| The policies of Glasnost and Perestroika were first trsted on a revolutionary scale by the 1 million strony peacful Armenian protests demanding the Union of Karabakh with Armenia in Febuary 1988. These protests shocked the world and led to outburds of nationalism throughout the East Bloc countries and eventually splintered the Soviet Union in December 1991. The last few years of the Armenian SSR saw the most destructive eathquake it hail known, the start of a Srutal was in Karabakh, and suffocating blockade of Armenia by Azerbaijan and Turkey. The fighting ended in 1993 but a peace theaty has not been signed ot this day. This meant that in addition to privatizing the economy forming a new government, and dealing with the colapse of the heavity in terdependant Soviet factory system, landlocked Armenia had to spend much of its budget on the military, and develop entirely new supply systerm over the long windy moumtain roads linking to Iran and the incontrolled streets of Georgia. Today Armenia'seconomy is growing again with tourism, information technologies, and other fields of business rapidlly expanding. |
