The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

[Mos]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

Sargsyan recently visited Medvedev. Look at this picture, as you see Medvedev is sitting by the Armenian flag, and Sargsyan by the Russian. I have been reading that this is a politically significant move, to show the close relations between both countries.

[londontsi]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/28/uk-russia-satellite-launch-idUSLNE71R02F20110228

Russia launches navigation system satellite


(Reuters) - Russia launched on Saturday one of the final satellites needed to complete a space-based navigation system, which Moscow hopes will challenge the dominant U.S. Global Positioning System GPS.L.

The satellite, Glonass-K, which was launched shortly after 06:00 local time (0300 GMT), reached orbit, said Aleksei Zolotukhin, spokesman for the Defence Ministry's space forces.

The entry of the space craft into space "went according to plan. Steady telemetric communications have been established with the space craft," he said.

After the embarrassing loss of three satellites last year, two more are expected to be launched in 2011 to complete the $2 billion project that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said will give Russia "satellite navigation sovereignty".

Moscow is hoping the navigation technology Glonass will create a revolution in domestic consumer technology, with applications expected to be used in mobile telephones and automobiles.

Three Glonass satellites launched in December last year veered off course and crashed into the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii, costing Moscow around $160 million and setting the programme back an estimated six month.

Without Glonass, Russia's military fears that it is at the mercy of the United States, which it says could block or blur its GPS signal in a time of crisis -- allegations which were rife during a brief 2008 war between Georgia and Russia.

[KanadaHye]

Treaty of Moscow

How relevant is the Treaty of Moscow to international legal norms?

The Bolshevists did everything in their power to protect themselves against the East, and for the sake of it they sacrificed Armenia, that was of no value to the Kremlin rulers.

The upcoming Moscow visit of the Turkish delegation, headed by Prime Minister Erdogan, coincides with the 90th anniversary of the Treaty of Moscow, which put an end to the existence of Western Armenia. Whether it’s a coincidence or not, you can just guess. The fact is that hardly anything happens by chance in politics, and Erdogan is well aware on what day he arrives in Moscow.

March 11, 2011

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Treaty of Moscow is invalid in many aspects, the most important of them being that it was concluded between two unrecognized parties of international law: Kemalist Turkey and Bolshevist Russia. In 1921, Turkey was still called the Ottoman Empire and was ruled by Sultan Mehmed VI Wahid ed-din. Russia was then ruled by Bolshevists. The Turkish Republic, with which the Moscow Treaty was concluded, was proclaimed on Oct. 29, 1923. 90 years later all these “trifles” have been forgotten for some reason, and Armenia continues insisting on denunciation of the treaty that does not actually exist. International law, which Turkey and Azerbaijan so often refer to, should logically deprive the contract of efficacy. However, everything is exactly the other way round. Alas, the contract led to the international-legal outcome of the conquest and partition of the Republic of Armenia between the RSFSR, Turkey and Azerbaijan. At least, so it is perceived in our time. Even then, Turkey wanted to drive the last remaining Armenians out of their historical homeland; Russia saw in them undesirable elements.

The Bolshevists did everything in their power to protect themselves against the East, and for the sake of it they sacrificed Armenia that was of no value to the Kremlin rulers. “World Revolution” is a very convenient term for winning and acquisition of friends who you need at the moment; then they are no longer necessary. The main thing for Moscow was to support Ataturk. And it is exactly what she actually did! Five-million-ruble worth of gold and mountains of weapons were given to the “national liberation struggle of the Turkish people”. One just wonders against whom this “national liberation struggle” was led. You needn’t know much about eastern policy to understand that it was directed against the Christian population of the Ottoman Turkey, i.e. Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians. The massacre of 1922 in Izmir (Smyrna) and the re-exile of the Armenians returned from Cilicia were carried out on Russian money and with Russian weapons. In 1919, tens of thousands of Armenians from Syria, Lebanon and Palestine returned to Cilicia, where the French rule was being established on the basis of a mandate. For a while it seemed that protected by France, Cilicia would be able to become a state, completely independent of Turkey. Many Armenians, of course, remember the French-Armenian brotherhood arisen in Cilicia during the Crusades. Unfortunately, the experience of French government in Cilicia was doomed to short life and led to consequences, disastrous for the Armenian repatriates.

This is why one shouldn’t be surprised at the intimacy of Russian-Turkish relations. Turkey and Russia need each other and it will always be so. Let us not forget that at the time of the Armenian Genocide Russian diplomats in Constantinople hardly intervened in the “internal affairs” of the Young Turks. For Turkish investment Russia is a boundless territory and share of the Turkish capital in Russia is growing year by year. Turkish firms have a share in the construction of almost all of the major objects in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The Muslim factor should also be taken into account – there are 20-30 million Muslims living in Russia, this number rising continually.

