From the Break-Up of the Soviet Union to Independent Armenia

Abstract

The paper discusses the period of the most recent history of this Caucasian country, a history that is little known in Poland. It embraces the years from the establishment of Armenian anti-communist opposition before the break-up of the Soviet Union, until the establishment of political transformation following the presidential elections of 1998. Armenia had gone a dramatic way in that period, fighting for its position among the independent countries of the world. The fact that it had to make decisive political choices, so that its inhabitants could survive, put o ff the discussion on the political shape of the state. The fight for the shape of its borders was of principal importance, it concentrated on the aspirations to attach the Upper Karabach. The threat to independence on the part of Azerbaijan, initially supported by the Soviet centres, was too high to peacefully order home affairs.

In the end of the twentieth century the political situation in Armenia was still far from being stable. The key to internal transformations remained the problem with the Upper Karabach whose solution was inseparably linked by the staff of President Robert Koczarian with the independent of the country. Linked with the West by its contracts on oil exploitation, Azerbaijan stood in opposition to Russia, hence the latter became a natural ally of Armenia.

The transformations in Armenia are interesting for Poles owing to centuries old Polish-Armenian relations. This interest was increased by the apostolic visit of Pope John Paul II, the visit announced by the Vatican which had not taken place. In the period under discussion there is a willingness to establish good mutual contacts, especially after the aid that Poland had given after the earthquake in Armenia in 1988. The Armenians took also diplomatic measures whose goal was to tighten cooperation in Poland. The embassy of Armenia was opened in Warsaw, and President R. Koczarian paid one of his first visits abroad to Poland in 1999.