Armenia’s journey to redefine itself

Though smaller than most U.S. states, the landlocked nation of Armenia plays a key geopolitical role at the continental crossroads of Eurasia. With few natural resources, it is aiming to recalibrate regional and global relations and become a hub for international tech, finance, and transport services. So, its parliamentary elections Sunday have been of interest not just to next-door Azerbaijan and Turkey, but also to Iran, Russia, Europe, and the distant United States.

The ruling Civil Contract party garnered 49.8% of the vote, Reuters reported, while the two main opposition parties together took in 33.1%. The degree to which both sides can find some common ground will determine how fast and how far this former Soviet republic can move out of history’s long shadow of ethnic conflict and external interference into an era of regional cooperation and progress. The memory of mass killings by Ottoman Turkish rulers some 110 years ago has fed persistent demands for global condemnation of those deaths as a genocide. More recently, the loss of lives and territory after three wars with Azerbaijan has compounded a sense of persecution and isolation.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, first elected in 2018 (after he led nonviolent anti-corruption protests), has sought to reshape both politics and perceptions of identity.

“The page of hatred should be turned,” Mr. Pashinyan told supporters when he first took office. The task, as he sees it, is not to restore a lost past but to build a future-focused “Real Armenia.” Or “Realistic Armenia,” as an analyst dubbed this approach, describing it to France 24 TV as “exchanging traditional fears and resentment for more pragmatic policies.”

Mr. Pashinyan has pursued relations with Turkey (dropping genocide references) and peace with Azerbaijan (acknowledging its 2023 takeover of a disputed territory). To counter Russia’s influence, he has strengthened ties with the West.

Last August, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to work with the United States to build a transport corridor along Armenia’s southern border (which adjoins Iran). Tehran is not pleased about U.S. involvement. But the route is expected to generate regional benefits by easing trade with Turkey and Central Asia.

In May, Turkey’s vice president attended a summit in Armenia. In April, Turkey’s president acknowledged “our shared pain” over the violence of 1915-1917. There is talk of reopening borders. Both sides “seem to be reaching for a way for people to live with ... memory, rather than inside it,” John Paul Rathbone of the Financial Times observed last week, hailing this “peacemaking ... as a minor miracle in a troubled world.”

But Armenians have mixed feelings about the peace-for-land deal with Azerbaijan, with 44% supporting it and 41% opposed. And some still lean toward Russia, as evidenced by voter support for the two Moscow-aligned parties.

The country’s reelected prime minister has urged Armenians to weave a civic identity that is disentangled from ethnicity and ideals “left over from the past.” This requires a change of thought, a readiness to leave old markers for new signposts.

“The only formula for being viable,” Mr. Pashinyan has said, is through “reflection, self-reflection, the ability to change and transform.”