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Index

Armenia

The Urartu Civilisation

Victory for Independence

Artashisian Dynasty on the Armenian Throne

Armenia caught between Rome and the Arsacids

The Acceptance of Christianity

Defending Christianity

Armenia Under the Bagratouni Dynasty

Cilicia - the New Armenia

Armenia Under Turanian Rule

The Renaissance or the Resurrection of Armenia

The Eastern Question

Russia in the Caucasus

The Armenian Question

Battle on Two Fronts

Tsarist Russia Against the Armenians

The Revolution of the Young Turks and the Armenian People on the Eve of World War I

The First World War

The Resurrection of Armenia

Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

- Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

Eastern Armenia

Western Armenia

"The Fateful Years" (1914-1917)

"Hopes and Emotions" (March-October, 1917)

The Bolshevik Revolution and Armenia

Transcaucasia Adrift (November, 1917

Dilemmas (March-April, 1918)

War and Independence (April-May, 1918)

The Republics of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia

The Suppliants (June-October, 1918)

In conclusion

Soviet Armenia

The Second Independent Republic of Armenia

Epilogue

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In the reality, what began as a wise policy, in time turned into a humiliation for the majority of the Armenians. Many, including the following president, Robert Kocharian, believed that the policy of Ter-Petrosian towards Turkey proved to be anti productive, since it gave Ankara the illusion of that Armenia was so desperate that she had to accept any terms at all in order to establish normal relations with Turkey and the lifting of the Turkish blockade against Armenia.

Another significant policy of the Ter-Petrosian administration, in the beginning of 1991, was the attempt to distance Armenia from Russia. The results were obvious. The 23rd Soviet division in the 4th army joined the interior troops of Azerbaijan when they, in May 1991, drove out the remaining Armenian population which was in Azerbaijan but outside Nagorno Karabakh, i.e. in the district of Khanlar and Shahoumianovsk. 118 "Operation Ring", which it was called, forced around 20,000 Armenian villagers to abandon their homes while several others were assaulted or killed. This was also a clear warning from Moscow, in answer to the anti Russian and anti Soviet rhetoric of HHSh. Within a couple of months the Armenian leadership altered its attitude in this matter. Unlike Georgia, Armenia signed the Declaration of Alma-Ata on December 21, 1991 and was thereby a part of the Commonwealth of the Independent States (CIS) at its creation. 119 As a result of this, Russia changed its attitude drastically towards Armenia during the period which the Azerbaijan Popular Front (AFP) pursued a hard anti Soviet, and later an anti Russian, rhetoric. On the spring of 1992, the Armenians of Karabakh celebrated their first major victory in what was beginning to turn into a full scale war against Azerbaijan. The Turkish threats of intervention in Caucasus pushed only the Armenians more and more into the arms of Russian. In contrast to both Georgia and Azerbaijan, Armenia signed the Tashkent collective security treaty, on May 15, 1992, and thereby joined the defence alliance which included some of the CIS countries. 120 Only a weak earlier the Armenians of Karabakh had taken the strategic city of -Shushi, 1992. After that Armenia become more and more dependant of Russia, especially in the military and economical spheres. The country had signed a 20 years treaty for military cooperation with Russia, which allows Russians bases to remain in Armenia and allows Russians soldiers to guard Armenia's borders with Turkey and Iran.

The Setbacks for the Ter-Petrosian Administration

Inside Armenia the population was losing its faith in the government, both in its implementation of the foreign policy as well as its domestic policy. The unemployment had hit almost half of country's labour force, the salaries were insignificant in comparison which the necessary expenses for bare survival. The population became more and more aware of the prevailing corruption and that the finances of the state were disappearing in the pockets of a closed sphere of highly positioned persons instead of being used for the general public. Even outside Armenian people started to raise an increasing critical voice against the Ter-Petrosian administration.

The critique against the government intensified in spring of 1993 when Ashot Belyan, a former member of the parliament and former deputy minister of education, travelled to Azerbaijan on a peace mission. He, together with the Sardarian, the presidential advisor, had founded the political organisation of Nor Oughi (the New Path), which during the same year advocated the returning of Nagorno Karabakh to its former status, i.e. as an autonomous region within Azerbaijan. The result was that the opposition now accused the Ter-Petrosian administration for high treason.