“Let’s assume that it is a bottomless and impassable swamp there”
On Feb. 12, Serzh Sargsyan in his remarks on the implementation of the Constitutional Changes , referring to the future of Armenia’s political system noted that a kind of new, multifaceted and altering challenges the region, where our Fatherland is located, is facing nowadays, “Naturally, these challenges and threats cannot circumvent us and by “us” I mean Armenia homeland, Artsakh, and the entire Armenian nation worldwide. But our historical experience teaches us that every challenge is also an opportunity.”
Noting that it is certainly impossible to speak about the situation in Armenia without giving a precise evaluation of the influence of the outer world, that our immediate external environment is rough, intricate and very often extremely contradictive; besides, Armenia is part of the global economic system which means that we cannot evade tendencies coming from the global market, he emphasized, “The notion that we cannot live well as long as the Karabakh issue is not resolved or the blockade imposed by Turkey is not lifted is simply unacceptable. Deficiencies in our state governance don’t result from that. We all know too well the approaches of the authorities in Turkey and in Azerbaijan, and we learned them long ago. But the matter of the fact is that their years-long policy didn’t yield the results they yearned to see. They tried to talk to us from the position of threat, coercion, and force. It is quite unpromising to talk to us that way and will not produce results, just as didn’t produce so far.”
He once again stated that negotiations on Artsakh issue will continue. Armenia’s position is unchanged, “The Artsakh issue will be resolved through the free self-determination of the people of Artsakh. All other issues are subordinate to that and will find their logical and fair solution parallel to the resolution of the problem. As long as the main problem remains, as long as the status of Artsakh remains obscure, the problem will not find its solution.” As for the normalization of relations with Turkey, S. Sargsyan does not see any possibility for progress at this point, “We have been living in these conditions for 25 years. We got used to these conditions and adjusted to them. We do not and will not strap the possibilities for our advancement with these problems. We should get used to the idea that to the East from Martakert and Martuni and to the West from Gyumri and Armavir we don’t have real partners. We have lived without them until now, maintaining more or less our speed of development. Let’s imagine that there is nothing but a bottomless and unsurpassable swamp.”
Read also
With our two other neighbors – Georgia and Iran – our relations develop in the good neighborly spirit, noted S. Sargsyan, and added, “Obviously, we have not encountered any problems there. We highly value the partnership with these countries, and we will continue to work with Tbilisi and Tehran in the same spirit.” Summarizing his speech, he stressed, “All in all, our foreign policy is predictable and has always been far from adventurism. We have always been ready to develop positive and sincere relations with all based on mutual respect, trust, and interests. We have never tried to play on the contradictions of the great powers and important geopolitical centers, have never tried to get cheap and short-lived benefit from their conflicting views.”
Thus, Serzh Sargsyan proved that Armenia is in a difficult geopolitical situation today, he even noted that these challenges and threats cannot circumvent us. With an assessment that every challenge is also an opportunity, he, however, did not mention the support that Armenia can expect, for example, from the strategic ally Russia. With internal changing in Armenia, and by the imperative of forming relationships based on the mutual respect with the states, trust and interests, essentially, Serzh Sargsyan stated and confessed that by and large, Armenia is alone in this complicated and tangled situation. However, he considered the popular belief unacceptable that as long as the Karabakh issue is not resolved or the blockade imposed by Turkey, we are not going to live well.
NATO is concerned over the situation in the contact line
Recently, NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the South Caucasus and Central Asia, James Appathurai, made an official visit to Azerbaijan to discuss the situation around the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijani President and Foreign Minister. NATO is not directly involved in the process of resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Appathurai said in Baku, adding, “NATO has its own position on this. The situation in the contact line causes concern. The situation is tough. The Alliance considers that the conflicting parties should work towards a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Our official position is that we support the Minsk Group and a peaceful resolution based on the principle of mutual consent.”
The German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, referring to the expectations associated with the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office of Germany, a few days ago, stressed that Germany is for intensification of negotiations on Nagorno-Karabakh in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, “To be honest, I do not want to adopt the kind of fatalism that labels these conflicts as “frozen”. Each year they continue they bring hardship to the people affected and stagnation to the regions involved. We want to stabilize the ceasefires, build trust and alleviate the day-to-day lives of the people by taking small but tangible steps, such as improving economic exchange,” he said.
