Some trace the Armenians to the Hurrian kingdoms mentioned in the Bible. Others believe they descend from the Phrygians, an Anatolian people whose King Midas became legendary for his wealth if not his intelligence.  A few linguists believe Armenia was the cradle of the Indo-European mother tongue which birthed Sanskrit and English.  Armenian folklore traces their origins to Noah, whose ark landed on one of their holiest sites, Mount Ararat.

Alas, today Mt. Ararat, like many sites of past Armenian glory, is now Turkish property.   Armenia has long suffered from being a small kingdom with large neighbors. Throughout most of its history it has been occupied by one Great Power or another.  The Armenians have held on to their language, their unique alphabet, and their Christian faith: much of their land has been lost.  The Armenian community of Anatolia is long gone, wiped out in the brutal Armenian genocide of 1915-1916.  Under Tigranes the Great (95 BCE – 55BCE) Armenia briefly ruled an area stretching from the Mediterranean to the Caspian Seas: today’s Armenia is a landlocked country which is slightly smaller than Maryland (and less than 10% the size of Tigranes’ empire).

Armenia’s present boundaries are hotly contested.  The ongoing conflict over Nagorno Karabakh, a majority Armenian region within the borders of neighboring Azerbaijan, has claimed over 15,000 lives and displaced over 800,000 people; meanwhile Nakhchivan, an important city in Armenian history and legend, is now an enclave of Azerbaijan whose Armenian population has been almost entirely displaced.

Armenia’s human rights record remains questionable: harassment of opposition politicians, journalists and beatings and mistreatment of detainees continues.  There has been a gradual movement toward democracy, with frequent setbacks like the 2008 “State of Emergency” after the presidential elections.  Economic inequality remains a problem and governmental corruption is widespread.  If these problems are not addressed, we could well see Armenia slide into authoritarianism.

Armenian culture has remained cohesive in the face of centuries of occupation.  Armenians in the diaspora show a keen interest in Armenian affairs; the comparatively large and wealthy Armenian-American community has tilted US foreign policy toward Armenia on many occasions. In 2007 a proposal to recognize the Armenian genocide was defeated after Turkey withdrew its ambassador to the US and threatened to withhold support to US troops in Iraq.  Armenia receives the largest amount of US foreign aid, per capita, than any country except Israel.

While Armenian relations with Russia have historically been complex (to put it charitably), today Armenia is considered one of Russia’s closest allies in the Caucasus region.  Russia has funneled arms and money to the Nagorno Karabakh separatists.    Armenia is presently dependent upon Russia for its energy needs and a good deal of its GDP.   President Serzh Sargsyan maintains cordial relations with the Putin regime, but many Armenians are concerned about becoming overly dependent on their neighbor to the north.  Some feel Russia takes Armenian support for granted; they were particularly outraged when Russian President Medvedev offered public support for Azerbaijan’s “territorial integrity” – a slap in the face to Armenians hoping to annex Nagorno Karabakh.

Yet another wild card in the equation is Armenia’s relationship with Iran.  Armenia spent long centuries as a satrapy of the Persian Empire; many Persian words can be found in the Armenian language.    In 2007 a gas pipeline between Iran and Armenia was opened;  a second is planned in a further effort to bypass Russia’s monopoly over Armenia’s natural gas needs.  Armenia already has a thriving Iranian tourist business and growing Iranian student and expatriate community.  If relations between Armenia and Russia were to deteriorate, we might well see the world’s first Christian nation pursuing closer relations with the Islamic Republic.

Unsurprisingly, Armenian relations with Turkey remain tense.  In 1992 Turkish troops amassed at the Armenian border in response to the Nagorno Karabakh fighting: only the threat of Russian intervention stopped them from invading.  Armenia’s borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan remain blockaded; this has caused even further economic difficulties in a country which has been struggling since before the Soviet Union’s collapse.  Armenia insists that Turkey recognize its role in the murder of 1.5 million Armenians; Turkey puts the death toll at 300,000 and insists they were casualties of war, not victims of a planned extermination.

Posted under The Caucasus Mountains

When Prometheus stole fire for mankind, the Olympian gods punished him by chaining him to one of these rugged, inaccessible crags. Each night one of the region’s famed golden eagles came each night to devour his liver. To the Greeks these high mountains weren’t just the boundary between the Hellenic world and the barbarian lands; they were pillars dividing earth and sky.

Today the Caucasus Mountains mark the border between Europe and Asia (as is all too common in this part of the world, the exact demarcation of that line is disputed). Many different religious, linguistic and ethnic groups call the Caucasus Mountains home: more often than not, their relationships range from cordial dislike to open warfare.

It would be easy enough to write the whole region off as yet another remote tinder keg inhabited by the Near East’s version of unwashed and ill-tempered mountain men. Unfortunately, it is a strategically-located tinder keg. At present much of Europe’s natural gas and oil comes through Russian pipelines. Those who don’t trust Russia (or who would like to get their hands on some of those abundant Central Asian fossil fuels) would like to change that… and a pipeline wending its way through the Caucasus would break the Russian stranglehold.

Because of this, the various fighting parties are receiving funding and support from numerous outsiders. Old conflicts are fueled by new money as various sides use them and the Caucasian peoples as pawns in a new and expanded version of the “Great Game,” the 19th century intrigues between Russia and Britain for regional superiority. Generally this aid has been limited to arms and financial support; recent events have shown that Russia at least is now taking a more personal interest in Caucasian affairs.

The Bush administration has been pushing for Georgia’s admission to NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization). If Georgia had been a NATO member during the Russian blitzkrieg, we would be obligated under the terms of that treaty to defend their territorial claims. More plainly speaking, we would be in a shooting war with the Russians right now, in their backyard. In the best of times we would be hard-pressed to win a land war in Russia: Napoleon and Hitler couldn’t pull it off. With our current commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, these are hardly the best of times.

Since the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 we have been taking the former Soviet Union for granted. Their sortie into Georgia has left us scrambling to rethink that stance. If our present actions doing little to discourage terrorists, they will likely have even less impact on Russia. Al-Qaeda does not have nuclear weapons; neither do they have veto power in the UN Security Council. Dealing with the Caucasus and its various peoples will require subtlety and far-sightedness – two qualities which have been notably lacking in American foreign policy.

Posted under The Caucasus Mountains