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Article: Country profile: Armenia.
- Article from:
- New Internationalist
- Article date:
- June 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 New Internationalist Magazine. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THESE are not the best of times for Armenia. The former Soviet republic, although victorious in the war with neighboring Azerbaijan over the largely Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, remains economically depressed and politically stagnant. With talks over Karabakh deadlocked and political opposition to President Levon Ter-Petrosian brutally repressed, Armenia's move toward reform and democracy has stalled.
The Armenians, with a diaspora spread around the world, have an image as perennial victims -- of earthquakes, Soviet domination and Turkish massacres. In Karabakh they were victors -- but at a high cost. Armenia's economy, blockaded for years by Turkey and ...