Raffi Hovannisian, Armenia’s Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Visits UCLA

Shahane Martirosyan
shahanem@ucla.edu

It was a unique and unprecedented day at the University of California, Los Angeles on March 5, 2009. Professor Richard Hovannisian invited Raffi Hovannisian – the head of the Heritage Party in Armenia, as well as the professor’s son – to address his history class. While the hour began playfully as Raffi Hovannisian disclosed to the class something from his days at UCLA. "When I was in his Armenian history class, it was a meaner leaner Hovannisian. I got my lowest grade and I don’t know if it was because I was not good at the material or I didn’t mow the lawn that week", the day escalated to much more serious and intense topics as R. Hovannisian presented issues that Armenia is facing today and his years through the young Republic of Armenia. After which, students began asking questions in variety of subjects ranging from his stance on Mountainous Karabakh, to the military service, to student activists to free and fair elections and much, much more.

Raffi Hovannisian, first made introductory biographical comments along with the progression into a run-down of events that have taken place in Armenia in the past few decades. "Very few of us thought that we would live in a world where the Soviet Union did not exist and Armenia was once again an independent country," R. Hovannisian stated and followed with why he repatriated, "I returned to Armenia in 1989-1990. It wasn’t just the democracy movement in Armenia. It also was not the earthquake [in Leninakan in 1988], it was the impression I got from this course. I can say that as someone approaching mid-life crisis era."

He then went on to address issues related to the transition that Armenia has made from a Soviet Republic of Armenia to simply the Republic of Armenia. He first made a note that when Armenia became independent in 1991, it was faced with constructing a state in a place where did not have a state in decades, since the short-lived state back in 1920. Economically, Armenia hit hard walls in its transition from Soviet Command economy to a free market one because under Soviet they were very clever in beating the Soviet system and surviving in the economy, however, once Armenia was an independent country, there was no system to beat, R. Hovannisian explained. The free market has been taken for advantage and the distribution of wealth is not appropriate.

On foreign policy, he began by first stating that when Armenia gained its independence, he was stationed as the foreign minister of the country. He pointed out that when he was at the post for the first three months, Armenia was not even recognized as a state yet. Going back to the foreign ministry in the 1991, R. Hovannisian recalled, "when we began the challenge of building a foreign ministry from the bottom up there was no institutional, no essential foreign ministry of Soviet ministry to speak of; when we took over the honor and the responsibility of building a foreign ministry. There were a couple of diplomats of the late Soviet period, who would receive and send off stuff for the Communist party, there was no independent Armenian policy to speak of." After establishing the foreign ministry and receiving recognition from, first, Lithuania and
Romania then, the United States on Christmas Day of 1991, the young Republic of Armenia joined various international organizations including the United Nations and the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. The CSCE is where the issue of Karabakh was put on the international agenda.

"Armenia’s challenge was also to find a balance, an equilibrium, in its foreign policy. The modern day Armenia found itself in a predicament," R. Hovannisian stated, noting Azerbaijan on the East with whom Armenia has conflict with over Mountainous Karabakh; Turkey to the West with whom Armenia has historically had conflicts with the Armenian Genocide; and xenophobic Northern neighbor, Georgia, who has continuously oppressed Armenian nationals living within its borders and has not recognized the Armenian Apostolic Church, all of which can lead to conflicts. R. Hovannisian said that the only neutral neighbor to Armenia has been the Islamic Republic of Iran which has allowed Armenia to use its roads during the blockade in the early 1990s and remaining neutral during the Nagorno-Kharabakh conflicts.

R. Hovannisian ended his speech with recognizing the youth and telling them that they are the future and they are the ‘movers and shakers’ who will shake the Armenian and American policy making. This was followed by the Armenian and non-Armenian students’ questions.

A full transcript of the Q&A will be available right here within the next few days: TheArmenianChronicles.blogspot.com