DATE=10/28/1999
TYPE=WORLD OPINION ROUNDUP
TITLE=ARMENIA KILLINGS DESTABILIZING THE CAUCAUSUS
NUMBER=6-11537
BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS
TELEPHONE=619-3335
CONTENT=
INTRO: Automatic weapons fire erupted inside
Armenia's parliament building in Yerevan Wednesday,
and when it ended, the prime minister and the speaker
of parliament lay dead on the floor, together with
five other people.
The break in by terrorist gunmen and the slaughter of
parliamentarians in the presumed sanctity of their
chamber has brought immediate editorial reaction, and
condemnation, from around the world. Here is
___________with an early sampling in this week's World
Opinion Roundup.
TEXT: Newspapers from one corner of the globe to the
other are expressing horror at the killings, and also
anxiety at this latest outbreak of violence in the
turbulence-prone Caucasus, a region where Russia's
attack on Chechnya is also underway.
Several papers articulated the fear that the "Armenian
drama will further destabilize the unruly,
strategically vital region between the Black and
Caspian Seas." Others perceived a "coincidence"
between the visit of U-S Deputy Secretary of State
Strobe Talbott and the attack that came just a few
hours he left the country. As one French journalist
put it: "It may not be a complete coincidence that the
attempted coup . took place just when Strobe Talbott
was on a reconciliation mission between Armenia and
Azerbaijan."
In Moscow, the reformist newspapers viewed the
killings through the prism of the "big geopolitical
game" for oil in the Caucasus, and talked about
Washington's "hurry to settle the conflict between
Azerbaijan and Armenia in time for the oil wells to
become fully operational."
With this background in mind, let's begin our
editorial sampling in Latin America, where the
international affairs columnist of La Nacion in Buenos
Aires, Argentina had this to say:
VOICE: Another tragic chapter was added to the
history of the Caucasian country. Immediately after
the attack, many hypotheses were made upon the
possible causes of the killing . One of the promises
made by Prime Minister Sarkisyan when he took office
was to put an end to the wave of corruption . The
attack against the (Armenian) congress occurred at a
special moment in Armenia's democratic life: The
Armenian people live between the hope that the
economic situation will improve and discontent about .
the wave of corruption, a scourge which creates great
insecurity .
TEXT: Also in Latin America, we get this view from
Folha de Sao Paulo, in Brazil's largest city:
VOICE: The reason for the . action in Yerevan is not
yet clear, but the first hypothesis shows that the
Armenian ultra-nationalists are unhappy with the
reconciliation between Armenia and Azerbaijan .
Azerbaijan . has international support because it
produces oil. . The action yesterday is linked to
other events in a region with `a warlike tradition.'
In Chechnya, there is the separatism with regard to
the Russians. In the independent Georgia, President
Shevardnadze has already survived two [assassination]
attempts and is confronting the Abkhazian separatists.
TEXT: Turning to Western Europe now, and to Britain
where the Guardian in London suggests:
VOICE: At a time of Western alarm at Russian tactics
in the Caucasus, it is clear that the Armenian drama
will further destabilize the unruly, strategically
vital region between the Black and Caspian seas. Only
an hour before the attack in Yerevan, U-S Deputy
Secretary of State Strobe Talbott held talks with
Armenian President Robert Kocharian on the details of
a possible agreement (with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-
Karabakh). That deal may be the biggest non-human
casualty of the assassinations.
TEXT: Also in Britain, the Times [of London] added:
VOICE: The shocking political assassinations . Are
the latest bloody manifestation of the turbulence to
which the whole oil-rich Caucasus region between
Russia, Turkey and Iran - - and not just nearby
Chechnya - is tragically prone. . the modern motive
for much of this regional violence is the billions of
dollars' worth of oil discovered east of Armenia, in
the Caspian Sea, in waters now ruled by Armenia's
regional rival, Azerbaijan ..
TEXT: Armenia used to be part of the Soviet Union,
and in Moscow, there was this reaction from the
reformist daily, Segodnya.
VOICE: The [assassination] . is one of a series of
events that suggests [that] the situation in the
Caucasus is becoming destabilized due to a big
geopolitical game. Its symptoms are more than just
the current war in Chechnya and Eduard Shevardnadze's
urgently wishing to join NATO. The war may only be a
sign of the new strategy Moscow has been trying to
develop in that area.
TEXT: To Italy now, where Milan's Corriere della Sera
makes these points about the violence:
VOICE: The terrorist attack in Armenia occurred as
international diplomacy was intent on defining the
latest details of what would have been a historic step
toward peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan on the
controversial issue of Nagorno-Karabakh. U-S Deputy
Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, in fact, was in
Yerevan . And today [Mr.] Talbott is expected to
arrive in Moscow to continue the common work that the
united States, Russia and France are conducting in
order to resolve the eleven-year-[old] Nagorno-
Karabakh dispute.
TEXT: Also in Italy, Il Sole-24-Ore noted:
VOICE: Many observers believe . the massacre may
create chaos in Armenian politics and consequently,
add to the tension in the whole Caucasus area, already
shaken by the Russian offensive in Chechnya.
TEXT: And in Spain, Madrid's El Pais also displays
its editorial anxiety in these thoughts:
VOICE: As if the events in Chechnya were an
insufficient reminder of the effects wrought by the
collapse of the U-S-S-R, whose repercussions may be
expected to continue . yesterday's bloody attack on
the Armenian parliament costing the lives of the prime
minister and its speaker [of parliament] has only
served to illustrate them once again .. Whatever the
motive, what is most worrisome about the assault in
Yerevan is the instability it extends from north to
south Caucasia.
TEXT: On that note, we conclude this early sampling of
global opinion about Wednesday's deadly attack in the
Armenian parliament.
NEB/ANG/JP
28-Oct-1999 17:25 PM EDT (28-Oct-1999 2125 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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