Let’s recall another fact. On October 30, 1918 on board the HMS Agamemnon in Moudros harbor on the Greek island of Lemnos the Armistice of Moudros was signed. Under the armistice, the Black Sea straits were opened to Allied navies; the Allies were granted the right to occupy the forts controlling the Straits of Bosporus and Dardanelles; the Ottomans surrendered their remaining garrisons in Hejaz, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and withdrew them from Iran, Cilicia and the Caucasus; the Allies were also granted the right to occupy “in case of disorder” the six Armenian provinces in Anatolia and to seize “any strategic point” in case of a threat to Allied security. Under these circumstances the Bolshevist Russia urgently needed an agreement with Turkey on any level, in order to neutralize the Entente, while Mustafa Kemal was in need of weapons and money.

What Putin and Erdogan will agree on at their upcoming meeting is not so important and interesting. The main thing for Armenia is that this agreement should not cause great harm. Russia is now trying to control resolution of problems in the Caucasus, which also includes normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations. However, hardly is it possible that Moscow will be able to set the process in motion. Too many are the totally unsolvable problems proceeding from Turkey.

http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/world...al_legal_norms

[Tigranakert]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

If only the Tzar (ethnic Russians) remained in power, things would look so much different now for Armenia.

[Mos]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

If only the Tzar (ethnic Russians) remained in power, things would look so much different now for Armenia.

It will be better for us when wealthy Russian-Armenians control the economy of Russia - that is already starting to become true.

[Federate]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

If only the Tzar (ethnic Russians) remained in power, things would look so much different now for Armenia.

Too unpredictable to tell if the result would've necessarily been for the better for us. Tsar was both good and bad for us. After all, the Tsar had a lovely time confiscating Armenian church property, appointing anti-Armenian governors and stirring sh!t up between us and the Tartars.

[Armanen]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

Too unpredictable to tell if the result would've necessarily been for the better for us. Tsar was both good and bad for us. After all, the Tsar had a lovely time confiscating Armenian church property, appointing anti-Armenian governors and stirring sh!t up between us and the Tartars.

True, but I'd be willing to bet that Russia would have transformed somehow, either a less radical revolutionary war or a civil war, and they would have retreated from parts of the Caucasus even. Assuming this happened after WWI, then Armenia would not have suffered nearly as many deaths due to the Genocide, and would probably be larger in terms of population and territory. I'm sure we'd all have liked to live under this historical scenero than the current one.

Fed, you and I might even live in the same city in Armenia in this alternate history

[Mos]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

....

Armenia cannot become customs union member
By Messenger Staff
Thursday, March 24
Armenia’s PM Tigran Sarkisian cannot join the Belarus-Kazakh-Russia customs union unless Georgia joins as well. Therefore Armenia will try to integrate with the European Union. Realistically Georgia will not join to this union and therefore, as Armenia has no land border to any of those countries, it will be technically impossible for Armenia to join the union. Tigran Sarkisian mentioned that there is no point in joining a customs union with a country with which you do not share a land border. The Armenian PM expressed his confidence that his country may become the member of a free trade relations agreement with EU countries.

[KarotheGreat]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

Russia Rises Amid Geopolitical Events - March, 2011

Having already reversed much of the West's advances throughout Eurasia during the past several years and having more-or-less monopolized the distribution of Central Asian energy, the on-going political turmoils in the Middle East and North Africa and the historic catastrophe that just took place in Japan could not have come at a better time for the Russian Federation. Already controlling by-far the largest known energy reserves on earth, Moscow today is poised to dominate the global economy via its energy sector.

In the big geopolitical picture, at least indirectly, most (if not all) of the political violence we are seeing take place in the world today (including the situation in Nagorno Karabakh) has to do with the control of energy production and/or energy distribution. Oil production in the north Atlantic is dwindling fast and the Middle East is not too far behind. Energy reserves in north and south Americas simply cannot meet global demand and its production is not centrally controlled. Central Asian energy is currently being contested. Unknown to many in all this is the fact that the Russian Federation today is actually the largest energy producer in the world and its untapped energy reserves are thought to immense as well. Moreover, Russia has also taken a strong initiative in the energy rich Arctic region.

If the Kremlin is able to continue managing itself as well as it has been in recent years, within the next few decades the economy of the world, the developed world in particular, will be seriously dependent on Russia's natural wealth. Kremlin officials realize their nation's power potential all too well. Moscow realizes that they have in their position a weapon more powerful than any other in their vast military arsenal. How efficiently they will be able to use it, however, remains to be seen.

