2001_03 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper March 2001

              6
Hye Sharzhoom
March 2001
Country Reports-Karabagh
The following two reports,
on Karabagh and Armenia,
were submitted as part of an
assignment in Barlow Der
Mugrdechian's Armenian
Studies 10, Introduction to
Armenian Studies course.
By Mitch DeFreitas
Karabagh is a country located between Armenia
and Azerbaijan in the
Middle Eastern part of Asia. In this
paper, I am going to present to you
several news stories about what
has been happening recently in
Karabagh. Most of these stories
have something to do with the
Karabagh conflict.
The Karabagh conflict is basically a dispute between Armenia,
Karabagh, and Azerbaijan over who
Karabagh belongs to, Armenia or
Azerbaijan? This is a major issue in
Karabagh and almost all ofthe news
articles there are somehow related
to this conflict. The articles I chose
to report on are from the past few
weeks and they all involve things
that I found interesting. They also
all affect some aspect of the daily
life of the citizens of Karabagh.
Recently on February 20,2001,
Karabagh celebrated the thirteenth
anniversary ofthe Karabagh movement. There was a ceremonial reception at the Nagorno Karabagh
Republic National Assembly in
which the movement's activists attended. The parliament speaker attended and expressed his gratitude
of the president and of the NKR
Armenia
By Vahan Papyan
The Republic of Armenia is
one of three internationally
recognized states (Armenia,
Azerbaijan, and Georgia) in
Transcaucasia, the southernmost
area of the former USSR. It is
11,620 square miles in area, slightly
larger than the state of Maryland. It
has a population of about 3.3 million (with an additional 400,000
Armenian refugees from
Azerbaijan and Karabagh), of
whom over 93% are Armenian,
1.5% Russian, 1.7% Kurdish, 3.5%
Assyrian, Greek, and other. Armenia, accordingly, is the most ethnically homogenous state of all the
former republics of the Soviet
Union.
..On Sept 21, 1991, Armenia
held a referendum on independence
and 94.05% of all eligible voters
voted" for it. Two days later, the
Armenian Parliament declared the
independence of Armenia from the
USSR.
• JThe first free presidential election vyas. held in Armenia on October 16, 1991. Levon Ter Petrosian
was elected president with over
80% ofthe vote, demonstrating his
wide acceptance.
President George Bush recognized Armenia on December 25,
1991. Former Secretary of State
James Baker visited Armenia on
authorities on the work that the
movement has accomplished so far.
The activists were also given souvenirs and flowers from the parliament speaker on behalf of the government.
Also on February 20, 2001,
the NKR government had a meeting in Martakert that discussed two
very important topics involving the
growth and development of
Karabagh. These two items were
reported on from the head of the
Martakert Regional Administration
on the growth and development
that occurred in 2000 and the projected growth and development for
2001. The report stated that with
the assistance of humanitarian organizations and the All-Armenian
Fund, the rates of construction had
increased greatly in the Karabagh
region. He stated that repairs were
made on 508 houses and 25 medical institutions. Also, eleven communities were given a water supply
and many other problems were resolved. He also stated that a water
pipeline from Khachen to Martakert
is slated to be finished sometime in
the spring. The outlook for 2001
included development of all kinds
and an improvement in social and
domestic conditions for the population.
Two other news stories that I
found interesting and that involved
the Karabagh conflict, were the report of Azerbaijan opposition leaders calling for war against Karabagh
and the need for safety programs to
be implemented because ofthe danger of land mines.
The head of the Azerbaijan
opposition party and several retired military officers called for a
new war against Karabagh. Isa
Gambar, who is the chairman ofthe
Musavat Party, stated that a war
with Karabagh was the only way to
solve the Karabagh conflict. Three
former Azerbaijan defense ministers also stated that they were convinced that the best way to solve the
conflict was through using military
means, or in other words, war. The
Union of Retired Officers also felt
the same way. They recently told
the government that they needed to
send more soldiers to Turkey for
training and to also increase the
spending on defense in order to
gain a military solution to the conflict with Karabagh.
