Safety for fleeing Armenians
Armenia’s democratic progress and drift toward Europe are one reason the refugees are exiting the reach of authoritarian Azerbaijan.
Ethnic Armenians from the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave walk toward Armenia, Sept. 26.
AP
Parts of the world are beset with conflicts over ethnic or religious differences – from Myanmar to Ethiopia to Kosovo to Yemen. One conflict seems to fit that lens: the tragedy for some 120,000 ethnic Armenians fleeing an enclave in Azerbaijan after a Sept. 19-20 Azerbaijani attack. Armenians are generally Christians. Azerbaijanis are largely Muslims.
Yet the forced exodus has another dynamic, one that hints at a civic future based on equality and other ideals. The refugees are fleeing toward an Armenia reaching for democratic security in a diverse European Union and away from an Azerbaijan descending into Russian-style autocracy that plays up fears of “the other.”
Once part of the Soviet Union, Armenia saw its democracy blossom in 2018 after a street revolution that brought a former journalist, Nikol Pashinyan, to power. While he has faltered as prime minister, Armenia’s civil society and news media have helped the country rise in Freedom House’s rankings of “hybrid” democracies in demanding free speech and other liberties.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Armenia has reduced its historical reliance on Moscow. Russians who sought exile in Armenia have helped that effort. In early 2023, the EU sent a civilian mission to Armenia to monitor the border with Azerbaijan. In September, Armenia held a joint military exercise with the United States.
“In some areas we were even ahead of some other countries who are considered to be closer to the EU,” Anna Aghadjanian, the Armenian ambassador to the EU, told Armenian News Agency. “Our serious reforms helped us ... to try and break this stereotype of Armenia not having chosen the European path.”
Since 2021, the EU has had an agreement with Armenia to support and track its democratic progress. At the same time, the EU was forced after the invasion of Ukraine to look to authoritarian Azerbaijan for natural gas to help the bloc diversify away from Russian energy. Now, with ethnic Armenians fleeing toward Armenia and reports of Azerbaijani forces killing civilians, the EU may be opening its door wider to the country. Small countries caught up in ethnic or religious wars often seek the safety and strength of being a democracy in a community of democracies, where equality for all means something.