ARAB-ARMENIAN RELATIONS: AN ENDURING FRIENDSHIP IN A TENSE NEIGHBOURHOOD
By Sharif Hikmat Nashashibi*
Alarab online, UK
Oct 5 2006
With sectarian tensions in Iraq and other regional countries, there
is a success story that has been overlooked, and which should serve
as a model of communal harmony and co-existence.
Good relations between Arabs and Armenians go back centuries, despite
being of different ethnicity and faith – the Arabs were the first
people to adopt Islam, and Armenia was the first country to officially
adopt Christianity, in 502 AD – and despite regional politics that
have at times sought to drive a wedge between the two peoples.
There are commonalities in terms of culture, music, arts and
traditions. For example, the famous Matenadaran (the depository of
ancient Armenian manuscripts) contains no less than 700 in Arabic.
However, Armenians are perhaps most easily distinguishable by their
surnames, which end in ‘ian’.
Undoubtedly, the most pivotal event in their relationship is the
Ottoman massacres of up to 1.5 million Armenians from 1915-23,
which Turkey to this day refuses to recognize. To put the scale of
the slaughter into perspective, the population of Armenia – which
borders Georgia to the north, Azerbaijan to the east, Iran to the
south and Turkey to the west – today stands at just 3 million.
The Arab world, despite being predominantly Muslim like the Turks,
gave Armenians safe haven, resulting in Armenian communities in most
Arab countries – particularly Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine
and Syria – that today number in the hundreds of thousands. This
may be due to the fact that Arabs had common cause with Armenians
in opposing centuries of Ottoman rule, and paying a heavy price for
such resistance.
However Vartan Melkonian, whose childhood was spent in a predominantly
Armenian orphanage in Lebanon, tells me that it is down to the "very
strong Arab culture of hospitality and welcoming."
Through the Melkonian Foundation, founded in 1982, the
Lebanese-Armenian orchestra conductor – who lives in the UK but calls
Lebanon his home – has raised awareness and money for Arab and Armenian
children and orphans in need.
"Armenians not only survived in Arab countries, but they were given the
opportunity to rise and become full citizens in their new homes, while
preserving their national identity," said Armenian Foreign Minister
Vartan Oskanian after signing a Memorandum of Mutual Understanding
with the Arab League in January 2005. "Grateful Armenians will never
forget the humane approach of the Arab people."
This was reciprocated when, for instance, Armenia acted as a refuge
during the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war.
In turn, "much of our support, when Armenia, after its independence
[from the Soviet Union in 1991], was in pretty bad shape, has come
from the Arabs…despite the fact that [they] had their own problems,"
says Richard Hrair Dekmejian, professor of political science at the
University of Southern California, adding that "some Armenians have
assumed the role of Arab nationalists."
The presence of large and successful Armenian communities in the
Arab world "plays a very positive role in advancing and developing
our…good relations with all Arab countries," says Oskanian, adding
that this has influenced his government’s foreign policies.
"Since gaining independence, the Republic of Armenia has been
committed to improving relations with Arab states. We’ve achieved
tangible successes," he says. "We’ve signed a number of bilateral
documents in various fields, created intergovernmental commissions,
have frequent exchange visits, established working ties at all levels,
and conduct mutual cultural events."
A recent example is the official visit to Armenia of Sheikh Dr
Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, a member of the United Arab Emirates’
Supreme Council and ruler of the Emirate of Sharjah, during which he
inaugurated the Sharjah Cultural Week (19-22 September 2005).
He was given by Armenian President Robert Kocharian the Saint Mesrob
Mashtots Order, one of the highest in Armenia. Al Qasimi also planted
a tree of Arab friendship at Genocide Monument in the capital Yerevan.
There is lucrative business between Arab Gulf states and Armenia,
which also recently signed economic protocols with Egypt (the first
Arab country to open a full-scale embassy in Yerevan), and whose
communities in the Arab world have done well economically, better
than their compatriots back home.
This, as well as their thorough integration in Arab societies, is
perhaps why there has not been large-scale emigration to Armenia
after its independence.
There is also alignment politically. On Iraq, "it’s our desire to
see…a sovereign, united, stable and democratic state," says Oskanian.
And in the Middle East peace process, Armenia has "always expressed
its solidarity with the Arab position. The establishment of an
independent Palestinian state is at the core of the process of
establishing regional security and stability."
It is apt, then, that the new Palestinian ambassador to the UK is
an Armenian married to an Arab. "When I was appointed ambassador,
the Armenian community [in Jerusalem] threw a farewell party for
me. They were so proud," Manuel Hassassian, whose father escaped the
Turkish massacre, tells me.
"This is a reflection to what extent we’re one and the same. I
can strike a lot of parallels between Armenia and Palestine at all
levels. To maintain our presence until now, despite wars, occupation,
70 years of communism, and to get an independent Armenia, brings hope
that one day Palestinians will get their independence."
Armenian support for this goal has not been simply political. The
Palestine Liberation Organisation trained Armenian fighters in the
1960s and 1970s, according to Hassassian.
Arab-Armenian relations have weathered regional storms. For instance,
Armenians in Lebanon did not get involved in the civil war there.
Also, efforts by Azerbaijan and Turkey to garner Arab support in the
Azeri-Armenian war and dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave,
by portraying it as a Muslim-Christian conflict, have failed.
Arab-Armenian relations have been solidified by what Dekmejian
describes as a growing Israeli-Turkish-Azeri "axis." Incidentally,
Turkey was the first Muslim country to recognize Israel, the year
after its establishment in 1948, and Azerbaijan hosted far-right
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September 1997.
"Pro-Israeli lobbies…have been agitating, working in Washington
with the Turkish lobbies against Armenia’s interests," says Dekmejian.
When asked whether he relates more to his Armenian or Arab side,
Hassassian responds: "I asked one of my university students, who was
from Kuwait but originally Palestinian, for whom he would cheer if
the Palestinian national football team played against Kuwait. He said
he would cheer for the best player."
My mother’s aunt Lily Nicolian – a Syrian-Armenian whose grandfather
negotiated with the French and British ambassadors in Lebanon to save
hundreds from Ottoman attack, and encouraged families to take them in –
sees no distinction. "We’re close friends, like one family."
Sometimes, quite literally.
* Sharif Hikmat Nashashibi is the Arab Media Watch chairman
Source: cxlbx
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