Vahe H Apelian
I have been an advocate of the historic Mount Lebanon as a model for the Republic of Mountainous Karabakh. My advocacy has driven by my remembrance reading Simon Vratsian “Republic of Armenia” in Lebanon over almost half a century ago – (after moving to the United States I donated the two copies of different editions I had to ALMA – Armenian Library and Museuam America, renamed as the Armenian Museum of America).
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation who ushered the nation into a republic of its own in 1918, did not have a free and independent Armenia as a goal when it embarked on its revolutionary path, The party adopted its grand vision for united, free and independent Armenia after the founding of first republic, during its 1919 world council. Simon Vratsian makes a note of it and states in his book that all Armenians wanted, was to have what Mount Lebanon in the Ottoman Empire had.
What was the historic Mount Lebanon?
“The Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate (1861–1918, Arabic: مُتَصَرِّفِيَّة جَبَل لُبْنَان, romanized: Mutaṣarrifiyyat Jabal Lubnān; Ottoman Turkish: جَبَلِ لُبْنَان مُتَصَرِّفلِيغى, romanized: Cebel-i Lübnan Mutasarrıflığı)[a] was one of the Ottoman Empire's subdivisions following the Tanzimat reform. After 1861, there existed an autonomous Mount Lebanon with a Christian mutasarrıf, which had been created as a homeland for the Maronites under European diplomatic pressure following the 1860 Druze–Maronite conflict.” (Wikipedia).
As stated, the historic Mount Lebanon enclave, was an autonomous region within the Ottoman Empire. The Sultan’s High Porte named its governors. The first and the last of these governors were Armenians, Daoud Pasha and Ohannes Pasha, respectively. The currency was the same as that of the Ottomans.
Why opt for such a status for Nagorno-Karabakh?
It is evident that the world does not recognize the former Soviet Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast as a separate state. The world community recognizes the Republic of Mountainous Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan. It is evident that Russia, the inheritor of the Soviet Union, does not support the once Soviet Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast as a separate state, although Russia has recognized Ossetia and Abkhazia, which had similar status in the Soviet Union, as separate states and a few countries have recognized them as separate states.
It is also evident that Republic of Armenia has regarded recognizing the Republic of Mountainous Karabakh, the inheritor of the Soviet Kagorn-Karabagh Autonomous Oblast as a state, is untenable. Consequently, the Republic of Armenia, through all the administrations it had, did not recognize the Republic of Mountainous Karabagh as a state, although it presented Armenia as the guarantor of its security and granted the citizens of Artsakh all the privileges the citizens of Armenia have. The successive administrations of the Republic of Armenia also did not find it tenable to annex the Republic of Mountainous Karabakh / Artsakh as a district (marz) of Armenia.
After the catastrophic defeat of Armenia at the second Artsakh war, it is higley unlikely that the Republic of Armenia could have recognized Artsakh other than accept the bitter reality of it being in Azerbaijan but assure the Armenians there, their rights. Without quarantining such rights, the prospects are very grim for them, as Vahan Zanoyan bared in his latest article titled “A Devil is in Every Detail.”
The Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate model makes room for Diaspora to get engaged in negotiating to make such a status for the Nagorno-Karabakh / Artsakh, attainable. It is highly unlikely that the government in Azerbaijan could be forced into accepting a status that is politically not tenable in their home, in Azerbaijan. It is highly unlikely that a government that is more conciliatory to Armenians can come to power in Azerbaijan, at least not in the near future. But the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate may have the potential of creating a win-win situation, whereby the Armenians, acknowledge Artsakh in Azerbaijan, and make a point that it is advantageous to Azerbaijan to accept such an arrangement, because this model of Azerbaijan treating its minority citizens, will reflect positively on its image on the world scene. Also, Azerbaijan will be a beneficiary because Armenians will continue visiting the historic Artskah / Nagorno-Karabakh. Diaspora charitable organizations will invest a lot of resources for the benefits of the residents of Artskakh Mutsaarifate in Azerbaijan.
I have been an advocate of this model right after the disastrous war at the cost of alienating friends. I also realize the intricacies and the difficulties for coming to a workable status. modeled after Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate. I took the liberty to share with those who happen to read this blog, in its most simplistic, maybe idealized way. We know that we Armenians do not make the most tolerant society. As Mihran Kurtoglian also noted: “the sad thing is that we as a nation are in such a situation where it has become almost impossible to form or develop a public opinion on the domestic front through the newspaper, the Internet or broadcast information media.” Hence, not in Azerbaijan, but where? Remains in the air.
If we are unable to bring about such a model to fruition, which more or less is what the Nikol Pashinyan government is pursuing, there remains for us to see what Russia ultimately has in store for its one-time Nagorno- Karabakh Autonomous Oblast.
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