Steinmeier said that as regards the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, armed clashes along the line of contact and the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan give us cause for concern. Germany is campaigning for an intensification of the negotiations under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group. One important step to this end would be the creation of a mechanism to investigate violations of the ceasefire, he noted. Officially, Baku openly defying calls by the international community continues avoids the clear answer regarding the idea of implementation of creating border incidents. Whereas the international community, recently, is emphasizing the need to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group by failing the efforts of Baku to transfer Nagorno-Karabakh issue to other formats.
Bordyuzha recommends to “read Marx”
Recently, at the press conference held in “Sputnik” Press Center, CSTO Secretary General Nikolay Bordyuzha was reminded about Serzh Sargsyan’s statement, asking why the CSTO does not react to this situation, and whether the CSTO’s silence does not cast a doubt on the significance and prestige of this structure. CSTO Secretary General seemed not to like this question. He noted that when he was last time in Yerevan, he had transferred the package of the statements to Armenia’s Security Council that were made by the foreign ministers and appropriate officials that are related to the situation in the Caucasus. Bordyuzha added that he was surprised at such questions raised by the Armenian journalists, he urged to read the annual final documents of the CSTO, the ministers’ statements, which necessarily refer to the situation in the Caucasus. “Either you are not interested in it or are deliberately not talking about it,” – rebuked Bordyuzha to the Armenian journalists and reminded his interview to “Russia 24” TV channel a month ago, saying, “We are greatly concerned about the situation in the Caucasus, especially in connection with Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, where heavy weapons and tanks are used and there are casualties. Further escalation of the conflict is unacceptable, the entire Caucasus will “explode”.” To another question that the RA Government is unhappy with the CSTO’s posture on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and whether a change in the posture is possible, the CSTO Secretary General noted that he does not see the need to somehow change the CSTO’s posture on this very delicate issue for the CSTO is involved the settlement process of the Nagorno-Karabakh, all CSTO member states for the conflict to be resolved exclusively by political methods, peacefully, and all the states are against the growth of the tension in Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the use of heavy artillery.
CSTO Secretary General recommended, “For the rest, read Marx, everything is written there.” In December last year, at the CSTO summit, Serzh Sargsyan spoke about the CSTO’s reputation, noting, “Every time when the armed forces of Azerbaijan use guns, rocket mortars, or artillery against the Republic of Armenia, they are firing at Astana, Dushanbe, Bishkek, Moscow, and Minsk. I would like to remind that we have a corresponding article in our Charter, and if we don’t implement that article, if we don’t discuss the situation, if we don’t view it as necessary to pick up the phone and make a call to learn what’s going on in the allied Armenia and along with that vote against each other’s interests in international organizations, adopt with third countries bilateral declarations the essence of which is aimed against the CSTO allies, we simply bring under that fire our entire Organization, its reputation, and significance.”
While Bordyuzha obviously ignores the available and regularly escalated the situation on the border of Armenia-Azerbaijan by preferring to Nagorno-Karabakh conflict preferring to raise the inadmissibility of further escalation of hostilities of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and pointing to the responsibility of the OSCE Minsk Group. However, what prevents the CSTO at least once make a statement of condemning the fact of infringements by Azerbaijan against CSTO member Armenia’s borders, resulting in the killing and injuring of civilians. One more clarification, which was made by Bordyuzha: the No 102 military base is not designed to resist the Turkish army.
To the question of whether the potential of No 102 military base is sufficient to resist the Turkish army in the event of the Russian-Turkish War, Bordyuzha replied, “The potential of No 102 military base is sufficient to solve the problems facing it. The No 102 military base is not designed to withstand the Turkish army but to ensure stability in the region. If this military base begins to operate, it will operate in the system of other measures that will be initiated by the countries in the region, including Russia. Hence, I do not think it is necessary to increase the forces in the region today.”
EMMA GABRIELYAN,
“Aravot” daily
