ULI453U-RUSSIA, CENTRAL ASIA AND THE CAUCASIA
Chapter 6: Contemporary Domestic Politics of South Caucasus
Introduction
The Caucasus is one of the most heterogeneous regions globally regarding religion, language, ethnicity, and culture. For Russia, the region is described as a backyard/immediate surrounding while the United States sees it as a buffer zone against Russia. Since the North Caucasus is wholly included in the Russian Federation and the Chechen problem, which existed for a long time, had also been resolved, there is no immediate security problem in this region.
Azerbaijan
The Republic of Azerbaijan, located in the west of the Caspian Sea, has many neighboring countries such as Iran in the South, Russia in the North, Georgia in the northwest, and Armenia in the southwest, and through Nakhchivan Turkey in the West. It covers a total area of 86.000 km², including a noncontiguous Nakhchivan Autonomous State.
Azerbaijan, one of the 15 republics of the USSR for 70 years, contributed significantly to the USSR’s economy as one of the wealthiest union republics among the USSR. In the history of the Azerbaijan Republic, 23.5 mils. tons of oil - to the maximum extent was extracted in 1941, and it constituted 71.4% of the overall oil output of the former Soviet Union. Such high production ensured the victory of the Soviet Union in the Second World War and fostered the solution of economic problems.
Political History
In Azerbaijan, the nationalist movement led by the Azerbaijani Popular Front (APF) flourished, especially after the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian expansionism. Azerbaijani writers led a national awakening, discussed the importance of native language education, and reacted against the Russian language’s widespread use. By 1987, cultural organizations such as Yurd, Veten, and Chanlibel created future political leaders of the Popular Front, such as Abulfaz Elchibey and others.
On July 16, 1989, the Popular Front elected Elchibey as the new chairman. Elchibey would later become Azerbaijan’s President in 1992. Elchibey was a former dissident and scholar of the Middle East who, even his critics conceded, had great personal honesty and moral authority.
On September 23, 1989, Azerbaijan was among the first Soviet republics to adopt its own Constitutional Law on Sovereignty. However, on January 13-14, 1990, the Soviet army entered Baku on January 20, 1990, killing 131 civilians and injuring hundreds of citizens. The military took full control of Baku within a few hours. Nevertheless, on January 20, 1990, Moscow essentially lost Azerbaijan. Immediately after the intervention, the President of the Azerbaijan SSR Communist Party, Abdurrahman Vezirov, was dismissed and replaced by Ayaz Mütellibov, then Chairman of the Council of Ministers. From the first day of his government, Müttelibov tried to rule the country
only with Moscow’s decisions, which later led to the unification of all opposition forces against him. The failed coup in Moscow, which was established to save the USSR in Moscow, on 19-21 August, resulted in the separation of the Soviet republics from the USSR by declaring their independence. Azerbaijan declared independence on October 18, 1991.
President Mütellibov had to resign on March 6, 1992, after the genocide of Khojaly committed by the Armenians on February 25-26, 1992. Shusha’s city (May 8, 1992), where Azerbaijani Turks lived in Nagorno-Karabakh, was occupied by Armenia. Müttelibov, speaking in the parliament, declared that he had regained the powers of the Presidency. All these caused the people to unite around the Azerbaijan People’s Front (AHC) and stand against the coup d’état on May 15, 1992. On June 7, 1992, the democratic and transparent presidential elections were held for the first time in Azerbaijan. The leader of the AHC, Abulfaz Elchibey, was elected as the President of Azerbaijan with 59 percent of the votes.
During the rule of the APF, which continued until June 4, 1993, Azerbaijan started a military operation to control Nagorno-Karabakh, which was occupied by Armenia and achieved some success. However, the nationalist attitude of the Elchibey government against Russia and Iran caused these states to act against him. As a result of Azerbaijan’s agreement with Russia on October 16, 1992, the Russian base in Ganja was removed from Azerbaijan, therefore the Russian military presence in Azerbaijan since 1813 was ended.
On June 4, 1993, Colonel Suret Hüseyinov, supported by Russia, made a coup in Ganja. With the help of pro- Russian political forces in the government and the Parliament, the Elchibey government was overthrown. Heydar Aliyev was called to power on June 15, 1993, who previously served as the Chairman of the Communist Party Central Committee in the Azerbaijan USR. Armenians, taking advantage of Azerbaijan’s internal turmoil, occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and its seven neighboring Azerbaijani provinces in 1993-1994.
One of the most important events of the Aliyev period was the signing of the Oil Agreements, which went down in history with the name of the “Agreement of the Century,” signed in Baku on September 20, 1994. In addition to Western oil companies, Turkish and Russian oil companies were also included in this agreement. This clearly shows that Aliyev was following a balanced policy in foreign politics.
