Armenia-"Gha-Ra-Bagh!": The Emergence of the National Democratic Movement in Armenia
1997; Middle East Institute; Volume: 51; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1940-3461
Autores Tópico(s)Soviet and Russian History
ResumoGha-ra-bagh!: The Emergence of the National Democratic Movement in Armenia, by Mark Malkasian. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1996. 207 pages. Notes to p. 225. Works Cited to p. 229. Index to p. 236. $34.95. Reviewed by Joseph A. Kechichian Few observers of Soviet, Caucasian and Armenian affairs prior to 1989 foresaw the dramatic changes that altered the status of a superpower in the late 1980s. Half-a-decade after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, many assumed that Mikhail Gorbachev-Secretary-General of the Soviet Communist Party after 1985-had been keen to see perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness) implemented throughout the Soviet Union. In fact, the Communists, led by Gorbachev, resisted democratization as best they could. In the end, nothing could save the monolith that was both outdated and inefficient. In this remarkable study, Mark Malkasian chronicles how a modest movement permanently altered the smallest Soviet republic, mobilizing its population to undermine whatever power Moscow had enjoyed in the Caucasus. This is also the story of 11 Armenian men who galvanized the Armenian population within the space of a single year1988-and about a national democratic movement that forced a change at the top of the Soviet and Armenian political hierarchies, by bringing up the issue of the fate of Karabagh, a distant and forgotten region nestled within Azerbaijan. Karabagh-spelled Gha-ra-bagh in the title to reflect the popular chants in the streets of Yerevan and Stepanakert-was victimized by Joseph Stalin, who preferred to create autonomous republics, oblasts, and eventually districts...as a concession to the national identity of ethnic groups (p. 24). The area was entrusted to Baku, which held the territory and its population hostage to serve Soviet interests. In truth, neither Yerevan nor Baku was able to help rectify past errors; they were challenged by II intellectuals who espoused the cause of promoting larger democratic ideals. The Yerevan 11 sympathized with Karabagh and demanded that the region revert back to Armenia. They called for basic political reforms, accountability and genuine economic improvements. Levon Ter Petrossian was eventually elected President of the Republic of Armenia. Babgen Ararktsyan, Hambartsum Galstyan, Samvel Gevorgyan, Samson Ghazaryan, Alexander Hakobyan, Ashot Manucharyan, Vazgen Manukyan, Khatchik Samboltsyan, Vano Siradeghyan and Davit Vardanyan paid a heavy price for such dreams. More important, the Armenian population that supported them paid an even heavier price. Against mass demonstrations that lingered on for weeks and months, Moscow fueled ethnic strife that resulted in new massacres of Armenians in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait on 27 February 1988. …
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