THE ANALYSIS OF ARMENIA’S TRANS-CAUCASUS POLICY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE “SMALL STATE” CONCEPT (1991-2020)

Year 2024, Issue: 75, 61 - 94, 24.05.2024

Murat Jane

https://doi.org/10.36542/erma.1411153

Abstract

The point of view that the international system has been formed on the basis of sovereign political units since the 1648 Peace Treaties of Westphalia is generally accepted in the literature. According to us, although the importance of the sovereign nation state continues today, it has faced a post-positivist theoretical challenge since the 1970s. However, it is seen that de jure sovereign equal nation states are not de facto equal as well. Therefore, some states are considered strong and “great”, and some states are considered weak and “small”. It is known that the distinction between great and small states was firstly seen in the 1815 Congress of Vienna. Yet the five states that shaped the system also defined as European Concert were considered great and other states were considered small. After the Vienna System, with the experience of the League of Nations (LN) and the United Nations (UN), all actors in the system began to be represented in the general assembly and hereby de jure equality was achieved. The small states concept has entered the international relations literature with the inclusion of newly independent former colonial states in the international system since the 1960s.
However, there are some ambiguities (geography, population, military capacity, impact on global politics) regarding the small state conceptualization as well. Despite categorical ambiguity, Armenia can be considered as a small state in terms of population and other objective criteria. However, despite being a small and weak actor, Armenia continued its maximalist and irredentist policies in the Trans-Caucasus regional subsystem between 1991 and 2020. As is known despite the imbalance between means and ends, Armenia has challenged its powerful neighbor Turkey within the framework of the ideal of “Greater Armenia”, occupied the territory of its another neighbor Azerbaijan contrary to international law and created instability in the Javakhati Region of Georgia as well.
Within the framework of available information we explain generally and abstractly, Armenia's Trans-Caucasus policy between the years 1991-2020, which will be analyzed despite the imbalances concerning purpose-means and Armenia’s nature as a small state. The main reason for limiting our study to 2020 is that the Second Karabakh War started an irreversible process in Armenia's domestic and foreign policy.

Keywords

Small states, Armenia, Trans-Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Russian Federation

“KÜÇÜK DEVLET” KAVRAMI BAĞLAMINDA ERMENİSTAN’IN TRANS-KAFKASYA POLİTİKASININ ANALİZİ (1991-2020)

Abstract

Uluslararası sistemin 1648 Westphalia Barış Antlaşmaları’ndan itibaren egemen politik birimler temelinde oluştuğuna dair bakış açısı, literatürde genel kabul görmektedir. Egemen ulus devletin önemi 1970’li yıllardan itibaren post-pozitivist teorik bir meydan okumayla karşı karşıya kalsa da bizce günümüzde halen devam etmektedir. Ancak de jure egemen eşit ulus devletlerin, facto eşit olmadıkları da görülmektedir. Dolayısıyla bazı devletler güçlü ve “büyük”, bazı devletler de güçsüz ve “küçük” olarak değerlendirilmektedir. Büyük ve küçük devletler arasındaki ayrımın ise ilk olarak 1815 Viyana Kongresi’nde kullanıldığı bilinmektedir. Zira Avrupa Ahengi olarak da tanımlanan bu sistemi oluşturan beş aktör büyük, diğer aktörler de küçük olarak kabul edilmiştir. Viyana Sistemi’nden sonra Milletler Cemiyeti (MC) ve Birleşmiş Milletler (BM) deneyimiyle sistemdeki tüm aktörler genel kurulda temsil edilmeye başlamış böylelikle, de jure eşitlik sağlanmıştır. Küçük devletler kavramı ise literatüre 1960’lı yıllardan itibaren yeni bağımsız eski sömürge devletlerin uluslararası sisteme dahil olmasıyla girmiştir.
Fakat küçük devlet kavramsallaştırmasıyla ilgili birtakım muğlaklıklar (coğrafya, nüfus, askeri kapasite, küresel siyasete etki) da bulunmaktadır. Kategorik muğlaklığa rağmen Ermenistan gerek nüfusu gerek de diğer objektif kriterler açısından küçük devlet olarak değerlendirilebilir. Ancak Ermenistan küçük ve güçsüz bir aktör olmasına rağmen Trans-Kafkasya bölgesel alt sisteminde 1991-2020 yılları arasında maksimalist ve irredantist politikalarını sürdürmüştür. Bilindiği üzere Ermenistan, araç-amaç dengesizliğine rağmen güçlü komşusu Türkiye’ye “Büyük Ermenistan” ülküsü çerçevesinde meydan okumuş, diğer bir komşusu olan Azerbaycan’ın topraklarını uluslararası hukuka aykırı olarak işgal etmiş, Gürcistan’ın Cavahati Bölgesi’nde de istikrarsızlık yaratmıştır.
Genel ve soyut olarak aktardığımız bilgiler çerçevesinde çalışmamızda Ermenistan’ın amaç-araç dengesizliğine ve küçük devlet niteliğine rağmen 1991-2020 yılları arasında yürüttüğü Trans-Kafkasya politikası analiz edilecektir.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Küçük Devletler, Ermenistan, Trans-Kafkasya, Azerbaycan, Rusya Federasyonu

Keywords

Küçük Devletler, Ermenistan, Trans-Kafkasya, Azerbaycan, Rusya Federasyonu

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