NAZIK ARMENAKYAN
ArmeniaNow
Karabakh elections were clouded by harsh statements of international structures.
While the May 23 Parliamentary elections in Nagorno Karabakh have changed little inside the self-declared republic, the very vote itself has attracted attention in the scope of Armenia-Azerbaijan-Turkey relations.
Diplomatic clouds started darkening over Nagorno Karabakh yet prior to the elections, when the European Union took a harsh stand stating that it “does not recognize as legal the forthcoming May 23 elections in Karabakh”.
On May 20 the European Parliament passed a resolution on South Caucasus containing an appeal to withdraw the Armenian troops from Azerbaijan’s “occupied lands”. The author of the resolution is a Bulgarian parliamentarian Yevgeni Kiriliov.
On May 25 the OSCE official site posted a statement that “since OSCE does not recognize Nagorno Karabakh's independence, the parliamentary elections will not influence the process of the Nagorno Karabakh issue settlement.”
OSCE Minsk group co-chairs on the Karabakh issue settlement in their turn released a statement concerning the elections: “Nagorno Karabakh has not been recognized as an independent and a sovereign country by any of the three co-chairing countries of OSCE Minsk group, neither by any other country including Armenia.”
Indeed, official Yerevan still has no intention of recognizing the second Armenian state's independence. “Recognition of Karabakh’s independence at this stage would be equal to declaring a war,” said Gagik Melikyan, member of the ruling Republican Party.
Special representative UN Secretary-General Walter Kalin, in his turn, called upon the international community to assist the withdrawal of Armenian troops from Azerbaijan's “occupied lands”.
“I am appealing to the world community to force Armenia within the OSCE Minsk group framework to meet the demands on liberating Azerbaijan’s occupied lands,” he said in Baku.
Nonetheless, Armenians took none of the statements so close to heart as the one by Russian Foreign Ministry’s official representative Andrey Nesterenko. Russia is considered to be Armenia’s strategic partner, and Russian-Armenian relations have deep historic roots.
“Moscow supports the principle of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, just as the other fundamental norms and principles of the international law,” stated Nesterenko.
“It’s a common knowledge that we do not recognize Nagorno Karabakh as an independent state. As for Russia, in close cooperation with its OSCE Minsk group partners, it will continue to support Azerbaijan and Armenia with enthusiasm to as soon as possible find a compromise in undoing the Karabakh knot,” he summed up.
On the one hand, some of the countries Armenia has friendly relations with – Russia, China or Iran – have always stated that they recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity because of their own hidden or apparent seats of separatism.
Russia spoke so because it has problems – North Caucasus, Tatarstan, as well as Kurile Islands; China spoke for Azerbaijan's territorial integrity because of Uigurian and Tibetan separatism, Iran because of Azeri separatism.
Moscow could, however, have avoided so explicitly stating it during the election period in Nagorno Karabakh.
For example, Teheran said nothing about the elections and territorial integrity of countries. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke in a very diplomatic manner on May 24: “Sincere and friendly relations have established between Iran and Armenia. Our countries are inseparably connected to each other, just as the other countries of the region”.
Iran's approach made Russia's statement even more troubling.
However, there is also the third side to the issue, related to the fact that Yerevan and Moscow never came to an agreement over the August war in Georgia two years ago.
Armenia could not afford speaking against Georgia, the territory of which serves as land communication linking blockaded Armenia to the outer world; besides 70 percent of cargo to Armenia passes through Georgia.
Moreover, a year later Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan signed a decree awarding his Georgian counterpart Mikhail Sahakashvili with the highest Armenian Order of Honor.
Back then the event caused Moscow's outrage, as to Moscow Sahakashvili is a “war criminal”
Russian officials did not hide their surprise over such a gesture on the part of their “strategic partner”.
“Any country is free to award anyone and anyhow it wants, as well as to praise or condemn. However, it is important to understand that one shouldn’t spit in the well they would have to keep drinking water from,” said Valeri Bogomolov, member of State Duma’s Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Vice-Chairman of State Duma’s Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Security Viktor Ilyukhin said that “Armenia’s demonstrative handing of the highest state award to Georgian President Mikhail Sahakashvili is a tactless and unfriendly step towards Russia. It will, undoubtedly, leave an unpleasant aftertaste.”
That aftertaste has become probably the bitterest if indeed it contributed to the darkened diplomatic clouds on Karabakh’s horizon.
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