Within a month Armenia participated in two large NATO military exercises., Saber Guardian 2017 NATO exercises, took place in Romania on July 11-20, the largest exercises in its history, and the NATO Noble Partner 2017 exercise was held in Georgia from July 31 to August 12. We asked Marta Ayvazyan, former head of the RA Foreign Ministry’s NATO department, an expert at the Armenian Centre for Democracy, Security and Development, how we should view Armenia’s step.
“This step can be viewed from the perspective of Armenia-Russia-Azerbaijan relations, in particular from the Russian-Azerbaijani military operations. Armenia’s “strategic ally”, the member state of the same defensive structure, the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair, therefore, the country responsible for the peaceful settlement of the Artsakh conflict, is continuously arming the opposite side of the conflict, which is absolutely unacceptable. Taking into account that these “commercial transactions” obviously threaten Armenia’s security, create tension and hinder peaceful resolution of conflict over two decades under unsettled conflict circumstances, and, in particular, referring to the last year’s April war and its consequences, Armenia’s step can be regarded as a specific message to Russia.
However, only such messages or, if you want, demarches, which remain at the declarative level and do not get a practical continuation, in my opinion are not enough, they will not force Russia to stop supplying arms to Azerbaijan, will not contribute to our state interests and goals. If Armenia strives to strengthen its security, its international reputation and position, including within the framework of the Artsakh conflict negotiation process, it must take practical steps”, our interlocutor mentioned.
Emma GABRIELYAN
