Armenia (Continuación)

Armenia’s protest leader Nikol Pashinyan attends a rally of his supporters in downtown Yerevan on April 26. (Karen Minasyan/AFP/Getty Images)

Armenia appears at last to be breaking with its post-Soviet malaise and embracing democratic change, thanks to a grass-roots movement that has found a way, for now, to straddle Russia and the West.

Tens of thousands of people thronged Yerevan’s central square Wednesday night, chanting “Victory! Victory!” in what one Armenian reform supporter in the United States told me was “a celebration of the country as much as a protest.” The movement’s mass street demonstrations over the past month have deposed the prime minister, Serzh Sargsyan, and this week appeared ready to topple his long-entrenched ruling party.

Videos circulating on social media Wednesday captured a country embracing the reform movement headed by Nikol Pashinyan, who is seeking to replace Sargsyan.…  Seguir leyendo »

Armenian opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan attends a rally with supporters in the country's second largest city of Gyumri, Armenia, on 27 April 2018. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

Armenia has plunged into an unprecedented political crisis. On 1 May, parliament voted against the nomination for prime minister of Nikol Pashinyan, the leader of protests that compelled long-time leader Serzh Sargsyan’s resignation on 23 April. The ruling Republican Party proposed no alternative candidate but insisted its deputies vote against Pashinyan. On 2 May, large numbers of protesters poured into the streets again, this time in support of Pashinyan’s bid to win the repeat vote, scheduled for 8 May. In the evening of 2 May, after the ruling Republican Party unexpectedly indicated it might endorse Pashinyan’s bid for prime minister, he has tentatively put the protests on hold.…  Seguir leyendo »

Supporters of Armenia’s protest leader Nikol Pashinyan rally in downtown Yerevan on Thursday. (Karen Minasyan/AFP/Getty Images)

This month, mass protests in Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, have forced the prime minister to resign — and put this nation’s political future up in the air.

The unrest began in March after then-President Serzh Sargsyan, leader of the ruling party, tried to circumvent limits on his power. Facing term limits as president, Sargsyan changed the government to a parliamentary system and stepped into the position of prime minister. Nikol Pashinyan, a member of the Armenian legislature, launched a public campaign to stop him. Intense street protests forced Sargsyan to resign after less than a week in the post of prime minister.…  Seguir leyendo »

En Arménie, la ligne rouge n’a pas été franchie. Mais l’Azerbaïdjan franchira-t-il la ligne de démarcation ? En Arménie, depuis le 13 avril, tout au long du mouvement #Im Kayle (ma démarche), initié par Nikol Pachinian contre le gouvernement de Serge Sarkissian et favorable à un changement de pouvoir, une question circule dans toutes les têtes : le conflit du Haut-Karabakh, province arménienne rattachée à l’Azerbaïdjan en 1921 et théâtre d’une guerre entre Arméniens et Azerbaïdjanais (1990-1994) – dont le règlement de paix est placé sous l’égide du Groupe de Minsk de l’OSCE (Organisation pour la sécurité et la coopération en Europe) coprésidé par la France, les Etats-Unis et la Russie – va-t-il dégénérer ?…  Seguir leyendo »

En Arménie, des dizaines de milliers de manifestants pacifiques ont réussi l’exploit de contraindre le leadeur du pays à quitter le pouvoir. Au terme d’à peine onze jours de protestations, la démission de Serge Sarkissian est aussi significative que soudaine.

La situation actuelle en Arménie est exceptionnelle à maints égards. Tout d’abord, c’est l’un des rares pays au monde où le peuple a réussi à prendre le pouvoir, et ce après des manifestations non violentes. Après deux mandats passés à la présidence (2008-2018) puis quelques jours en tant que premier ministre, Serge Sarkissian ne semblait pas près de quitter le devant de la scène si rapidement ni si facilement.…  Seguir leyendo »

Dimanche 22 avril à Erevan, sur la place de la République noire de monde, un de mes anciens étudiants m’a demandé si nous avions une chance de gagner. Je lui ai répondu que je ne le pensais pas. Le lendemain, le premier ministre arménien, Serge Sarkissian, a démissionné. Comme moi, beaucoup de gens ont été surpris par la rapidité des événements et par les foules, de plus en plus importantes, qui ont participé aux rassemblements.

Comment des marches de protestation, lancées à l’initiative de Nikol Pachinian, député au Parlement et dirigeant du parti d’opposition Contrat civil, ont-elles pu entraîner le pays dans la situation de crise politique qu’il connaît actuellement ?…  Seguir leyendo »

Supporters of Armenia's protest leader Nikol Pashinyan attend a rally in downtown Yerevan, Armenia, on April 26. (Karen Minasyan/AFP/Getty Images)

“When I saw the masses of East German citizens there, I knew they were in the right”. A quarter-century later, that was how Lt. Col. Harald Jäger explained his decision to open the gates and let his fellow citizens through the Berlin Wall. Jäger was guarding a border checkpoint on Nov. 9, 1989, in the hours after East German leaders had announced that the travel rules were changing. As Berliners flocked to the wall, demanding to cross into the West, he asked repeatedly for clarification from his superiors, but nothing was forthcoming.

