Armen Gevorgyan’s speech at PACE
Mr. President,
The situation in our region is becoming increasingly unstable and controversial. President Aliyev, supported by Turkey, has perceived the congratulatory messages from the European leadership on his re-election as a European mandate to continue his course against Armenians. At the same time, tens of thousands of Armenians after ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian prisoners in Baku, do not see the same European drive in holding Baku accountable for crimes against humanity.
What’s really going on? The EU and the U.S. are in pursuit of a so-called success story in the form of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace agreement against the background of the deadlock in the situation in Ukraine and Israel. In this, Armenia is found as the weak link and is getting strong pressure, and making more and more concessions for the above pursuit to materialise. In exchange, the Armenian people are offered an ephemeral European perspective and new promises of a better life.
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Doubts about the usefulness of such a perspective are not rooted in its degree of utility or necessity, but simply because it is not realistic. On top of many other aspects, this scenario has emerged in the context of strengthening anti-Russian sentiments and the expediency of Armenia’s geopolitical turn towards the West, and unfortunately not in the context of the values and principles of the freedoms, rights or democratic governance.
And the most absurd thing is that the European prospect for Armenia has found itself in the grip of the Turkic coalition, represented by Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Turkish and Azerbaijani Governments maintain that the international community and the Western powers shall not assist Armenia to ensure its national security and defense capabilities.
The EU and the United States have shown that they are ready to show understanding about their pursuits of establishing new rules of the game in the South Caucasus. I would like to see a very simple truth well appreciated in both East and West: first, strategic presence in Armenia necessarily entails becoming its security guarantor. And second: exit from Armenia leads to withdrawal from South Caucasus.
The experience in Ukraine manifestly has shown that decisions requiring consensus are either being adopted too late, or through many difficulties bordering with failure. At the same time, Azerbaijan continues to hook new European countries on its gas and oil needle, thereby creating a broader alliance of its partners. Such a pro-Azerbaijani, and in fact anti-European partnership will hinder the adoption or implementation of any pro-Armenian policies in the future.
Colleagues,
The active entry of the West into the region through Armenia, along with the deferred issue of Turkey’s immediate European prospects, as well as without taking into account the historically established Russian and Iranian interests in the South Caucasus, could lead to the emergence of a powerful anti-Armenian coalition consisting of Russia, Turkey, Iran and Azerbaijan. The latest tension between Iran and Israel, as well as the followed discussions in UN Security Council, have confirmed that Armenia cannot ignore the strong civilizational presence in the region and be guided only by new interests. Otherwise, potential geopolitical isolation of Armenia and a new regional escalation are inevitable.