TIME EUROPE
July 10, 2000 VOL. 156 NO. 2
State of Expectation
Armenians think they may — at last — be on the winning side of history
By WENDELL STEAVENSON Nagorno-Karabakh
There is a brand new road of smooth tarmac — unheard of in the potholed Caucasus — that winds through sharp mountains into the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Along the way are the ruins of Azeri towns, a parked tank commemorating an Armenian advance and a sign in Spanish announcing the donation of funds for the road by diaspora Armenians in Argentina. The Karabakh Armenians won the war against Azerbaijan which lasted from 1988 until a cease-fire in 1994, and have been building while they wait for a final peace.
The status quo is in fact a status question. Nagorno-Karabakh is recognized internationally as being located within the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan. At the same time, it's the self-styled Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. The locally administered statelet has assumed the trappings — a flag, stamps and a President — of a separate country while giving its citizens Armenian passports and using the Armenian dram as currency. But then nothing is ever simple in the Caucasus, with its patchwork of tribes and ethnic groups.
Despite the convolutions of what Nagorno-Karabakh is and what it should ultimately be recognized as, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (osce), which has been shepherding peace negotiations, is optimistic about a final deal for it. For Azerbaijan, its economy sagging despite its oil reserves, the prime motivations are returning to the area up to 600,000 refugees, many still living in appalling refugee camps on the Azeri side of the cease-fire line, while at the same time releasing American development money, blocked until the conflict is resolved. For Armenia, peace would reopen its border with Turkey, closed by the Turks in solidarity with their ethnic cousins the Azeris.
But rational economic decisions are pretty rare in these parts; guns and grudges talk louder. The secret negotiations over the past year have been against a backdrop of political violence. Eight deputies of the Armenian parliament, including two senior ministers, were shot dead last October. In March, the President of Nagorno-Karabakh, Arkady Ghukassian, survived an assassination attempt allegedly ordered by Samvel Babayan, a former Defense Minister.
While Ghukassian recovered from his wounds in Nagorno-Karabakh's capital, Stepanakert, rumors circulated about a possible deal involving land swaps. Says Nagorno-Karabakh's Prime Minister, Anoushavan Danielian, "We will never agree to be inside Azerbaijan. What kind of nation can exist under another nation?"
Money from the Armenian diaspora and foreign aid has been instrumental in the Karabakhs pushing for a state they hope someday will be formally recognized. The new 64-km road, complete with gradient warnings, crash barriers and working streetlights, cost more than $10 million. Half was donated by Kirk Kerkorian, the Las Vegas millionaire who made his money in the airline, movie and resort industries. American aid money, administered through Save the Children for reasons of diplomatic nicety, is about $12 million a year. Hospitals have been built, schools refurbished and houses damaged by artillery repaired.
Stepanakert looks more neat and tidy now than any other town in the dilapidated former Soviet southern Caucasus. It has a continual supply of water and electricity, which can't be said for the Azeri capital Baku, which suffered electricity rationing last winter, or for the Armenian capital, Yerevan, where water flows through the pipes only four hours a day.
But the rebuilding has been very selective. Agdam was once home to 60,000 Azeris. Now its ruins sprawl across a horizon empty of everything but weeds and birdsong. The town's bricks have been hauled away to help reconstruct Stepanakert; its scrap metal stripped and sold. The Armenians have razed dozens of other Azeri towns and villages.
The new road connec- ting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia proper passes through a narrow strip of occupied Azeri territory called the Lachin Corridor. Lachin was an Azeri town of 20,000 before the war. Now it's been renamed Berdzor, and 2,000 Armenians have been resettled there. A new Armenian church has been built for them, and a small museum displays ancient "Armenian" artifacts found in the area.
Rewriting history is cyclical in the Caucasus, which has been washed by successive waves of Persians, Ottomans, Russians and Armenians. The Armenians have usually been on the losing side. "There's a very strong feeling of lost land," explains Vahan Ter-Ghevondian, head of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund, the largest diaspora fund in Armenia. "I don't want to use the word revenge, but it's something like a peaceful revenge — it's to save Karabakh and not to have any more genocide, massacres, victims. Our people are tired of losing all the time."
Although no timetable has been set for a peace deal, for now it looks as though the Armenians might for once be on the winning side.
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July 10, 2000
COVER
Run, Chicken Run!
The inmates of Hut 17 are planning a great escape. Viewers will get one in this high, wild and hen-some stop-motion adventure
EUROPE
Are We All Agreed Then?
French President Jacques Chirac chooses the Reichstag to deliver one of the strongest calls yet for an avant-garde core group in the E.U.
Anger Unleashed
A schoolyard mauling stuns Germany into action
Second-Class Kids
Romas in the Czech Republic go to court alleging bias against them in the school system
Greece Hits the Wall
Organizers of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens scramble to recover from their painfully slow start
State of Expectation
Armenians think they may — at last — be on the winning side of history
Democracy Is a Family Affair
Despite the latest French carping, freedom needs a helping hand
AFRICA
Candles in the Wind
Democracy is still the exception rather than the rule in Africa — but there are glimmers of light
Mugabe Feels The Chill
Despite a campaign marked by violence and intimidation, Zimbabweans dare to speak up
A System of Government As Old as the Desert Sands
Talking it up in Botswana
BUSINESS
Funds in the Sun
Tax havens are coming under increasing pressure to clean up money laundering
A New Credit-Card Scam
The latest handheld "skimmers" let crooks use your charge card even as you return it to your wallet
MP3s for the Masses
Having faced down upstart Internet challengers, the record industry gears up for digital distribution
ENVIRONMENT
The Wild Side of Town
Transformed into Europe's biggest urban wetland center, a derelict London site quacks and buzzes with life, luring humans
THE ARTS
The Art of Sexual Vérité
With her shockingly explicit films, French director Catherine Breillat ignites a debate over pornography
Erudite Everyman
Author and literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki manages to get German TV viewers enthralled about books
Truth Sadder Than Fiction
An Aboriginal play about the "stolen generation" lays bare a shameful chapter of Australian history
DEPARTMENTS
Olympic Monitor
World Watch
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