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CAUCASUS NOT A CHESSBOARD, RUSSIAN BEAR NOT PLAYER EITHER, THOMAS DE WAAL SAYS
news.am
Sept 15 2010
Armenia
"Twenty years after the end of the Soviet Union, news from the South
Caucasus is bleak. The region's two longest borders, which stretch
between Armenia and Azerbaijan and between Georgia and Russia, remain
wholly or partially shut. Corrupt bureaucrats make even the nominally
open borders closed to free trade. Three de facto statelets -Abkhazia,
South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh- exist in a twilight zone, separate
from their Soviet-era "parents," Georgia and Azerbaijan, but not quite
sovereign states either. Hundreds of thousands of refugees remain
displaced by war. Poverty and unemployment are endemic. Millions
work away from home as migrant workers, mainly in Russia. Both locals
and outsiders share the blame for creating this miserable picture,"
Thomas de Waal, a British journalist, writer and an expert on the
Caucasus says in his article "Call off the Great Game" published in
the "Foreign Policy" magazine.
According to him, the region is a "Great Chessboard" where the world
powers push the locals around like pawns to serve their own goals.
"That is not what actually happens. In actual fact, however the
geopolitical weather changes, the locals always manage to manipulate
the outside powers at least as much as the other way round. In the
21st century the Caucasus is still the Caucasus, in all its complexity
and variety-not an assimilated province of Russia, Turkey, or Iran,"
Voice of Russia reports referring to the source.
"Over the course of history, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Georgians,
as well as the region's other smaller ethnic groups, have all
persistently survived invasion and resisted assimilation. It's true
the price of survival has come in the form of Faustian pacts with
other Great Powers, in which the Azerbaijanis allied themselves with
Turks and British; Georgians with Germans and British; Armenians,
Abkhaz and Ossetians with Russians," the source reads.
The author stresses the second mirage is that of the Russian bear
looming over this region ready to maul the relatively defenseless
Caucasian peoples, even today. To be sure, Russia is still the most
powerful outside actor in the region.
"A third mirage is the perception of the South Caucasus as an area
of great Western strategic interest-an approach, paradoxically,
that actually does more harm than good," the source reports.
"As for Western policy-makers, I believe they should ask themselves
two questions every time they contemplate an intervention in the
South Caucasus: "Is my action helping to open borders and free up a
blocked region?" and "Does it empower ordinary people and not just
governments?" the author concludes.
From: A. Papazian
news.am
Sept 15 2010
Armenia
"Twenty years after the end of the Soviet Union, news from the South
Caucasus is bleak. The region's two longest borders, which stretch
between Armenia and Azerbaijan and between Georgia and Russia, remain
wholly or partially shut. Corrupt bureaucrats make even the nominally
open borders closed to free trade. Three de facto statelets -Abkhazia,
South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh- exist in a twilight zone, separate
from their Soviet-era "parents," Georgia and Azerbaijan, but not quite
sovereign states either. Hundreds of thousands of refugees remain
displaced by war. Poverty and unemployment are endemic. Millions
work away from home as migrant workers, mainly in Russia. Both locals
and outsiders share the blame for creating this miserable picture,"
Thomas de Waal, a British journalist, writer and an expert on the
Caucasus says in his article "Call off the Great Game" published in
the "Foreign Policy" magazine.
According to him, the region is a "Great Chessboard" where the world
powers push the locals around like pawns to serve their own goals.
"That is not what actually happens. In actual fact, however the
geopolitical weather changes, the locals always manage to manipulate
the outside powers at least as much as the other way round. In the
21st century the Caucasus is still the Caucasus, in all its complexity
and variety-not an assimilated province of Russia, Turkey, or Iran,"
Voice of Russia reports referring to the source.
"Over the course of history, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Georgians,
as well as the region's other smaller ethnic groups, have all
persistently survived invasion and resisted assimilation. It's true
the price of survival has come in the form of Faustian pacts with
other Great Powers, in which the Azerbaijanis allied themselves with
Turks and British; Georgians with Germans and British; Armenians,
Abkhaz and Ossetians with Russians," the source reads.
The author stresses the second mirage is that of the Russian bear
looming over this region ready to maul the relatively defenseless
Caucasian peoples, even today. To be sure, Russia is still the most
powerful outside actor in the region.
"A third mirage is the perception of the South Caucasus as an area
of great Western strategic interest-an approach, paradoxically,
that actually does more harm than good," the source reports.
"As for Western policy-makers, I believe they should ask themselves
two questions every time they contemplate an intervention in the
South Caucasus: "Is my action helping to open borders and free up a
blocked region?" and "Does it empower ordinary people and not just
governments?" the author concludes.
From: A. Papazian