SERGE SARGSYAN – DMITRY MEDVEDEV: MEETING SERVES ITS PURPOSE
Vardan Grigoryan
Hayots Ashkhar Daily
04 Sep 2008
Armenia
Moscow approaches the attitude of the Armenian leadership with
understanding
The Armenian and Russian Presidents’ meeting in Sochi was the first
after the recent developments in South Ossetia and Georgia, therefore,
it’s quite natural that Serge Sargsyan and Dmitry Medvedev tried
to clarify the two countries’ approaches with regard to the new
geopolitical developments in the region.
Russia is currently pushing forward the issue of the role of the
member states of the CIS Collective Treaty Organization. It’s not
accidental the Russian media have been recently advancing the idea of
elaborating a unanimous attitude towards Georgia and even recognizing
the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia during the summit of
the organization leaders scheduled for September 5.
Let’s note that despite the strengthening of Russia’s positions,
Moscow has not yet managed to overcome the diplomatic blockade of
the countries it has recognized. No country apart from Russia has
recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia for the
time being, therefore Moscow is carrying out consistent work with
its CSTO allies and a number of Asian and Latin American countries.
But the whole problem is that the United States is conducting an active
diplomacy as well. In particul ar, US Vice President Dick Chain’s
regional visit pursues a goal to consolidate Azerbaijan, Georgia
and Ukraine (countries that have become anxious because of Russia’s
actions) and grant them certain security guarantees. It’s not yet
clear whether Washington will manage to find proper prescriptions for
curing the fear of the Azerbaijani, Georgian and Ukrainian leaders or
whether these countries will again find a shelter under the "wings"
of Russia, some of them resorting to peaceful methods and others
trying to achieve that through a shift of power.
In conditions of this kind of extremely difficult situation, Turkey
has started an independent game, and its unpredictable "pendulum"
may, at any moment, take a turning to this or that direction.
In the existing conditions, the Armenian leadership continues
making active and consistent steps towards strengthening its
political-military cooperation with Russia in the bilateral
format, within the frameworks of the Collective Security Treaty
Organization. And the recent evidence of such efforts are "Rubezh
2008" military trainings and the session of the Secretaries of the
Security Councils of the ally states.
However, our country is the only member state of the CIS Collective
Treaty Organization that has become the "hostage" of the ongoing
Russian-American confrontation because of being in the South Caucasian
region on the hand a nd not having a direct border with Russia on
the other.
Moreover, our country’s relations with Georgia have now ceased to
be purely Armenian-Georgian relations. They may as well be called
Armenian-American relations, with Georgia being their mediator. And any
careless step in such relations may result in a "chain reaction" on the
international arena, and what’s still more dangerous – in our region.
The reason is that Armenia continues to remain the security guarantor
of the only unrecognized state in the region, i.e. the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic, with Azerbaijan not concealing its aggressive
goals in relation to the latter. And now that our country has found
itself between the Karabakh-Azerbaijani and Russian-Georgian battles,
the task of assuming the chairmanship of the CIS Collective Security
Treaty Organization (which, during the Summit to be held in Moscow
on September 5, is going to adopt clear-cut attitudes with regard to
the Russian-Georgian conflict) falls to its lot.
Following President Serge Sargsyan’s recent meeting with the
Russian President D. Medvedev, Sergey Prikhodko, Assistant to the RF
President, announced that Moscow expects its partners "to confirm their
understanding of its attitude." Let’s confess, however, that the term
"understanding" is broad in nature, while Armenia is the only CSTO
member state which, in principle, only welcomes the processes of the
recognition of nations’ rights to self-determination, no matter in
what country of the world such processes may occur. By this principle,
Armenia has actually displayed its consistent and unequivocal support
to the recent step undertaken by Russia. The matter concerns not just
the principle as such, but rather, the specific political technologies
aimed at implementing it.
It was at this point that our country and its leader expected their
strategic ally to display an accurate and comprehensive understanding
of the balanced and moderate attitudes adopted in relation to the
Russian-Georgian conflict.
In yesterday’s session of the Secretaries of the Security Councils of
the CSTO member states, Nikolay Patrushev, Secretary of the RF Security
Council, announced that, "The recognition of the independence of South
Ossetia and Abkhazia is within the jurisdiction of any state, and it is
up to any state to decide whether or not to recognize those countries."
This testifies to the fact that the negotiations of the two countries’
Presidents have produced their positive results. Furthermore,
N. Patrushev has also announced that "Russia will not exert pressure
upon any country for achieving the recognition of the independence
of South Ossetia and Abkhazia."
Thus, despite remaining an ardent supporter of the right of nations
to self-determination and realizing the importance of exercising that
right in our region, Armenia is still able to keep a balance among
the different poles of the ongoing South Caucasian confrontation and
give Azerbaijan, its "rival", the "honor" of making the first choice.
However, if the latter makes its clear-cut choice in the near future,
Armenia will have to undertake relevant steps by all means.