Armenian paper contrasts regional security policies of USA, Russia
Hayots Ashkharh, Yerevan
17 Mar 07
Opening the border between Turkey and Armenia is the only way to move
forward on Armenia’s integration into NATO’s security structure, a
major Armenian newspaper has reported. It criticized Washington which
it said tried to put pressure on Armenia in order to make Yerevan and
Azerbaijan cooperate more closely with NATO. The paper said that in
contrast to the US policy Russia takes "concrete steps to beef up
Armenia’s security". The following is the text of the article
entitled: "Evident Trampling" by Vardan Grigoryan published in
Armenian newspaper Hayots Ashkharh on 17 March; subheadings have been
inserted editorially:
The political pressure on Armenia by some Western countries and
organizations causes increasing anxiety among our people. The latest
example [of pressure] was the 2006 report by the US Department of
State on human rights in Armenia. For unknown reasons Azerbaijan’s
official point of view on the Nagornyy Karabakh issue was also
included in the report.
Generally speaking, the United States, which has a representative in
the OSCE Minsk Group, is pursuing quite a balanced policy on the
Karabakh issue. This country does not consider Karabakh an "occupied
territory". Moreover, it provides Karabakh with financial
aid. Therefore, it is obvious that the unusual statement in the US
State Department’s report is an attempt to exert political pressure on
our country. It is aimed at warning Armenia and dictating certain
terms.
USA uses Armenia’s Achilles heel
What is the political target of the United States? It would be naive
to think that by calling the Nagornyy Karabakh republic an "occupied
territory". the USA is trying to force Armenia to become more
constructive, or make more concessions, on the settlement of the
Karabakh conflict.
The Americans realize perfectly well that Armenia has done and
continues to do its best in connection with the issue, and that there
is no way to concede on the issue of the Karabakh people’s fate.
Thus, the US Department of State considers the Karabakh issue to be
the "Achilles heel" of Armenia. By hurting it, attempts are being made
to get concessions on a more important issue – joining Armenia and the
entire South Caucasus region to the Euro-Atlantic space. In this
sense, the USA has dramatically stepped up its political efforts. It
is trying to push all countries of our region into NATO’s security
system.
It is exactly on this issue that the USA is obviously putting pressure
on both Armenian and Azerbaijani fronts. Azerbaijan fears Russia and
Iran, which dislike NATO’s expansion. In the meantime, the issue of
receiving assistance from NATO in the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict is
being mooted.
On the other hand, Armenia has another, although no less dangerous,
neighbour, Turkey, which is an old-time NATO member. As a result,
Azerbaijan cites "Armenia’s aggression" as an excuse, Armenia talks
about the difficult relationship with Turkey, and in the end both want
to cooperate only with NATO.
Both NATO and the United States have one way of undoing the knot in
the region and it is linked with the closed border between Turkey and
Armenia. NATO certainly realizes this. It is not by chance that a
high-ranking official from this organization, George Katsirdakis, who
visited Armenia lately, said that the Armenian-Turkish border "has to
be" opened.
Russia delivers
However, words alone are not enough for serious changes in the
political preferences of the regional countries. Unlike the United
States and NATO, Russia has made concrete steps to beef up Armenia’s
security, as Yerevan is a member of the CIS Collective Security Treaty
Organization [CSTO]. While NATO is busy with making theoretical
judgments, the real key to the region, Armenia, remains closed in the
box of the Russian-Turkish confrontation.
What have the United States or NATO done so far to break this box, if
they put demands to Armenia, which is surrounded by enemies? Feeling
that an allied country, Armenia, may come under foreign pressure, the
CSTO secretary general visits Armenia and gives more guarantees to our
country. Over the next few months, a sophisticated system will be
established between CSTO countries on military assistance in case of
foreign aggression.
This means that if there is a military aggression against Armenia, the
vast military power of the CSTO states will be used to thwart it. This
means that the whole world will view a threat to Armenia as a world
war threat.
No moral right
In the meantime, the US secretaries of state and defence have appealed
to the Congress, urging it not to adopt an Armenian genocide bill,
which the USA uses to pressurize Turkey into opening the
Turkish-Armenian border. It emerges that while Russia ensures
[Armenia’s] security through the CSTO, the USA cannot even rein in its
NATO ally [Turkey]. What moral right do the Americans have to hope for
Armenia’s integration when the doors are not even open for us?
Attempts to make Yerevan submissive in the Armenian-Turkish talks
through a change of government in our country are also useless. The
attempts to create a fifth column of the West in Armenia before the
Armenian parliamentary election have also failed. Even a famous expert
on "coloured revolutions", Professor (?Valerie Bans) of Cornell
University in the USA, admits that a coloured revolution is impossible
in Armenia.
What should the USA do now? Should it suspend the Millennium Challenge
programme and impose economic pressure? Does the father of the world
democracy really think that issues in a game of this scale can be
solved by several hundred millions of dollars?