With the death of Heydar Aliyev on December 12, 2003, the era of Heydar Aliyev ended. Heydar Aliyev’s son, Ilham Aliyev, was elected as the President of Azerbaijan, and his era started in Azerbaijan. Shortly after Ilham Aliyev came to power, he gradually reformed his rule by replacing former corrupt officials with young professionals who were educated abroad.
Political Structure
The new Constitution containing articles for a robust executive body in Azerbaijan was adopted in 1995 when Heydar Aliyev was the president. This Constitution declared the Republic of Azerbaijan as a democratic and secular state.
Economy
After Azerbaijan gained its independence, it started to reduce its dependence on Russia by adopting laws to break away from the former Soviets in economic areas and carry out economic policies to attract foreign capital by turning towards the West. On September 20, 1994, an agreement was signed in Baku for the extraction of oil reserves in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian. At the “Agreement of the Century,” 13 oil companies have participated. Azerbaijan started to implement its new oil strategy with the signing of this agreement.
At the first stage, although the launch of Caspian oil to the world market through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline started, another important event in 2006 was the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC-1768 km) pipeline to transport oil from Baku to the Western markets through Tbilisi and Ceyhan cities. This Project effectively put an end to the Russian monopoly on transporting energy resources from the Caspian Sea.
Religion
Azerbaijan is one of the countries with the highest religious tolerance among the world states. Throughout history, Jews, Christians, and people of other religions have lived together in peace and harmony in this land, where approximately 95% of the population is Muslim. Among the Muslim majority, about 85% of the population practice Shia and 15% of the Sunni sect.
Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
In response to Armenians’ protests in Nagorno- Karabakh starting from 1988, Azerbaijan’s firs rallies took place on February 19, 1988. Without any organization and organizational support, a group of students, intellectuals, and workers showed their reactions to the events with the banners they carried as they walked in Baku’s streets and stated that Nagorno Karabakh belonged to Azerbaijan. Before these events, no Azerbaijani citizen was aware of the Armenians’ sensitivity in this matter.
Nagorno Karabakh was part of the People’s Republic of Azerbaijan in 1918-1920. After the Bolsheviks came to power, the region became part of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan. The Armenians sent 16 appeals to Moscow regarding the annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia and the transfer of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast to the Armenian SSR. Moscow rejected all requests made in 1940-60 and 1970. Without waiting for the USSR Supreme Soviet’s decision, the Congress of the People’s Deputies of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) adopted the resolution for the unification of
the NKAO to Armenia on July 12, 1988. The Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR adopted the resolution on the unification of Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia on December 1, 1989. On January 10, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR annulled the decision of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR, considering it illegal.
Moscow turned a blind eye to the deportation of about 300,000 Azerbaijani Turks from Armenia. Therefore, all those tensions led to armed conflicts in 1989-1992 and then the Armenian-Azerbaijan war in 1992-1994. The most tragic event of the war was the joint attack by the Armenian armed forces and the 366th motorized rifle regiment of Russia on the city of Khojaly, the northern part of Nagorno-Karabakh, where only Azerbaijani Turks lived, on February 25-26, 1991. As a result of that attack, 613 people from Khojaly were killed, 106 women and 83 children were tortured, 1275 people were captured.
Armenia does not accept any decisions made by international organizations such as the UN, the Council of Europe, and the OSCE related to the liberation of Azerbaijan’s territories occupied by Armenia. On September 27, 2020, Armenia’s shelling the rocket fire on Azerbaijan and killed civilians in Azerbaijan, prompting the Azerbaijani army to resume large scale offensive operations. As a result of those battles, most of the Karabakh, including Kelbajer, Shusha, Lachin, Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Zengilan, and Gubadli districts and several hundred villages occupied by Armenians in 1993, was liberated from occupation. With Russian President Vladimir Putin’s mediation, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement on 10 November 2020.
Georgia
The Bolshevik occupation, which brought an end to the Democratic Republic of Georgia in 1921, and Soviet control ended with Georgia’s declaration of independence in 1991. Thus, Georgia was faced with ethnic problems in the early 20th century towards the USSR collapse but was covered up by the communist regime. The communist regime could not solve these ethnic problems by establishing three autonomous republics within Georgia’s borders (Ajaria, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia) or developing any unique plans to solve it. Accordingly, as the central government began to weaken in the USSR, ethnic problems started to emerge along with decentralization. Such struggles by ethnic groups within the republic undermined Georgia’s territorial integrity. They led to the de facto separation of the two autonomous republics that were once part of the state borders.