Addressing the last article posted on this page: I don't know if "World War III" is knocking on the door just yet, but I do know that the global community is currently preparing itself for a major international confrontation. In various places around the world we are seeing battle-lines being drawn. We are also seeing geopolitical realignments. Not if but when this inevitable war commences, the Russian Federation and/or its allies will essentially be battling the Western alliance and/or its allies for the control of Eurasian energy and strategic trade routes. What role will China play in all this is not yet clear. Although Beijing has very warm relations with Moscow, it nevertheless is also very heavily invested in the West. Nevertheless, the 21th century holds many promises for the Russian nation and if it plays its political cards correctly, Moscow will no doubt be in the drivers seat. And with Russia in the driver seat this century, at the very least I'd like to see Armenia in its passenger seat. The following are some articles on this topic that have caught my attention.

Several articles posted at the bottom of this page concerns with Moscow's recently announced arms spending program. The 20 trillion Rubles (approximately $650 billion) is part of a long-term plan to modernize Russia's aging military arsenal. Unconfirmed reports also suggested that some of weapons systems currently in Russian service may end up in Armenia free of charge as a result of Moscow's new purchases. The article pertaining to a Wikileaks document (see bottom of page) reveals that Western military officials are "unimpressed" by Russia's military. Needless to say, this is either the pinnacle of Western hubris - or simply an attempt to alleviate fears amongst regional US allies that Russia's military is again on the rise. Although a relatively small force of about ten thousand Russian troops armed with Soviet era military hardware, bad air cover and even worst communications brought all of Georgia's Western trained and armed military to its knees within two or three days - the noble masters of combat in the West are apparently not impressed!

The fact of the matter is, even being unprepared and armed with relatively ancient military technology, Russian troops utterly/comprehensively defeated their well-prepared and well-armed enemy in the full-scale combat. This begs the question: What has the mighty military of the West done besides long-distance bombing of small and/or vulnerable nations into submission? Hundreds of thousands of NATO/American troops armed with the very latest in military technology and a virtually unlimited supply of supplies have not been able to comprehensively defeat a bunch of sandal wearing peasants armed with Kalashnikovs in Iraq and Afghanistan. Therefore, the real question that should be asked is: what is the actual combat value of Western troops without their high-tech bombs and aircraft?

Arevordi
March, 2011

[KarotheGreat]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

Russia Rises Amid Geopolitical Events

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fe9pTS-u-rA/SMKjVlvGt9I/AAAAAAAAAFc/mVTbpSO0-Gc/s400/bear-pipeline.jpg

The first three months of 2011 have had a steady flow of geopolitically relevant events. A youth named Mohamed Bouazizi, protesting corruption and government harassment in Tunisia, set more than himself alight on Dec. 17: He set an entire region on fire. Soon after, Tunisia and Egypt saw their long-time rulers fall. Libya essentially descended into civil war, and exit is uncertain. On Monday, almost exactly three months after Bouazizi’s self-immolation, the Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council’s forces entered the tiny island nation of Bahrain to prevent Iran from exploiting the anti-government protests there. The region’s unrest continues with almost daily action in North Africa and the Middle East. Around the globe, the March 11 Japan Tohoku earthquake rocked the world’s third largest economy and has caused the most serious nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Among all this global consternation, Russia is the one power that has the luxury to take stock of it all in relative comfort. Russia has no reason to fear Middle East-style revolutionary activity. Its leadership is genuinely popular at home and safe from populist uprisings, at least for the time being. Russia is not embroiled in any war in the Middle East — unlike the United States, which is involved in two wars and trying hard to avoid a third one in Libya. Russia fears no migration exodus of North African refugees on its borders, as do the Europeans. Even the nuclear accident in Japan seems to be without negative effect for Russia, as the prevailing winds are blowing the radiation toward the Pacific Ocean and away from Russia’s eastern city of Vladivostok.

“Among all this global consternation, Russia is the one power that has the luxury to take stock of it all in relative comfort.”

In fact, Russia may be the one country that stands to gain from the various calamities in 2011. First, the general unrest in the Middle East has increased the price of oil by 18.5 percent. As the second largest oil exporter — and one not bound by OPEC production quotas — the increase in price goes directly into the Kremlin’s swelling coffers and is a welcome addition after the severe economic recession in 2009. Second, the Libyan unrest has cut off the 11 billion cubic-meter natural gas (bcm) Greenstream pipeline to Italy, causing Europe’s third largest consumer of natural gas to turn to Russia to make up the difference. Similarly, Japan’s nuclear imbroglio has forced Tokyo to turn to Russian emergency shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to fuel its natural gas-burning power plants.