In the end, the crowds persuaded him to act: “At the moment it became so clear to me . …  Seguir leyendo »

Map of South Caucasus

When opposition Member of Parliament Nikol Pashinyan led a knot of marchers through northern Armenia in April to protest the return to power of long-serving leader Serzh Sargsyan, no one guessed his campaign would prompt the country to take a leap into the unknown.

One of a mere handful of opposition parliamentarians, Pashinyan has never been a popular leader in this country of three million people. His criticism of the government resonated with those parts of society that oppose Sargsyan and reflected real problems. But when he set out on his march, the former journalist and publicist was a marginal figure.…  Seguir leyendo »

People celebrate Serzh Sargsyan’s resignation in downtown Yerevan on 23 April 23. Photo: Getty Images.

Armenia’s former president and just appointed prime minister, Serzh Sargsyan, resigned Monday after a 10-day campaign of nationwide protest and civil disobedience. Protests began as soon as Sargsyan announced 11 April that he would, after previously stating otherwise, seek the ruling Republican Party’s nomination to the newly created post of prime minister.

By doing so, he laid to rest any lingering doubt about the reasons for Armenia’s switch to a parliamentary system. Introduced through a contested constitutional referendum in December 2015, the new system came online just as Sargsyan’s second, and by law final, presidential term ended. Executive powers now lie with the prime minister, and the president is relegated to a largely ceremonial role.…  Seguir leyendo »

Refugiados armenios en la cubierta de un buque francés, huidos del genocidio. UIG/Getty Images

El Archivo Histórico Nacional (AHN) guarda correspondencia de las legaciones diplomáticas y consulares de España en el Imperio Otomano que describen los crímenes de los turcos contra el pueblo armenio que arrancó en 1915. Como cada 24 de abril, miles de armenias y armenios se vuelcan en las calles de Buenos Aires, Moscú, Los Ángeles, París y Ereván para que la sociedad internacional reconozca el primer crimen de masas a gran escala del siglo XX. La aniquilación planificada y sistemática costó la vida a 1,5 millones de personas de la minoría cristiana armenia.

Los legajos incluyen telegramas cifrados, manuscritos, estadísticas, recortes de prensa y mapas enviados a Madrid.…  Seguir leyendo »

An ​Armenian ​woman cuts wood near a ​camp set up for refugees who fled ​​from fighting between Azerbaijan​i​ and ​Armenian forces, on 2 June 2017​. NurPhoto/Celestino Arce

Sniper fire can hit almost every open-air spot in Nerkin Karmiraghbyur, an Armenian village in the Tavush region on the border with Azerbaijan. Nargiza, who runs a well-stocked shop out of an abandoned railway coach in the village centre, laments the locals’ fate: “We never feel safe. We hear shooting at night, and fear it during the day. My neighbours have stopped cultivating their vineyards. They were being shot at while at work.”

Nargiza means “daffodil”. It’s a common name in Azerbaijan and other Muslim cultures, but not in her native Armenia, especially since the start of the three-decade-long conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.…  Seguir leyendo »

For almost three months now, there has been an astonishing lull along the Karabakh frontline. Instead of grenade launchers, guided missiles, drones, and guns, the sound of relatively less harmful small arms has been heard. For the first time since the clash of April 2016, both sides have put their weapons aside to take a breather before the long-awaited meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders.

There have been no negotiations at the presidential level for more than a year. All prior requests to resume meetings by international mediators yielded no results. Instead of conversing at the negotiation table, the leaders occasionally donned military uniforms, and set out with binoculars to examine each other’s military positions.…  Seguir leyendo »

US Vice President Mike Pence meets Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili in July. Photo: Getty Images.

