Monday - August 27, 2007

Interesting Story about an Armenian Enclave in Azerbaijan 

Reuters has an interesting article about the tiny Christian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh which lies within the Muslim country of Azerbaijan (you can read a synopsis of the Nagorno-Karabakh history here).

But most of the investors who come to Nagorno-Karabakh are seeking more than just financial gain.

The region has a powerful pull for the Armenian diaspora because many see it as part of a broader struggle for survival by a tiny, ancient Christian nation surrounded by Muslim neighbors.

Among those tying their lives to the region is Vardeks Anivyan, from San Francisco, who has opened a dairy plant.

An entrepreneur from Russia has opened a wood processing factory while Armond Tahmazyan, a 41-year-old ethnic Armenian born in Iran, has set up a chain of gift shops.

Investors such as these have helped Nagorno-Karabakh notch up annual economic growth averaging 15 percent in the past five years.

Because of its isolation and precarious legal status, the region of about 140,000 people is unlikely to become a major business magnet in the near future. It depends on an annual loan of about $60 million from Armenia to stay afloat.

About 1.5 million Armenians were killed in Ottoman Turkey early last century in what Armenians call a genocide, although Turkey rejects the term.

Most of the Armenian diaspora around the world can trace their origins to ancestors who fled the killings.

Many of them saw the war over Nagorno-Karabakh, known in Armenian as "Artsakh", as a continuation of that conflict: an Armenian community fighting for survival against Azeris, who have close linguistic and cultural ties to the Turks.  Continued

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Author: The Machiavellian
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