Open Democracy: Nagorno Karabakh Republic manages to pursue successful foreign policy and international ties
The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic has actively sought to strengthen its ties with Europe. It has managed to pursue a dynamic European and global foreign policy, Lucas Goetz writes on the British online portal Open Democracy.
As the Soviet Union was collapsing, the Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh, which formed the largest ethnic group in the former oblast, voted massively in favor of independence. A bloody war with Azerbaijan followed. The Nagorno Karabakh Republic, supported by neighboring Armenia, was able to repel attacks from the Azerbaijani army and a ceasefire was signed in 1994. The Nagorno Karabakh Republic is a de facto independent state but violent clashes still regularly occur along the line of contact, Goetz points.
“Nagorno Karabakh strives for international recognition, which is important symbolically but also politically. When Nagorno Karabakh seeks contact with Europe it can be interpreted as a way of manifesting an independent foreign policy towards Europe,” Märta-Lisa Magnusson, Senior Lecturer of Caucasus studies at Malmö University, told Goetz.
“Europe is a natural choice for us because we identify ourselves as Europeans and share the European values,” said David Melkumyan, a newly elected MP of the NKR National Assembly, according to the article.
Goetz further notes that Eduardo Lorenzo Ochoa, the director of European Friends of Armenia, believes that Nagorno Karabakh is successful in its foreign policy. “There is an EU Nagorno Karabakh friendship group in the European Parliament which supports Nagorno Karabakh,” he says. “Nagorno Karabakh has been visited by the vice-president of the European Parliament. That is not bad at all for a country that ‘officially does not exist’,” he added.
Goetz points that in April 2015 Mr Melkumyan's party, the Democratic Party of Artsakh, became an 'associated member' of the European Free Alliance, a European political party which has 12 MEP's in the European Parliament. Shortly after this was made public, the Azerbaijani ministry of foreign affairs released an angry press release, followed by an even angrier phone call to the European Free Alliance headquarters in Brussels.
Being an unrecognized state limits the diplomatic options of Nagorno Karabakh. Though it cannot open embassies abroad, it has however opened 'permanent missions', or 'representations' in countries where there is a big Armenian community such as the United States, France, Germany and Lebanon. Even though they are not officially recognized as embassies, they facilitate Nagorno Karabakh representatives meeting foreign politicians and diplomats, Goetz highlights.
“They give lectures, organize cultural activities and meet audiences in the countries were they are established. They are quite successful in keeping Nagorno Karabakh on the international agenda,” Märta-Lisa Magnusson said.
With an estimated eight million Armenians living outside of Armenia or the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, the Diaspora is of paramount importance to the Nagorno Karabakh republic’s international efforts, according to the article.
“The trauma of what we lost 100 years ago is still there and we have not resolved the issue; not only have we lost territories but Turkey still has not recognized the Genocide. Karabakh is the story of Armenians who succeed, rather than Armenians which get massacred,” said a Diaspora representative André Gumuchdjian whose grandfather arrived in Belgium in 1908 and who was until recently the vice-president of the Armenian Committee in Belgium.
The author of the article notes that as an entrepreneur Mr Gumuchdjian has actively invested in the NKR economy. “I have started several economic projects in Karabakh; agriculture being one of them,” he explains pointing out that despite remaining problems there are interesting options in Karabakh. “I am interested in seeing Karabakh developing economically and I want the population to live without worries because its first right should be to live in security. The future of Karabakh is independent,” he adds.
As the article has it, Mr Melkumyan who is also a member of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations in the Nagorno Karabakh National Assembly also emphasizes the importance of the Diaspora: “You know how strong the Armenian Diaspora is throughout the world. If you find one single Armenian citizen or person of Armenian origin, he will be willing to represent Nagorno Karabakh,” he says.
Related:
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