Located in the western part of the Caucasus region, Georgia borders the Russian Federation in the north, with the Republic of Azerbaijan in the east and southeast, with the Republic of Armenia in the south and Turkey in the southwest. The Black Sea is located on the western border of the country. Georgia’s capital is Tbilisi, and its major cities are Kutaisi, Batumi, Rustavi, and Sukhumi.
According to official numbers, the country covers 69,700 km2 and has a population of approximately 3,716,900. In 2020, per capita income was $ 4,763.50, the growth rate was 5.1%, the unemployment rate was 11.6%, and the inflation was 4.8%.
Political History
Gorbachev’s reforms in the USSR and the central administration’s difficulty solving socio-economic problems strengthened separatism in Georgia. On March 18, 1989 it was decided to separate the Soviet Socialist Republic of Abkhazia from the Georgian SSR and to join the USSR as a full-fledged union republic. However, the Communist Party of the Georgian SSR rejected the Abkhazian decision due to the protests that started in Tbilisi on March 25, 1989. The protests turned into a struggle for Georgia’s separation from the USSR in 1989.
Such developments have led to the deepening of the gap between the people and those who ruled the republic On March 9, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR passed a law on the Georgian SSR’s sovereignty. In line with the changes made to the new election law on October 28, 1990, the Georgian parliament held free, multi-party elections for the first time. The radical national political block “Round Table – Free Georgia,” led by Zviad Gamsakhurdia, won this election.
Georgia held a referendum on March 31,1991, to restore Georgia’s independence. 98.9 % of the people voted in favor of independence in the referendum. As a result of Gamsakhurdia’s nationalist policy, many people from other nationalities had to leave the country because one of the most basic requirements of having positions in the newly established and organized state structures was to speak the Georgian language.
As a result of the political events that started in early September, Gamsakhurdia’s “Round Table” regime began to collapse. Shevardnadze, former Communist Party President of the Georgian SSR, was appointed as the State Council president. Georgia was declared a democratic republic in October 1995. Eduard Shevardnadze became the second President of Georgia. He headed the state from 1995 to 2003. Shevardnadze, different from the foreign policy carried out by Gamsakhurdia, tried to preserve the balance between Russia and the West by being a member of both western-oriented international organizations and regional organizations.
Parliamentary elections were held on November 2, 2003, in Georgia. The block of Shevardnadze-Aslan Abashidze and Mikheil Saakashvili-Zurab Zhvania entered the parliament. However, the election results did not satisfy the opposition leaders Mikheil Saakashvili, Zurab Zhvani, and Nino Burjanadze. Because of this, they started to organize massive protests with the help of several international and non-governmental organizations (“Rose Revolution” and M. Saakashvili’s coming to power). This movement called the “Rose Revolution” resulted in the resignation of Eduard
Shevardnadze on November 23, 2003. When Saakashvili was in power between 2004 and 2013, he directed its foreign policy to the West. He tried to solve the existing problems in the country with these states’ help. This policy resulted in Russia’s armed intervention in Georgia in 2008. Georgia held presidential elections on October 27, 2013. Saakashvili’s rule came to an end.
State Structure
The Republic of Georgia is a unitary state with a parliamentary system. There are Ajar and Abkhaz Autonomous Republics within the Republic of Georgia. The status of the Autonomous Province of South Ossetia was annulled by the Georgian parliament’s decision in 1990. The Parliament of Georgia is unicameral and consists of 150 members. Parliamentary elections are held every four years.
Economy
The Parliament of Georgia is unicameral and consists of 150 members. Parliamentary elections are held every four years. The increase in corruption and bribery, which were prevalent in the former USSR republics during the Shevardnadze era, put the economy, which was already in bad shape, in an even more difficult position. The increase in corruption and bribery, which were prevalent in the former USSR republics during the Shevardnadze era, put the economy, which was already in bad shape, in an even more difficult position.
Religion
Although it is recognized as a secular state, the Georgian Orthodox sect is vital in religion-state relations. A policy of marginalizing religious minorities outside of Georgian orthodoxy is manifested. Even Catholic Georgians also complain about the situation. Muslim citizens (Turks from Borckha, Adjaras, Chechens, Avars, Ahıska Turks, etc.) faced many problems related to freedom of religion and worship.
South Ossetia Problem
On December 12, 1921, by the decision of the Central Committee of the Georgian Communist Party, the Autonomous Province of Ossetia was established within the borders of Georgia. On September 20, 1990, the South Ossetian Congress of People’s Representatives decided on South Ossetia’s “sovereignty.” It declared South Ossetia a Soviet Democratic Republic under the USSR. The next day, the Central Committee of the Georgian Communist Party overturned this decision. On January 6, 1991, a state of emergency was declared in South Ossetia, and the Georgian army launched military operations against South Ossetia. The 1991-1992 civil war in Georgia weakened Georgia’s control over South Ossetia.
