Political scientist Styopa Safaryan believes that this is not a coincidence
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), on January 26, at the winter session, rejected British MP Robert Walter’s report called “The escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and other occupied territories of Azerbaijan” and sent it back of the Commission on political issues, while the report by Bosnia MP Milica Marković called “Inhabitants of frontier regions of Azerbaijan are deliberately deprived of water ” was adopted. We learn from the data published on the PACE website that Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia and Serbia, nearly the whole staff, have voted in favor of Robert Walter’s report. While the aforementioned countries plus Ukraine, almost the whole staff, have voted in favor of the report by Milica Marković.
Chairman of the Armenian Institute for International Security Affairs, a former member of the Armenia’s delegation to PACE, Stepan Safaryan, in an interview with “Aravot”, expressed such an opinion that the stances of Georgia and Ukraine are not a coincidence. “Let’s start with the fact that the sensitivity of Georgia and Ukraine regarding our conflict had tremendously increased when we were all within the Eastern Partnership. Unlike the previous periods when Ukraine and Moldova were feeling freer to support the resolutions and defend Azerbaijan, then appearing in the format of cooperation with the EU was moving them to a different field. They have already become very cautious in dealing with Armenia.”
According to him, the Eurasian Economic Union separated Armenia and the aforementioned countries, “The vector of Armenia’s foreign policy, indeed, effects such vote when we are on different sides of the dividing line. The second reason was that Armenia was too careless for the Armenian-Ukrainian relations. It refers to the incident in the Crimea and the UN vote. Let no one from the Armenian delegation feel uneasy from the Ukrainian delegation.”
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Styopa Safaryan raises a question of what the Armenian delegation was expecting when at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Armenian delegation, on behalf of Artashes Geghamyan, are going and defending Russia about Ukraine, “What were you thinking? After that, was the Ukrainian MP or his faction colleague who is already in the PACE going to defend Armenia’s posture? Of course, no.” He believes that Armenia was more tactful on Georgian conflict that on Ukraine, “We did not recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia but our country’s pro-Russian posture and serving their interests is already a problem, they feel the Russian breadth in the rear. It is natural that they act accordingly to defend themselves. People are trying to hold balances from the standpoint of their country. In this case, their vote becomes clear.”
To our question of what lessons Armenia should learn after all this, Mr. Safaryan replied, “First, the Kiselyov deputies should not be sent to Europe, moreover, to appoint them as a head of the delegation. Becoming a PACE vice president, he guaranteed himself that Serzh Sargsyan will not fire him from the office because in that case there would be comments that finally we have got this position, let him work. I would like to inform you that this position is not given for merits. It is done on a rotational basis.” The second activity according to Styopa Safaryan is that there should be a review of the composition of the delegation, “Knowledge of English is mandatory but still not enough. The person must have something definite to say and be able to pack it correctly and leave an impression that he is pursuing the interests of his own country rather than Assad’s or the Kremlin’s. This National Assembly is poorer in human resources than the previous one. Of what we have, we must select those who are welcomed by the Europeans.” The first figures of the country should learn lessons too.
The analyst notes that they need to review their foreign policy as it affects the work of the MPs. “If the general routes of the country are wrong, in this case, it will be more difficult. Armenian delegation is always going to feel the report on the Sarsang reservoir on its skin. This is going to remain as an officially formed posture by PACE. I have myself felt the effect of such reports when I was an MP.”
Armenia has allowed a rude strategic error on the report on the Sarsang reservoir, “Initially, the tactics of blackmail was adopted. They were saying, change the title as we want then you will participate. Who the author of this strategy was, should give up his powers. As a result, a very tough stance was imposed to Karabakh. We have a chance to these MPs having good relations with Azerbaijan to justify the title of their report w/o visiting Karabakh. It was no accidence that Milica announced that she was not allowed to visit Karabakh.” Styopa Safaryan also noted that if the report could state that Karabakh has deliberately deprived Azerbaijan of water, “couldn’t they say that Azerbaijan with its snipers deliberately does not allow the villagers to harvest their crop along the border regions of Armenia. This was to be told to the rapporteurs.”
Ashot ISRAELYAN, “Aravot” daily
