DIPLOMATIC CORRECTNESS IS DETRIMENTAL FOR THE SECURITY OF THIS REGION
2012-09-07 16:21:08
Today, President Serzh Sargsyan received the OSCE Ambassadors who
are in Yerevan in the framework of a regional visit. At the meeting,
discussed were issues pertinent to the regional security and the NKR
peace process. At the request of the guests, President Serzh Sargsyan
the steps taken by the Armenian authorities in recent years and
future programs aimed at the safeguarding of the Republic’s security,
implementation in our country of the democratic and institutional
reforms.
Below is Serz Sargsyan’s speech at the meeting with OSCE Ambassadors:
“Distinguished Ambassadors, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am glad to welcome you to the Presidential Palace, welcome you
to Armenia.
OSCE is a very important organization for Armenia not only because
this Organization has in its framework several institutions – the
Minsk Group, the High-level Planning Group, the OSCE Chairman-in-Office
Personal Representative – all of them dealing with the Nagorno-Karabakh
problem, but also because the OSCE principles and the comprehensive
concept of security is fully shared by our country. It is very
important that in the framework of this Organization, we agreed that
security of one country cannot be ensured at the expense of security
of another country. We fully implement our commitments.
However, recently an event has taken place, which makes us to seriously
reconsider some of our approaches. As you know, in Azerbaijan pardon
was immediately granted to a creature which committed a horrendous
crime; unfortunately, in our view this event was not the last
one. Everything started when in 2007 the OSCE Minsk Group presented
its proposal for the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Many
would remember how Azerbaijan rejected the document; then it made a
declarative statement that the document in general was acceptable,
but afterwards it was trying to give its own interpretations to the
principles enshrined in the document. You remember how they were
trying to interpret the right of self-determination. You remember
how they were trying to interpret the term “referendum.” And then
a spectacle started which was meant to gain time, to accumulate huge
amount of weaponry so that at the opportune moment the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict could be solved through the military means.
In our view, pardoning a murderer was not a step to raise Aliev’s
authority at home – it was an attempt to test the response of the
international community to Azerbaijan’s outrageous moves. Cannot be any
other way because in Azerbaijan and among its leadership, there are,
I believe, many people who could soberly see the consequences of such
a move. And that testing of the international community’s patience,
as I said, has started long ago: when Azeris started to violate the
CFT treaty obligations, nobody responded to those blatant violations;
when Azeri president publicly instructed his Academia to write a
history for Azerbaijan where Armenians must not be mentioned at all,
nobody paid attention; when Aliev stated publicly that Yerevan and
the entire territory of Armenia is the Azeri soil, nobody reacted to
that; when Aliev declared publicly that their number one enemy is the
Armenian nation world-wide and that the enemy must be destroyed, again
there was no retort. In response to all our warnings, all requests
we have made to the Co-chairs, to the rest of the world that it was
a beginning of a very dangerous process we were receiving improper
responses that Aliev’s statements were for domestic consumption. Such
a differentiation between the domestic and external audiences simply
cannot be – a person cannot think one way in the morning, and another
in the evening; one way on Monday, and another way on Thursday. Seeing
such a lenience toward these statements, Aliev took up actions. The
first one took place during the regional visit of the US Secretary
of State: subversive actions were instigated not only on the line of
contact but also at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. And again the
response was a weak one. And unfortunately, this is not the end of it.
You know, I went through the war, that’s why I don’t want a new
war. I personally felt on my own skin what the effects of the war,
its impact. And I am confident that anyone concerned with security
in our region, doesn’t want a war. However, desiring is not enough –
actions are needed and that actions must start when you call spade
a spade. The so called “diplomatic correctness” in this case is
simply detrimental for the security of this region.
Recently, in Armenia a sarcastic joke appeared. It sounds like this:
after these events, the international X organization calls upon Armenia
and Azerbaijan not to axe each other in sleep. And this is not a
joke to cheer you up, this is our people’s attitude towards those
international organizations which are trying to introduce parity
between the victim and the perpetrator; between the guilty and the
innocent. It is extremely bad. I ask you, I urge your governments
and our Organization to deal with this issue.”
http://lurer.com/?p=39646&l=en