A CSTO peacekeepers training base organization is established for what?
On September 7, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said that he will dwell more on the tension during the CSTO summit in Dushanbe. And he did so, on September 16, he said to the CSTO partners about the tense situation on the border. And just this much.
It would be naïve to expect an adequate response from the CSTO partners to the situation, because just days before the meeting in Dushanbe, at the 5th Summit of the leaders of Turkic-speaking countries in Astana, in the presence of president of the CSTO member countries, Azerbaijani president spoke about the return of Zangezur, noting, “Not only Nagorno-Karabakh but also Zangezur, an ancient Turkic land, is our native land and its transfer to Armenia in the early 20th century, in fact, was a violation of the geographic unity of the entire Turkic world.”
The joint statement adopted by the CSTO member states on September 15 has not raised concern and anxiety to the recent escalation in the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, more precisely, to the manifestations of obvious aggression by Azerbaijan. In other words, even in a declarative manner, there is no desire in the CSTO to protect Armenia. The CSTO member states stand for the united global policy agenda and contribute to the solution of the existing contradictions and conflicts exclusively through peaceful, political and diplomatic means, reads the joint statement. The CSTO members have “expressed a strong anxiety about the situation on the border under the jurisdiction of the CSTO, the absence of conflicts being settled in the region,” the activation of terrorist grouping of the “Islamic state”, the territory of Afghanistan to become the world’s largest drug producing area,” and that’s it.
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But now, at the CSTO summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his vision on introducing a Euro-Atlantic security system, which is necessary to combat the terrorism. “It is necessary to set aside geopolitical ambitions, drop so-called double standards, the policy of using certain terrorist groups, either directly or indirectly, to achieve opportunist goals.” The RF president also talked about the situation in the Middle East, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The most sensational part in the CSTO summit, however, was Serzh Sargsyan’s one recommendation on the background of the indifference of the CSTO partners for the situation on the borders of Armenia. The time has come for setting up a base organization for the training of peacekeepers of the CSTO, said the RA President, adding that Armenia, within the framework of its CSTO Chairmanship in 2016, will pay close attention to peace campaigns. As a foundation for this base organization, I propose to consider the training center of the Armed Forces Peacekeeping Brigade in Armenia,” added Sargsyan. “We are prepared to share the knowhow we have amassed during the ten-year participation in a variety of operations.”
One of the agreements obtained during the visit of Serzh Sargsyan to Moscow, perhaps, was this idea. Official Moscow, perhaps, has demanded the official Yerevan to act with the idea of establishing a base organization for training the CSTO peacekeepers. One can understand the logic of Putin here, “are you very unhappy with the CSTO indifference, so establish an organization to train CSTO peacekeepers.”
And the respective atmosphere has already been created for voicing such a recommendation. The ruling delegates and experts have recently begun to openly criticize pointing out the inadequate posture of the CSTO, which was unprecedented. Now, it seems that official Yerevan has made a move with the help of Moscow to make the borders of Armenia more “secure” aiming to show that Moscow “is backing us.”
It is possible that only Russian rather than Tajik, Kyrgyz and Kazakh peacekeepers will be “educated” in the base organization for training CSTO peacekeepers. But this practically will not change anything in terms of retraining Azerbaijan. If Russia does not even dare to make any statement on the situation in the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, then Aliyev hardly would feel fear and horror from the idea that CSTO peacekeepers are going to be trained.
In fact, Serzh Sargsyan’s recommendation is one more move towards enhancement of opportunities of Russian influence in the region. This is a base to deploy Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh on some conditions. One more remarkable fact as well. The recommendation of establishing a base organization for the training of CSTO peacemakers seems to be Moscow’s response to the opening of the NATO training center in Georgia, to which Moscow responded quite aggressively.
Emma GABRIELYAN,
“Aravot” daily
