No Competition

Haykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
6 Nov 04

by Anna Akopyan’s

Yesterday 5 October in Yerevan NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop
Scheffer met President Robert Kocharyan, Defence Minister Serzh
Sarkisyan and Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan to wrap up his
three-day visit to the region. At a briefing after the meeting with
Robert Kocharyan, the secretary-general said what is normally said
after such meetings. With a slight difference he said the same things
in Georgia and Azerbaijan.

But unlike in these two countries, in Yerevan the secretary-general
specially announced several times that NATO does not intend to compete
with other structures or states in this region. It is clear, of
course, that the secretary-general did not have to dwell on this in
Georgia and Azerbaijan. Armenia, however, is different. It is known
that Georgia and Azerbaijan oriented themselves towards NATO a long
time ago, but Armenia remains oriented towards Russia, whereas NATO
announced the South Caucasus a zone of its interests with all the
consequences stemming from this.

By the way, a few words about the consequences: Yesterday 5 November
during a meeting with students of Yerevan State University, the
secretary-general said that NATO does not plan to deploy troops in
this region, be it in Georgia or Azerbaijan or Armenia. “Yesterday 4
November we had a long conversation with Georgian President Mikheil
Saakashvili. He has numerous problems: South Osetia, Abkhazia and
Russian bases. I arrived in Yerevan and same thing again: the Karabakh
problem, that needs to be settled. But it is not in the interests of
NATO or countries of this region to establish NATO military bases in
this region,” Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said.

Nevertheless he hinted that Armenia as well as Georgia need NATO
forces. He also added that NATO does not plan to take part in the
Karabakh issue settlement process. But he certainly discussed the
Karabakh problem with Robert Kocharyan. Touching on Scheffer’s
statement “not to compete with other states” let us note that
yesterday 5 November the secretary-general was simply trying to
persuade Armenia to get rid of all the conditions in its relations
with NATO. “I know that hostility towards NATO was sowed into the
minds of people in this region for several generations. We know this
for a fact. NATO was the enemy of the USSR, but today we live at a
different time. We must make use of that. The world has changed and
there should be no anxiety about NATO any more,” Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
said at the meeting with students. “I am not here to compete. The
Republic of Armenia may develop relations with NATO without damaging
its relations with Russia,” he said. By the way, the secretary-general
also specially stressed that though the times and the world have
changed, but the values laid at the foundation of NATO have remained
the same: democracy, human rights, freedom of speech and press and the
supremacy of law.