Armenia

Anahit Shirinyan

As the world tries to decipher what Trump presidency means for the global world order and security in Europe, the same questions are asked in Armenia. The US continues not to have a clear-cut policy towards the South Caucasus, and Trump’s tenure is unlikely to change this. Instead, Washington’s relations with Yerevan, Tbilisi and Baku are likely to remain an undertone to the larger dynamics of US relations with Russia, Turkey and Iran, as well as developments in the Middle East. In this context, some potential pitfalls might affect the overall geopolitical environment in which Armenia operates with implications for Armenian foreign policy.…  Seguir leyendo »

El neodemócrata Evgenii Ambarzumov acuñó en 1992 la expresión "el círculo próximo" para designar a los nuevos Estados que acaban de independizarse con el desplome soviético: el reconocimiento de los mismos no debía oponerse a la defensa de los intereses de Rusia en el espacio de la antigua URSS. Surgió así una voluntad hegemónica en quienes habían lamentado su hundimiento, entre ellos un desconocido, Vladímir Putin. La primera ocasión llegó en 1992, con la guerra que separó de hecho al territorio rusófono, Transnistria, de Moldavia. Más grave aún fue en 1993 una nueva contienda de secesión, de Abjazia contra Georgia: Rusia intervino mediante una "guerra no declarada" (Shevernadze).…  Seguir leyendo »

The room housing refugees in the former Soviet sanatorium just outside Baku was getting a much-needed facelift: new black-and-silver floral wallpaper “to make it more attractive to the future in-laws of my daughter who are not displaced like us”, said Bayram, an Azeri veteran of the 1988-1994 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Bayram remained steadfast in his support for Azerbaijan’s role in last spring’s violent clash with Armenia. “Of course I know what war is and what the consequences can be”, he explained. He pointed to his leg, maimed by artillery fire almost 25 years ago, and to the poor conditions of the refugee shelter where his family has lived for over twenty years.…  Seguir leyendo »

On the Nagorny-Karabakh line of contact. Photo via Getty Images.

The last year has demonstrated the resilience of Armenian-Azerbaijani deadlock in resisting movement in the direction of either war or peace. On 2 April it will be one year since a major escalation, widely referred to as the four-day ‘war’, that claimed more than 200 lives. Yet while pundits warned plausibly of contagion, the violence quickly subsided as Moscow brokered a ceasefire.

A few weeks later at talks in Vienna brokered by the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE), President Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan gave their formal assent to long called for confidence building measures. …  Seguir leyendo »

Armenia's President Serzh Sargsyan at a CSTO meeting in October 2016. Photo via Getty Images.

Similar to other Eurasian regional groupings, the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is an alliance of inconvenience at best. But for Armenia, which seeks a security umbrella – and for the South Caucasus region in general – the failure of the CSTO has broader repercussions. The organization’s failure to act as a coherent military bloc might become the failure to prevent the next war in the Caucasus.

The contradictions inherent in the CSTO were brought to light in December, when the member states – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan – failed to agree on a secretary general to replace the Russia incumbent, Nikolay Bordyuzha.…  Seguir leyendo »

An Armenian artillery position in Martakert, Nagorno-Karabakh, in April. Some trenches throughout the small, unrecognized Armenian republic are reminiscent of World War I. Vahram Baghdasaryan/Photolure, via European Pressphoto Agency

The forward trenches in the hills just beyond the abandoned village of Talish, in Nagorno-Karabakh, are reminiscent of World War I: long, endless, slits in the ground, the dirt buttressed by wood, with periodic firing posts and dugouts. Stacked tires packed with dirt stand in for sandbags, but otherwise it looks like the Western Front 100 years ago. Behind the trenches, alongside the road, tanks are angled to counterattack.

On the first day of September, the sky cerulean, Capt. Gegham Grigoryan, 32, stood with me and pointed toward the northeast — toward Azerbaijan and the minefield and buffer zone less than a mile away.…  Seguir leyendo »

Membres de la communauté arménienne, le 24 avril 2014, à Jérusalem. Photo : GALI TIBBON.AFP

En adoptant le 2 juin 2016 une résolution par laquelle elle reconnait le génocide arménien de 1915, l’Allemagne s’est rangée aux côtés de celles et ceux de ses homologues, dont la France, qui ont fait le choix de s’incliner devant la mémoire des Arméniens victimes du premier génocide du XXème siècle et de réhabiliter cette page sombre et occultée de l’Histoire de l’Humanité. Il s’agit, avant tout, d’un geste de paix, d’un geste de réconciliation et d’un geste d’espoir : la reconnaissance est la première des réparations, c’est celle qui détermine et conditionne l’existence, ô combien légitime, de toutes les autres.…  Seguir leyendo »

Il y a quelques semaines le conflit du Haut-Karabagh s’est réveillé, le temps de prélever en quelques jours un tribut d’une centaine de morts, principalement militaires. Puis il a disparu à nouveau de l’actualité, mais pas des préoccupations de certains analystes qui, comme Jacques Attali, y décèlent le détonateur possible d’une troisième guerre mondiale parce qu’il se superpose à la ligne de haute tension russo-turque.

Pour l’opinion internationale, c’est plutôt l’incompréhension qui domine. Comment peut-on se battre, aux portes de l’Europe et au XXIe siècle, pour une zone enclavée de 4000 km carrés ? Comment prendre au sérieux une guerre picrocholine ?…  Seguir leyendo »