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Next Interventionist Target: Armenia?

[Armenian] Prime Minister Andranik Markarian said on 28 March 2005 Monday that his government is striving to keep Armenia unaffected by the wave of successful anti-government uprisings across the former Soviet and is confident that it can weather the storm. “We are trying to make sure that the revolutionary wave doesn’t reach us,” Markarian told […]

[Armenian] Prime Minister Andranik Markarian said on 28 March 2005 Monday that his government is striving to keep Armenia unaffected by the wave of successful anti-government uprisings across the former Soviet and is confident that it can weather the storm. “We are trying to make sure that the revolutionary wave doesn’t reach us,” Markarian told RFE/RL, reacting to last week’s dramatic ouster of Kyrgyzstan’s longtime autocratic president, Askar Akayev.

“In my view, democracy is developing in our country. Of course, not everything is all right. But the difference is huge. We have no problems with the economy… So I don’t see grounds for the people to get out, change government and then go on a rampage,” Markarian added. ~Turkish Weekly

Mr. Markarian may well be right, but he would necessarily be unable to express his real fears of the geopolitical pressures that are building around Armenia. It is not inconceivable that the same interventionists who have successfully meddled in the Ukraine and elsewhere could destabilise the government in Erevan. Armenian opposition forces are now openly requesting just such interference. However, the resumption of a clear external threat to Armenian interests will likely weaken any foreign efforts at boosting opposition forces in Armenia. Any renewed conflict with Azerbaijan might be used by the European Union and United States, which are both biased against the Armenian position on Karabagh, to bring considerable international pressure to bear on President Robert Kocharian, as some way will be found to blame Armenia for resumed violence (the Serbian template provides an idea of how this might be accomplished).

This has become a live issue, because Azerbaijan may be moving towards renewed war in Karabagh. Thus it would appear that the anti-Russian and, by extension, anti-Armenian constellation of forces in the Caucasus is being mobilised. The present U.S. preoccupation with the Near East and its overall anti-Russian stance with regard to the former Soviet republics has inevitably left Armenia out in the relative diplomatic cold, forcing Erevan to rely on a Moscow-Tehran connection that exposes Armenia to just the sort of subversion that has toppled insufficiently pro-American governments throughout the old Soviet Union. It should be profoundly distasteful and obnoxious to American Christians that spurious great power goals in the Caucasus have aligned the United States with the Turks and Azeris against Christian Armenia. They are, however, probably entirely unaware of the bias against Armenia in Washington, just as they are probably quite ignorant of what and where Armenia is.

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