When for some people Russia is the motherland rather than the Republic of Armenia
Recently, Colonel-General Yuri Khachaturov made a remarkable statement at the Defense Ministry’s “Baghramyan” military drills entitled “Unbreakable Brotherhood 2015” of the peacekeepers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) referring the uncommunicative stance of the CSTO member states against the Azerbaijani aggression, noting that a CSTO-member Armenia does not even receive moral support from its allies. “Certainly, it would be desirable that the CSTO member states would be more active to the Azerbaijani attacks, but so far, unfortunately, there is no serious response. It would be desirable to hear such a response. We are in the same security structure, in the same system, hence, there should be at least a response. So far, we do not ask for help, but it would be desirable to have a purely human support,” said the army the Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces chief said.
Khachaturov also added that the Armenian side does not see the need for deploying peacekeepers at the Armenian-Azerbaijani contact line. “We ourselves can solve the problems that Azerbaijan creates for us every day. FYI I must say that during the previous 15 days, they have sent several thousand missiles and mines against us, they exploded in our villages, positions and 10 kilometers further. We have responded adequately, now it is their turn, they have serious losses.” The journalists asked the CSTO Deputy Secretary General Valery Semerikov, who was present at the drills, why the CSTO does not respond when the borders of Armenia are already attacked. He replied that he was personally present how Armenia’s leadership is raising this issue at the CSTO summits, but as a result no decision has been made about the support, if there were such a decision, they certainly would be prepared and implement. Semerikov, however, continued to speak of the unity of the alliance, telling how quickly it can respond if any of the member countries of the alliance is attacked.
Thus, the CSTO founder member Armenia’s calls, the urges at the CSTO meetings remain “suspended”. This is evidenced by the thoughts of the CSTO secretary general. Instead, both the CSTO Secretary General and his deputy prefer making observations about how the CSTO can respond, if necessary. In fact, what is happening in the last few months on the borders of Armenia, either the CSTO does not take it serious or considering to as serious, they do not feel themselves obligated to try even to pull up Aliyev’s conduct. Consequently, a logical question arises, what Armenia has to do in a security system where the interests of Azerbaijan that is a non-member country to this structure, apparently, are more consistently protected than Armenia’s interests are?
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And in general, who care for the drills with a headline “Unbreakable Brotherhood 2015” of the peacekeepers of the CSTO or any other headline. What is the value of the CSTO Secretary General’s and his Deputy’s statements about what can the CSTO do “if necessary”? The problem indeed is not responding to Azerbaijan by military actions, but expressing a stance publicly, responding to the situation adequately. We are alone, and it is not new to be sure of it. Simply, we repeatedly and obviously see that we have no allies in the CSTO, even Russia taken separately as Armenia’s strategic ally does not want to say a “bitter word” to Aliyev. Moreover, just days ago, at the latest CSTO summit, Serzh Sargsyan talked about the situation on the borders of Armenia. But, this time too, the alliance member states did not utter a word, and the joint statement adopted by the summit did not reflect the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
What will happen if the adventurous Aliyev, who actually has violated the ceasefire regime long ago, passes to a more extensive operations? Is this the way Russia and the CSTO are going to protect Armenia’s security? President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, in his recent speech at the session of the UN General Assembly made a remarkable observation. “Russia is deliberately creating around itself a belt of instability over the decades to maintain its influence in the neighboring countries. This can be said about Nagorno-Karabakh, Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Crimea, and Donbass.” In fact, for almost two years, we are assured that Azerbaijan’s policy of breaking the status quo of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and continuing the tension in the frontline is accepted by Russia by default, if not welcomed.
It is sad that Russia’s indifferent stance will continue as long as some people in Armenia still will make judgments with a serious expression of the face in the context of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border tension saying that “the US has a problem of creating tension beds all over the world, moreover, in this region, this is America’s problem as it has a task to destroy Russia.” Moscow will continue treating us in the same way as long as it is sure that some Armenian officials and former officials will justify the multi-billion dollars deals with the sale of weapons to Azerbaijan by Russia, considering it normal, and the ones who are well-aware of the Azerbaijani army will inform that Azerbaijan is not armed only by the Russian weapons but also other countries, and they shoot at our soldiers using the weapons of Western production. Why should Russia change its stance if it is sure that by and large Russia is the homeland for some of the Armenians rather than the Republic of Armenia?
Emma GABRIELYAN,
“Aravot” daily
