On September 4-5, the NATO summit held in Newport City, Wales, south – west of Great Britain, in participation of the leaders of 28 member states, was remarkable in comparison with the previous ones.
This year’s summit was taking place under the annexation of the Crimea by Russia and invasion towards the eastern Ukraine. “The North Atlantic Alliance is facing challenges of the changed world. No need to cherish an illusion. Russia does not consider us its partner. Russia considers us an enemy, we have to cope with it,” announced NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, ahead to the summit. Prior to the summit, the U.S. President Barack Obama sent a clear message to Moscow. The U.S., NATO’s the most powerful member, will give help to the Baltic countries in case of external aggression. By the signal addressed to the Kremlin, NATO will protect all its members, including Russia’s immediate neighbors, commenced the NATO summit.
Armenia has made a decision to participate in the NATO summit at the presidential level. On the background of Armenian integration to Eurasian programs, this was a very important step, even an unexpected one, if we consider the fact that S. Sargsyan had not attended the previous summits. In 2010, in Lisbon NATO summit, S. Sargsyan substantiated his decision of not participating in the summit by generalized formulation to the solution of the South Caucasus conflict in the draft declaration in the framework of the summit. He did not also attend the 2012 NATO summit on May in Chicago, again with the same reasoning.
Attending the NATO summit by CSTO-member country Armenia at the highest level when RF is an unprecedented contradictions with leading countries of the North-Atlantic Alliance, is a remarkable fact in itself. In his speech, Serzh Sargsyan made an interesting remark with regard to the document to be adopted in the framework of NATO. “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,” Serzh Sargsyan emphasized.” The remark was clear. Prior to leaving for Wales, newly elected Turkish President Erdoğan in the beginning of the talks with Azerbaijani President assured that the relations between Turkey and Armenia will be regulated only after the resolution of the available conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and then he announced that the Nagorno-Karabakh issue will be included on the agenda of the NATO summit, where Turkey will remind Azerbaijan about the importance of keeping to the promises give to the alliance. Erdoğan, as promised, delivered a speech in the NATO summit about Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in conformity with the demand of its “younger brother”.
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On September 4, atripartite meeting was held in Newport between Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and US Secretary of State John Kerry on the initiative of the American side. The tripartite meeting in Wales, unlike the Sochi talks, where the presidents of the three countries were sitting at the table, was attended by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair, James Warlick, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs at the United States Department of State, Victoria Nuland, and Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan. The U.S. Secretary of State, Kerry, emphasized the absence of the alternative to peaceful settlement of the conflict, exclusion of escalation of the situation and urged finding mechanisms to ease the tension of the conflict and develop confidence-building measures between the sides. The U.S. Secretary of State also highlighted the continuation of the negotiations by OSCE Minsk Group format, and expressed readiness to possibly back up the search of ways for conflict resolution.
In support of the West, perhaps, another tripartite meeting will be arranged. From the message about the meeting of Serzh Sargsyan and French President Francois Hollande, it became known that the issue of the forthcoming planned tripartite meeting of the presidents of France, Armenia and Azerbaijan by the initiative of France is discussed. After the Sochi tripartite meeting, the West is certain on deciding to take, at least at this moment, the “steering wheel” of the settlement of Karabakh from Putin’s hand. Thus, Serzh Sargsyan made two hey steps with his participation at the NATO summit: he maintained the role of the OSCE Minsk Group in the future settlement, and for the first time, from this high podium, called the leader of Azerbaijan a “dictator”, and Aliyev’s defender – to the new government of Turkey.
And Erdoğan’s plan to support the “younger brother” in Wales is not worthy of considering implemented because, first, the phrase of “Nagorno-Karabakh conflict” is totally missing in NATO declaration, and the section of supporting the South Caucasus countries is balanced, as it is referred to the norms of international law and the fundamental principles of the Helsinki Final Act. The NATO declaration states that the alliance-member states continue supporting Armenia’s, Azerbaijan’s, Georgia’s and Moldova’s territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty. “We will continue to support efforts towards a peaceful settlement of the conflicts in the south Caucasus, as well as in the Republic of Moldova, based upon these principles and the norms of international law, the UN Charter, and the Helsinki Final Act. The persistence of these protracted conflicts continues to be a matter of particular concern, undermining the opportunities for citizens in the region to reach their full potential as members of the Euro-Atlantic community. We urge all parties to engage constructively and with reinforced political will in peaceful conflict resolution, within the established negotiation frameworks,” the declaration reads.
Note that the fundamental principles of the Helsinki Final Act are three of them: territorial integrity, non-use of force, equality of peoples’ rights and right to self-determination. Maybe the NATO declaration is not what Serzh Sargsyan expected, but it is also not what Erdoğan and Aliyev would like to see today.
Emma GABRIELYAN
