Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
August 24, 2007 Friday
CIS COLLECTIVE SECURITY TREATY FORMS ITS ON PEACEKEEPING FORCES;
Nagorno-Karabakh may become their first theater of operations
Nurani
BAKU FEARS THAT THE CIS COLLECTIVE SECURITY TREATY ORGANIZATION WILL
FOCUS ITS PEACEKEEPING ACTIVITY ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH; General
Secretary Nikolai Bordyuzha promises establishment of the
peacekeeping contingent "in the nearest future".
Seeing the Commonwealth become more and more amorphous, Russian
diplomacy predictably takes measures to strengthen the military
alliance of the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization. "A
meeting of the working group at the level of the deputy heads of key
ministries of member states [which took place at one of the mansions
of the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow – Ekho is sufficient proof
that the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization is advancing
dynamism and coordination of military-political actions," Grigori
Karasin, State Secretary of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said. "The
CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization is a living organism that
evolves and makes progress."
Colonel General Nikolai Bordyuzha, General Secretary of the CIS
Collective Security Treaty Organization, outlined specific directions
of "evolution and progress". Bordyuzha informed journalists that the
CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization might decide to establish
its own peacekeeping forces this autumn. "The peacekeeping contingent
will operate both in the zone of responsibility of the CIS Collective
Security Treaty Organization and, authorized by the UN, beyond it,"
Bordyuzha said. ITAR-TASS news agency reports that Collective
Security Council of the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization
will meet in Dushanbe on October 6 and that "suggestions concerning
the establishment of the peacekeeping potential" will be made there.
If the suggestions are accepted to be acted upon, Bordyuzha said,
establishment of the contingent will be launched "in the nearest
future". Bordyuzha even outlined the new tasks the CIS Collective
Security Treaty Organization is facing. They include "the war on
terrorism, trafficking, and regional threats."
The CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization includes Russia,
Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
Unlike in GUAM where practically every member state, save for the
Ukraine, has a suspended conflict on its territory, Armenia is the
only member of the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization
involved in a local conflict. Moreover, the Azerbaijani-Armenian
conflict is the only one nowadays where the cease-fire regime is
maintained without peacekeepers. As for the idea of Russia’s
exclusive peacekeeping presence in Nagorno-Karabakh, it has been
discussed since 1993.
What arguments Russia will use this time to persuade Azerbaijan to
accept the offer is immaterial at this point and for the purposes of
this article. What counts is this: Bordyuzha was recently asked the
question "Baku all but admits its readiness to use the sheer strength
of arms to solve the problem of the territories occupied by Armenia.
Will the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization deploy its
military potential if Azerbaijan actually went for it and attacked
Armenia?" His answer was laconic and right to the point. "There is
Article 4 of the CIS Collective Security Treaty which plainly states
that aggression against a member state is viewed by all other member
states as an aggression against all. What else is there to say?" The
Russian Embassy in Baku hastened in with a denouncement. Russian
diplomats kept telling whoever would listen that "automatic"
involvement in the war on Armenia’s side was out of the question.
Bordyuzha meanwhile made it plain that an idea like that was
entertained in the corridors of what is known as the Arbat Military
District.
Along with everything else, Russia’s accomplishments as a peacekeeper
in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Trans-Dniester region are not
precisely something to take pride in. In practically all these
episodes, Moscow openly sided up with separatists and made its
peacekeepers guarantors of the security of the regimes of Smirnov,
Kokoity, Ardzinba-Hadjimba-Bagapsh, and so on. Moreover, military
presence of this sort is actively used as an instrument of pressure
on "the obstinate". The missile scandal between Moscow and Tbilisi is
textbook proof.
In any case, Baku is not exactly happy with the peacekeeping ideas
entertained by the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization.
Source: Ekho (Baku), August 22, 2007, EV
Translated by A. Ignatkin