But the most beneficial of all events for Russia may be the psychological effect that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant crisis is having on Western Europe. Germany’s government announced on Tuesday that it would close seven nuclear reactors during a three-month period, reassessing the future of Germany’s nuclear power industry. A looming Italian referendum on the government’s decision to unfreeze nuclear reactor construction now seems all but guaranteed to fail. Criticism of nuclear power has swept throughout the Continent with the European Union energy ministers deciding on Tuesday to subject the bloc’s nuclear reactors to a number of stress tests.

Europe’s hydropower capabilities are at capacity, while coal-burning power plants are perceived as incompatible with the bloc’s drive to reduce greenhouse emissions. The only alternatives left are renewable energy, which is slowly inching up in terms of overall electricity generation; nuclear power; and natural gas, which is seen as the much cleaner fossil fuel option to coal and oil. With fears about nuclear power returning to the Continent, it seems natural gas will be favored to fill the gap until renewable energy can become a larger part of the electricity generating mix.

As the world’s number one exporter of natural gas — and with the world’s largest reserves — this is very welcome news for the Kremlin. But for Russia, natural gas exports are about a lot more than just added revenue. For Russia, the natural gas exports are about control and political influence. Luring Western Europe toward greater energy dependency on Russia is ultimately about wrestling the region away from its post-WWII alliance with the United States. As the Middle East and North Africa continue to wrestle with unrest — again reminding Europe of the region’s political uncertainty and fallibility as an energy exporter — and as Europe’s populations are reminded of their fears of nuclear power, Moscow is taking stock of it all.

But Moscow is also interested in how the crises around the world are politically beneficial outside of the energy realm. First, the devastation in Japan has allowed Moscow and Tokyo to have a rare conversation about cooperation after years (if not more) of declining relations over an island dispute. Russia is magnanimously trying to show that it isn’t such a bad neighbor to have, and is sending some of the larger amounts of aid, energy and rescue assistance.

The crises could also give Russia something it holds very precious — time. One of the reasons Russia grew so strong over the past decade is that its rival, the United States, was focused elsewhere. Moscow has been growing nervous in the past year knowing that Washington is starting to wrap up its commitments in the Middle East and South Asia. There is a discussion now rumbling through the Kremlin whether the events in the Middle East may keep the United States focused there a while longer, giving Russia even more time to cement its nearly dominant position in Eurasia. Thus far, the Kremlin must be satisfied with what the first three months of 2011 have brought in terms of its own strategic interests.

Source of article: http://www.stratfor.com/memberships/...litical-events
How Russia Is About to Dramatically Change the World

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Russian-oil.jpg

Over the next few days, Russia will change the world. It has completed a new oil pipeline and port complex that sets Russia up to become a more powerful oil exporter than Saudi Arabia. The ramifications for Europe and Asia are profound: The shape of the global economy—and the global balance of power—will be altered forever.

December 28 was a big day of ceremony in Russia. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pushed a button that transformed global oil dynamics—especially for Asia and Europe. The button released thousands of barrels of Siberian crude into a waiting Russian supertanker and heralded the opening of Russia’s first modern Pacific-based oil export facilities. The multibillion-dollar, state-of-the-art oil terminal was a “great New Year present for Russia,” Putin said during the inauguration. The strategic terminal, located in the city of Kozmino on the coast of the Sea of Japan, is one of the “biggest projects in contemporary Russia” he said, not only in “modern Russia,” but “the former Soviet Union too.”

Putin has every right to be enthusiastic about his new port. Kozmino will unlock a two-way gate through which Russia’s vast Siberian oilfields will gush into Asia’s energy-hungry economies—and Chinese, Korean and Japanese currency will flow into Russia. If just the seven ships currently waiting to berth are all filled during January, the port of Kozmino will instantly become Russia’s third-most important oil outlet. According to Reuters, the first oil transport loads on January 15. In a symbolic move highlighting Russia’s warming relationship with China, Hong Kong will receive the first shipment.

After that, Kozmino’s importance will exponentially grow over the next year. Currently, all Siberian oil shipments into Kozmino are delivered by train—but that will soon change. Phase one of the East Siberian-Pacific Ocean Pipeline (espo) was also completed during December. Phase two will soon connect the Siberian fields directly to the new port. When phase two is finished in 2014, total exports could jump from the current rate of 250,000 barrels per day to over 1 million. Kozmino will transform into one of the largest oil centers in the world—capable of handling 14 percent of total Russian oil exports. It will be one of the most strategic geopolitical assets in Russia’s arsenal.

