The number of “great friends of Armenian people” increased by one. On September 6, vice speaker of Russian State Duma Vladimir Jirinovski announced in Moscow that referendums should be organized in the unrecognized states of the former Soviet union and those states should become independent (Near Dnestr, Southern Osia, Abkhazia and Karabakh). Don’t get the wrong idea about Jirinovski. Five minutes later he said that it would be better if those unrecognized states joined Russia. He said that generally all the former Soviet Union countries should join Russia in order to live better.
Generally there is a saying in Russia; “Anything the Russian authorities think about is what Jirinovski says. This eccentric person, whose mother was Russian and whose father was a lawyer, said that independence doesn’t mean anything and those states should join Russia only three days after the 15th anniversary of the independence of Karabakh and two weeks before the anniversary of the independence of Armenia. This is bad for Armenia in that it reveals how Russia really looks at Armenia. (imperialistic policy).
Now let’s go further in detail. Abkhazia is trying to separate from Georgia and generally, it seems that they don’t mind to join Russia. As for Southern Osia, it tends to join Russia as it tends to join Northern Osia, which is currently in the territory of Russia. As for the Near Dnestr, most of its citizens are from Russia and Ukraine and just don’t want to live in the territory of Georgia. In fact, it’s no secret that Russia has always directly or indirectly supported those unrecognized states during those conflicts.
The situation with Karabakh is different. There is an independent country in this region which does not have a border with Russia, so what remains unclear is why Karabakh should fight for separation from one state with the purpose of joining another country, where there have recently been more Armenians murdered than the war in Shushi.
The problem is that the traditional Russian policy does not consider our interests at all. They think that they can say a couple of words about historical Ararat, call Karabakh as Artsakh and make Armenia look at them as “the outpost” and stop giving aid to Armenia. Nevertheless, Russia has interfered in the Karabakh conflict three times and it has always supported Azerbaijan but not Armenia. In fact, Russia says that Armenia is its strategic ally but treats it as a slave; it closes the border whenever it likes, takes whatever it likes instead debts, etc.
As for the unsettled conflicts, Russia has played a role here too. The problem is that it is out of the interests of Russia to settle those conflicts. For instance, in Armenia’s case it is clear that as soon as the Karabakh conflict is settled, Armenia will be out of the influence of Russia and will stop being the outpost of Russia. In other words, it is normal from the political aspect that Russia does its best not to let the conflict be settled.
Recently Russians have realized that Armenians understand that very well. They say that two processes are going on in Armenia in parallel with each other; the anti-Russian approach is growing among Armenians and Armenia is working more intensively to settle the conflict. How can they stop those processes? They have decided to make a “hint” with the help of Jirinovski saying that “Armenians should not make any compromises; those are Armenian historical territories, including Nakhidjevan. Don’t agree with them and we will support you”.
We have already experienced several times how they may support us. As a rule, after they support us Armenians leave those territories. Instead of that, Armenians are coming up with more military slogans, and those slogans are said in the framework of another slogan; “Always stay with the Russian people”.