Why did Serzh Sargsyan ignore previous resentments?
September 8 2014
According to Stepan Safaryan, Azerbaijan no longer is able to “curb”
Azerbaijan “First of all it should be beneficial for Russia for one of
its allies can be a bridge with NATO. Indeed, Armenia has no right to
vote in NATO, nor a weight, but since Armenia’s involvement in NATO
programs is rather appreciated, it may play quite a role in the
future, if, of course, necessary,” said Head of the Armenian Institute
for International and Security Affairs, also political analyst, Stepan
Safaryan, in the conversation with “Aravot”. Note that yesterday, the
President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, attended the NATO summit in
Newport city, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in
the framework of which the NATO member and Afghanistan International
Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission participating partner
countries’ state and government leaders’ meeting was held. Serzh
Sargsyan’s participation in the NATO summit was remarkable first
because it is the first time since 2008 that he takes part in such a
high-level summit of the alliance. In the previous three summits, the
highest officials, who were presenting Yerevan, were the Foreign
Minister Edward Nalbandyan and Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan in 2009
in Strasbourg-Kehl, in 2010 in Lisbon and in 2012 in Chicago. In these
summits, declarations were adopted that NATO shall respect
Azerbaijan’s, Georgia’s, and Moldova’s territorial integrity. Nothing
was mention in the documents about the right to self-determination.
Official Yerevan has expressed its resentment on this. To the question
of Aravot about what the reason was that President Serzh Sargsyan
ignored the previous resentments, Stepan Safaryan responded, “I assume
that Armenia is aware that this time the NATO summit would not offer
such a surprise, nor especially it would be offered to spoiled
backdrop relations between Azerbaijan and the West. It seems to me
that Serzh Sargsyan is confident that there are no wordings in the
final document of the summit to be worried about, and at least the
balance is maintained. But if this is not the case, if Armenia could
not determine it, and the president had gone, then it becomes a theme
of another talk”. Serzh Sargsyan’s participation in the NATO summit,
according to our interlocutor, enables also to ensure the meeting with
the MG co-chairs by camouflage. Yesterday, in the evening, the
tripartite meeting of the US Secretary of State John Kerry, Presidents
of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev
respectively, was held. In the future, it is also planned a tripartite
meeting of the Presidents of France, Armenia and Azerbaijan, which was
the initiative of the president of France still in spring in Yerevan.
“Since this is an issue referring to the security of Armenia, Armenia
absolutely has bases to present legitimate substantiations in case of
any question by Russia. RF seem to be unable to curb Azerbaijan, and
Armenia solely should take steps aimed at it. Armenia should use all
opportunities to make the preservation of the ceasefire regime more
precise,” said Stepan Safaryan. In the CSTO, Armenia’s ally Russia,
especially in recent period, is in escalating contradictions with
leading countries of NATO. A few months ago, even the CSTO Secretary
General, Nikolay Bordyuzha, announced that CSTO intends to cease the
attempts to establish a dialogue with NATO. And yesterday, prior to
the beginning of the summit, NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh
Rasmussen, said that “Russia has attack on Ukraine” and keeps
destabilizing the situation in eastern Ukraine. Referring to the calls
for establishing a ceasefire voiced by Russia’s President Vladimir
Putin, the NATO Secretary General said that it is not important what
Russia says on Ukraine but what it does. In the interview with
journalists, the NATO Secretary General state about adopting a
“preparedness action plan”. This assumes deployment of armed forces of
the Alliance by rotation manner in the member states located in
eastern borders of NATO. Stepan Safaryan thinks that Armenia need to
make its contribution so that impermissibility to resolve the
conflicts militarily are clearly defined in the resolution of the
summit. “There are factors that Armenia can use to reinforce the
current fragile peace, to make Azerbaijan more restrained and to bring
Azerbaijan to a more accountable arena with the help of international
role-players and instruments. In this context, participation in the
summit at the presidential level is justified, regardless of Russia’s
sentiment to it.” In fact, in his speech at the summit, according to
the information conveyed by the Presidential Press Service, Serzh
Sargsyan had said that those in Armenia appreciate the value of both
peace and security for which our country struggle for both almost
every day. “Tomorrow here, in this same hall, a document will be
adopted that will be related to the security of my people and peace in
our region. There are two options. Either it will adopt the language
of the OSCE Minsk Group, which is the only specialized international
structure dealing with the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, a language that
was proposed and supported by the Co-Chair countries that are
represented here by France and the United States of America, or upon
the lobbying of another member State it will pass again with an aim to
save the face of our tyrant neighbor vis-a-vis his own people. Believe
me it will not lead to any positive results. Either the common sense
and the strive for peace will have the upper hand, or the silent
encouragement of xenophobia will go deepening, the war rhetoric and
the deadly provocations, so easily provoked by Azerbaijan, which does
not care about its soldiers’ lives and gets enthusiastic with papers
like that, will continue ahead,” concluded Serzh Sargsyan.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
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From: Baghdasarian