Abkhazia Problem
Between 1918-1921, Abkhazia became part of the Democratic Republic of Georgia. In February 1931, Abkhazia became an autonomous republic within the
Georgian SSR. During the stay of Russian peacekeepers, on November 26, 1994, the Supreme Soviet of Abkhazia adopted a new Constitution. It declared Abkhazia an independent republic, and on December 6, 1994, Vladislav Ardzinba proclaimed President of the Republic of Abkhazia.
In August 2008 and the Russian army’s intervention in the country’s internal affairs by violating the Georgian borders allowed. The Abkhazians to take advantage of this situation to act together with the Russians. Taking advantage of Georgia’s defeat against Russia, the “Republic of Abkhazia” and the “Republic of South Ossetia” applied to the Russian Federation on August 20, 2008 to recognize their independence and on August 26, 2008, the Russian Federation recognized the independence of both states. In 2016, the Association Agreement with the EU came into force, and Georgians have visa liberalization in the Schengen area.
Adjara Problem
As another region with a strong local identity within independent Georgia, the Ajaria Autonomous Region was ruled by Aslan Abashidze until 2004. Although Adjaras did not think of establishing an independent state from Georgia like Ossetian and Abkhazians Ajaria’s autonomy was reduced to the lowest level with the central government’s legal changes, and it was utterly subjected to the control of the Georgian president.
Armenia
The territory of the Republic of Armenia, which declared its independence on October 23, 1991, is 29.8 thousand km2, and its population is 2,980,100. According to the 2011 census, Armenia is one of the most ethnically homogeneous states in the world. Only 1.9% of the republic population, consisting of 98.1% Armenians, consists of other ethnic groups. 95% of its population are Christians of the Armenian Gregorian sect.
Political History
The Armenian lobby’s “Hay Dat” (Armenian Issue) theory, which had been operating abroad for many years, turned into an indispensable element of the Armenian national identity and became the cornerstone of the establishment of a nation-state in Armenia with the Karabakh problem towards the collapse of the USSR. The recognition of “genocide” even in article 11 of the Declaration of Independence, adopted in 1991 as a result of this policy, leads to compensation and territorial claims from Turkey.
Referendum on the independence of Armenia was held on September 21, 1991. When 95% of the people voted for independence, Armenia became the first republic to officially leave the USSR. In the history of independence, although the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is an exception, no development has heavily impacted the state tradition of Armenia as much as this incident that took place on
October 27, 1999. An armed group of 6 people led by Nairi Unanyan, one of the former members of the “Karabakh” movement, raided the Parliament and murdered 8 people, including then Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkisyan and Parliament Speaker Karen Demirchian.
With the closure of Georgia and Armenia’s borders due to the war between Russia and Georgia in 2008, Armenia had economic problems and started a negotiation with Turkey. After the two countries announced on April 22 that they agreed on a comprehensive framework to establish normal relations between them and determined a road map for this purpose.
Sargsyan switched to the prime ministry system to prolong his rule since it was the last term of the Presidency. However, the situation in the country was different in 2018. The deterioration of the economy, the poverty of the people, the unresolved social problems, the excessive use of power by the oligarchs over the society, and the corruption in their rule have caused the people to mistrust the Sargsyan rule. Evaluating this situation, the opposition “Elk” (Exit) Faction in the Parliament and the President of the “Citizen Agreement” Party, Nikol Pashinyan, announced on March 31, 2018, that they initiated the “My Step” action against Sargsyan’s possible Prime Ministry. Pashinyan and his partners organized a march to Armenia’s major cities (Gumri, Vanadzor, Spitak, Dilijan). Their 2-week march ended with a rally of 15,000 people on 13 April 2018 in the capital Yerevan. As a result of all these protests, Sargsyan, who could not bear any more pressure, declared that he resigned from the prime minister position.
State Structure
The constitutional amendments were made on December 6, 2015. According to the constitution, the presidential system, which was adopted in 1995, was changed from the presidential system to a parliamentary structure. However, the term of the President was extended from 5 to 7 years. His powers were restricted, and many of the Powers that belonged to him were transferred to the Prime Minister.
Economy
According to the old Soviet central planning system, Armenia was a country with modern industrial sectors that supplied them with machinery parts, textile products, and other production materials. Today, it has become a country that can only produce small-scale agricultural production. Armenia is entirely dependent on Russia regarding financial and political matters, especially in the Russians’ energy sector.
Religion
The spiritual center of the Armenian Church is in Echmiadzin, near Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. The Echmiadzin Church was founded by Gregory and was given the title Patriarchate, which means its representative. It is seen that religion, especially the church, played an essential role in the Armenian national identity formation.