The year of 2016 is going to be a difficult year for Armenia.
We summarize the year 2015 at the end of the year. No lack of important events in Armenia and around Armenia was felt in the passing year, however, the tension on the borders of Armenia and in the contact line of Nagorno-Karabakh, perhaps, was the most important issue in the core attention of the citizens. A situation has been created on the background of the tension in Russia and Turkey relations when Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh may face new threats. A real fight for influence is going on in the South Caucasus between the countries in the region, by and large, the fight is going on for the South Caucasus. Neither Russia nor the West is reluctant to put their own interests aside in this region.
The task of the regional countries is to take the advantage of these aspirations. Even in the presence of possible dangers and high level of unpredictability, we must state that Armenia has appeared in a somewhat favorable situation. The attitude of the international community and the West is strongly negative. The US-Azerbaijan relations, in particular, have become so problematic that the Aliyev is already making inadequate steps, Azerbaijan has already put forward a bill for defining sanctions against the US. The Azerbaijan-West tensions, in its turn, promises further warming of Russia-Azerbaijan relations.
Sargsyan-Aliyev meeting held in Bern last week rendered an important opportunity, said US State Department Spokesperson John Kirby, adding, “The presidents themselves recognized that the situation on the ground has deteriorated and expressed concern about civilian casualties caused by the use of heavy weapons. At their request, the Minsk Group co-chairs will continue to work on proposals to reduce the risk of violence. The co-chairs are also prepared to support a meeting of the presidents next year to continue their discussions on a settlement,” said State Department spokesperson. Kirby assured that as a co-chair country, the United States “remains firmly committed to mediating a peaceful resolution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”
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Washington officially continues to emphasize that it is supporting the proposals to reduce the risk of violence along the line of contact, Armenia agreed to the US proposal, while Azerbaijan persistently extends its response. The co-chair countries, most likely, will continue to push their proposals and will not pay attention to different “memorable” statements by Baku regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement. Azerbaijani authorities, as a rule, when “cornered”, recall the necessity of signing the “peace agreement”, but deny any specific proposal made by the mediators at that moment, starting from the removal of snipers up to the initiative of creation of the mechanisms to study the border incidents. Even Russia at the level of Russia’s OSCE envoy, Alexander Lukashevich, said at this stage that Moscow still expects that a substantive dialogue between Yerevan and Baku.
But Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu met with the defense ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan. The defense ministries of Azerbaijani and Russian signed a Cooperation Plan – 2016. During the meeting with Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan, it was discussed to strengthen the Russian military base in Armenia and provide technical assistance to the Armenian army. Shoygu qualified the downing of the Russian “Su-24” by Turkey as “almost a betrayal.” “For us this has really been such an act, almost a betrayal, I would call it. Because we absolutely did not expect such actions by people, who declare to the whole world participation in the anti-terrorist operation against ISIL, other terrorist organizations in Syrian territory.” Defense ministers of Armenia and Russian, Seyran Ohanyan and Sergey Shoygu, respectively, signed an agreement in Moscow on creating a joint regional system for Air Defense in the Caucasus region of the Collective Security. Russian President Vladimir Putin, earlier, has ordered to sign an agreement with Armenia on creating an Air Defense joint system. The year 2016 is going to be a difficult foreign political year for Armenia. The developments and the processes in the region are moving very fast, demanding rapid and balanced decisions, which with its initiativeness and self-dependence will contribute to the interests of the RA citizens above all and the population of Artsakh.
Emma GABRIELYAN,
“Aravot” daily
