceremony when she began elaborating
meaningfully on the necessity of advancement of democratic reforms in
Armenia in the light of the parliamentary and presidential elections
there in 2007 and 2008. Armenian observers took her words as an
admission of Washington’s desire to bring political and economic
processes in Armenia under its own control. Moreover, the program
itself (Millennium Challenges) was taken as but an additional
instrument of American influence with Yerevan.
Shushan Khatlamadzhjan, an analyst with the Armenian Institute of
Civil Society and Regional Development, believes that the
Armenian-Russian strategic partnership is in a crisis. “The problem
is rooted in the lack of transparency of the talks between the
Armenian and Russian authorities,” she said. “Armenian society feels
disassociated from public politics and cannot help ascribing it to
some clandestine accords between the governments of the two
countries… Like a recompense to Armenia for high gas tariffs in the
form of a discount on Russian military hardware as some Russian media
outlets speculated. In short, even pro-Russian political forces in
Armenia begin promoting the necessity to develop foreign policy on
the basis of the actual national interests and not the old myths…”
Now let’s consider the problem of Nagorno-Karabakh. Chairmen of the
OSCE Minsk Group, Russia and the United States have headed the
mission of intermediaries for a decade now. With nothing to show for
it in terms of the formula of a lasting peace. A meeting between the
presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in France was arranged this
February but even it failed as a means of accomplishing anything.
Foreign intermediaries are analyzing the situation again now. The
United States is particularly impatient. American diplomacy put
Yerevan and Baku under pressure in March. Daniel Fried, US
Undersecretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, was dispatched to the
region. Fried announced that the United States wanted a compromise
between the warring sides reached this year.
The United States is impatient and the European Union is certainly
getting active. Armenian analysts and observers ascribe these trends
to the desire on the part of the West to resolve conflicts in the
post-Soviet zone in such a manner as to weaken Russia’s positions. As
far as Khatlamadzhjan is concerned, it is precisely from this
standpoint that specialists should contemplate the renewed debates
over the so-called “Marshall Plan for the Caucasus.” The idea boils
down to substantial economic aid to countries of the southern part of
the Caucasus in return for political concessions. “Russia is in the
situation where a new and effective policy with regard to Armenia
becomes a must,” Khatlamadzhjan concluded.
Khatlamadzhjan also believes that “the myth in Armenia of there being
no alternatives to strategic partnership with Russia is in its last
throes.” “Armenia may solve its regional problems and resolve
conflicts without military and other cooperation with Russia,
accepting instead the plan and investments from the West. There is
the widespread opinion in analytical community here that there can be
no war or peace without Russia, but we shouldn’t make a fetish of
this fact or demonize it,” she said.
Source: Vremya Novostei, April 6, 2006, p. 5
Translated by A. Ignatkin