The Armenian defense minister looks very much like an Old Testament prophet, with his flashing dark eyes, square jaws and heavy black beard.
On the walls of Vazgen Sarkisian’s ministry, sitting on a hill above the capital, hang pictures of the sacred Mt. Ararat, where Armenians believe that the biblical Noah built his ark to escape God’s raging floods. Aides, several of them philosophers, will tell you that was the beginning of the “Christian civilization” of mankind.
In short, this is a “different” kind of defense ministry–one that is not only filled with history, but also making history these days in the Caucasus.
First, of course, looms the Russian Question. Armenia, with its 3.7 million people squeezed between Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan and Georgia, is watched from abroad these days largely because it is the one Caucasus country that, even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, is unashamedly allied with Russia. This gives rise to every sort of conspiracy theory. Diplomats here still whisper at receptions about “Russian assets” and “Russian imperialism.”
Unlike Azerbaijan (no Russian troops) and Georgia (17,000 Russian troops, but definitely on sufferance), Armenia has Russian troops and welcomes them. Indeed, 9,000 troops, some of them Armenian, provide Moscow with an important base in the region. And within the last year, one of the great military scandals in the region, reminiscent of the Soviet epoch, was the story of $1 billion or more in important weaponry flowing from Moscow to Yerevan.
But although most of those bare facts are true, the Armenian reality is much more complicated.
“Russian troops are not a big presence here,” Sarkisian said, as Mt. Ararat loomed outside the window, “and we have no plans to expand them. To the contrary, Russia wants to take some of them back.” He added, “Naturally, we took as our system the Soviet system and Soviet military culture. We couldn’t create an army large enough for internal and external borders. That is the reason Russian border troops are still here.”
As to the “scandal” of the $1 billion in weaponry, the minister explained in some detail that this was only the result of certain “inventories” of weapons left behind, indeed in all three Caucasus countries, after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
“All this uproar about Russia supplying us arms!” he exclaimed. “The truth is the following: After 1994-95, we demanded the inventory that was here in Armenia should belong to us. We made the agreement (with Moscow), and the entire inventory became Armenian. That’s the $1 billion. It was mostly air-defense systems produced in the early ’60s.”
Surprising to the first-time visitor is the fact that the Armenian military, which is still in the process of being developed, also has developing relations with NATO. Sarkisian stressed that Armenia’s position within the Commonwealth of Independent States, the organization of former Soviet republics that was formed after the collapse of 1991, in no way precludes cooperation with NATO.
More Top Picks Best Vibrating Pillows For Autism
“Every year that is advancing,” he said, “and we openly discuss this with Russia. . . . In fact, yesterday I should have been in a NATO center, but instead our representative was there. Last year, we participated in NATO exercises in Greece. The secretary general of NATO, Javier Solana, visited here, and we had a very nice conversation and he met with our president. Soon we will discuss expanding missions.
“There is one more nuance here,” he explained. “Russia and the whole world know that NATO is not eager to embrace us. But one day, Russia itself will become a member.”
Later, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian characterized his country’s alliance with Russia with unusually frank words: “Russia has a great interest in this region. They still consider it their backyard. Their problems with countries like Azerbaijan and Georgia make them nervous, so Armenia’s policy is to keep them engaged. It is a different approach, but it does not mean we are a Russian satellite. We have nothing to fear from a democratic Russia, and it is better to engage them than to face the consequences of not doing so.”
In short, one finds here a country whose geopolitics today are nearly as complex as its rich cultural and religious history.
On the one hand, Armenia is sadly isolated in the region, mostly because of its nasty 1992-93 war with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave inhabited largely by Armenians that Stalin had placed within Azeri borders. It was Armenia’s “victory” in this war that led directly to the present-day Azeri and Turkish blockades against Armenia–and to an even greater dependence upon Russia and upon a north/south axis. Many of our best military analysts are convinced that this axis is not nearly so benign as the Armenians obviously want it to seem to the West.
On the other hand, there are many more contacts with the West than I would have expected under these circumstances: in addition to NATO, 5,000 youngsters in Junior Achievement, an American University, and a determination on the part of the government to be the first in the Caucasus to join important international organizations such as the Western trade-oriented World Trade Organization.
Above these convoluted changes here looms “the mountain.” Indeed, biblical Mt. Ararat symbolizes this country, which, in accepting Christianity in the third century, believes it is the first Christian nation in the world. Noah is still everyday fare here, even in military terms.