Russia pumped more than 10 million barrels of oil per day during November. With Saudi Arabian production falling, Russia is now the world’s largest oil exporter. Toss in Russia’s natural gas exports, and Russia is the biggest energy superpower in the world, by far. That does not even count Russia’s massive uranium resources and nuclear expertise.

But here is why the new port in Kozmino could radically affect the future of both Asia and Europe. For over a century, Russia’s entire energy infrastructure has focused mainly on supplying Europe. That has now changed forever! The first and now-complete phase of the espo pipeline, which connects Russia’s Siberian oil fields to within just a few kilometers of China, is already destabilizing global oil dynamics and shifting them in Russia’s direction. “espo is what political strategists might call a ‘game-changer,’” writes the Telegraph. “It means that Russia will be able to send its oil either east or west—so it can drive a harder bargain when selling crude to Europe” (emphasis mine throughout).

Previously, when Russia has had pricing disputes with Europe, Moscow had to play the embargo card with an obvious bluff. It had no other alternative outlet for its oil. Without the Europeans, its oil would sit in Samotlor and Tyanskoye, costing money instead of making it. But now Moscow can turn off the tap to Europe and still pump in the profits by opening the pipe wide to its energy-hungry Asian partners.

But Russia’s stranglehold on Europe is about to get even tighter—much tighter. By 2012, the espo pipeline will be twinned with a pipeline for natural gas exports so Russian gas supplies can also flow east instead of west if necessary. This development is truly scary to Europeans. Moscow has already demonstrated that it isn’t afraid to turn off Europe’s energy supplies when it feels it needs to. In the middle of winter 2006, Russia shut off gas supplies to Germany, and several other countries, in order to punish Ukraine. Since then, it has repeatedly used the same method to strong-arm its former Eastern European satellites back into accepting Russian dominance.

The message is clear: Russian oil and gas supplies are a weapon to be used—or not used—to freeze opponents into submission. Europe, in a tenuous relationship with Russia to begin with, desperately needs to secure another source of energy. Only one other region in the world can supply the energy to warm and lubricate modern Europe’s homes and industries: the Middle East. Countries like Germany, which imports 90 percent of its oil, are now much more dependent on one of the most volatile regions of the world for power supplies.

It is inevitable that Berlin will seek to expand its ties with oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council members: the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and especially Saudi Arabia, the world’s second-largest petroleum producer. Europe has no choice but to become much more intimately involved with the affairs of the Middle East—a region from which 40 percent of its oil is currently derived.

It is therefore no surprise that Germany, the most dominant nation in Europe, has made sure it has troops on the ground surrounding this Middle Eastern “golden triangle” of energy production (Gulf Cooperation Council members plus Iran and Iraq). On the seas, the European Union’s naval presence is growing too. The European anti-piracy task force operates in both the Gulf of Oman and the Gulf of Aden. Forty percent of the world’s ocean-borne oil is shipped through the Gulf of Oman.

Europe is critically dependent on imported oil. And Germany knows it must have a strong presence in the world’s most oil-rich region if it is to secure its flow and the country’s future. The Bible predicts that a major military clash will soon occur in the Middle East—specifically between a European power, led by Germany, and radical Islam, led by Iran.

Daniel 11:40-45 indicate that Iran will continue to push at this European power until it finally responds in “whirlwind,” blitzkrieg-type fashion. As we have explained for almost 20 years—and has been borne out repeatedly in real-world events—the “king of the south” spoken of in these verses is radical Islam under the leadership of Iran. And as Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has written, a big part of Iran’s push against Europe will involve oil.

The Middle East is a powder keg that could explode at any time. Syria dominates Lebanon and is stirring up trouble there. Iran is about to create a nuclear weapon and has said it wants to wipe Israel off the map. It is test firing missiles that can strike European capitals. Israel knows that the window to prevent Iran from getting the bomb is closing. Hamas is preparing to violently take East Jerusalem as a Palestinian capital. Israel is about to release 1,000 terrorists back onto the streets in return for one captured Israeli soldier.

And to top it off, the world is in the midst of its worst depression since the 1930s. Oil prices remain above $70 per barrel, and the International Energy Agency has indicated that world oil production will now peak in 2020—10 years sooner than prior estimates. Some analysts think the world has already reached peak oil production.

In this climate of global instability, Russia’s recent moves on the world’s oil stage will be amplified in dramatic fashion. By unlocking Siberia’s energy reserves, Russia is simultaneously binding Asia together and lighting a fire under Europe. Watch for the development of an Asian alliance between Russia, China and Japan. And watch for Europe’s next moves toward the Middle East.
Source: http://www.thetrumpet.com/?q=6872.5382.0.