On February 22,2001, a major
announcement was made involving the Karabagh conflict. A peace
plan for the Karabagh conflict was
made public in both Armenia and
February 11, 1992, and the U.S.
State Department established an
embassy in Yerevan, the capital of
Armenia.
Over 120 countries have recognized Armenia as an independent state, and over 70 countries
have established direct diplomatic
relations with Armenia. Armenia
is also a member of the United
Nations and the Organization on
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OCSE, formerly the Conference on Security and Cooperation
in Europe).
The United States has sent a
substantial amount of aid to Armenia and is currently actively engaged in encouraging and developing manufacturing and trade there.
On January 4, 1992, Armenia
began radical free-market economic
reforms. President Bush and President Clinton fully supported and
encouraged Armenia on its road to
a free economy and the practice of
democracy.
The recently formed Armenia-
U.S. Economic Task Force, created
to coordinate and improve the effi-
Azerbaijan. It comes at a time
when the movement towards solving the conflict is gaining strength.
This proposal, which was written
by the Minsk Group ofthe OSCE,
provides for a common state to be
created between Karabagh and
Azerbaijan. Under a common state
plan, Karabagh would have a loose
confederation with Azerbaijan and
would also have de facto independence. Karabagh would be recognized as a republic, have its own
constitution, armed forces, and
power to veto legislation. Even
though both the Armenian and
Azerbaijan presidents might not
agree on this particular plan, they
are said to agree on most of the
basic principles of it. There is also
said to be another peace plan in the
works that might appear in the near
future.
Zoryan institute Map 198B
The new plan is said to be a
revision of the current plan but details of it are still unknown. Even
though this isn't a solution to the
conflict, it is a major step in solving
the Karabagh conflict.
These were a few of the major
news sVoried over the past two
weeks that took place in and involve Karabagh. As you can see,
the Karabagh conflict is a major
issue there because until it is resolved, Karabagh will not exist as
its own country. Even though improvements are being made all the
time and new construction continues in Karabagh, the conflict still
affects all aspects of their lives.
Hopefully these few stories provided you with enough information to see what is currently going
on in the country of Karabagh.
ciency of U.S. economic assistance to the country, convenes its
first meeting in Yerevan. Delegations led by Armenian Finance
and Economy Minister Levon
Barkhudarian and U.S. State Department coordinator William
Taylor review plans for improving the investment climate in Armenia and discuss the need for
liberalizing the country's tax and
customs regulations.
Armenia is the only former
Soviet republic that is governed
by a democratically elected leader
who had no ties to the Communist
Party in the past. Armenia was the
first former Soviet republic to
privatize agriculture and continues to privatize small businesses
and state-run enterprises, providing opportunities for local and foreign investors.
Independent Armenia, however, received a harsh legacy. The
earthquake of 1988 had a devastating effect on the national economy.
The conflict over Nagorno
Karabagh also affected the economic priorities of Armenia. Furthermore, the subsequent blockade
and energy crisis added to the hardships Armenians had lived through
during recent years.
All this, of course, had negative impact on the main economic
indicators. It is enough to mention
that in a few years following 1989,
the gross domestic product decreased by more than 40%, the volume of foreign trade fell dramatically.
This was probably the reason
why in 1993 Armenia adopted the
policy of economic stabilization
that is closely linked with the introduction of national currency in the
same year. ,
Armenia is not rich in natural
resources. However, the management ofthe available resources has
been extremely inefficient since the
energy sector was neither transparent nor predictable and lacked efficient management strategy.
The government is ready to
withdraw from the management of
the energy sector. By providing the
natural mines to investors on a long-
term lease (with subsequent ownership rights) and maintaining the
regulatory function, the government will establish one requirement, i.e. consistent increase of
export of the goods produced from
the natural resources.
Armenians have a behest from
their ancestors: to create an independent Armenian state, build and
produce, and embellish the Armenian House - free, modem, democratic. They are obliged to have
enough willpower to overcome the
current difficulties, and jointly take
the road of reforms. The reward
will not be late to come.