With regard to the implementation of the agreements reached in Vienna, recently two statements were voiced. At the meeting held under Armenia’s chairmanship in the CSTO, in the joint statement of the foreign ministers, the latter reaffirmed the necessity of the fulfillment of the agreements reached in Vienna and St. Petersburg. The other statement was made by the Head of EU Delegation to Armenia and Ambassador Piotr Świtalski.
He literally stated the following at the press conference in Yerevan, “The agreements reached in Vienna must be implemented as effective tools paving a way to positive changes.” Certainly, in terms of purely declarative, these statements can be considered as favorable for the Armenian side. However, there are expertise opinions that these statements are declarative and do not have much weight. According to these opinions, the CSTO statements should have at least emphasizes that, for example, if there were encroachments on Armenia, then the CSTO is ready to react harshly, or Armenia can apply to the CSTO any time and the CSTO will react again.
In an interview with “Aravot”, Republican MP Artak Davtyan countered that it is not realistic to put forward such problems. Artak Davtyan had no hope that there would be such a statement by the CSTO, “CSTO’s mandate is completely different, so as the scope of powers.” Back to the weight of such statements and how the Armenian side can use them, Mr. Davtyan said, “Of course, if the military aggression is repeated, we must be the punishing side, no one else will do it for us. If we think that others should punish instead of us, then we are reminiscent of an alpine violet beetle from this onset. The world is not a seesaw, moreover, these relations cannot be a seesaw knowing our neighbor well. We need to understand ourselves that we are actually the punishing side, simply our future actions will be invulnerable in introducing to the EU and CSTO partners.”
Aghasi Yenokyan, Director of the Armenian Center for Political and International Studies, opines that the CSTO’s statement is pro-Armenian, “A more detailed and specific statements and arrangements should be obtained during the meetings of the parties as a continuation of the Vienna process.” According to Mr. Yenokyan, “We could not reach the more, it was good that the CSTO statement covered the role of the Vienna agreements rather than Russia’s role in the settlement of the conflict. It was the maximum that we could take.” According to Aghasi Yenokyan, this is a serious ground to cite to the Vienna process from now on, “We can use it in the sense to reject all kinds of talks with the mediation of one side. If Russia’s tries to take over the mediation in its hands, we can cite to these statements again.” However, according to Aghasi Yenokyan, these statements would not cause a particular change in the negotiation process.
Read also
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
“Aravot”
07.07.2016
