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Serzh Sargsyan cuts short vacation for talks with Vladimir Putin

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  • Serzh Sargsyan cuts short vacation for talks with Vladimir Putin

    Nezavisimaya Gazeta , Russia
    Aug 8 2012


    Iranian problem of Russia and Armenia. Serzh Sargsyan cuts short
    vacation for talks with Vladimir Putin

    by Yuriy Roks

    Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan begins his working visit today. As
    the Kremlin press service announced, in the course of a meeting with
    Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin, questions of bilateral
    cooperation, the level of cooperation "within the scope of integration
    processes, and specifically in such structures as the CIS and the
    CSTO," as well as the current pace of international life, including
    the situation in the Transcaucasus, will be discussed.

    Commenting on Sargsyan's trip to Moscow, the Yerevan publication
    Zhamanak (Vremya), expresses the suspicion that "something
    extraordinary is happening." In substantiation of its version, it is
    saying that Putin is planning a visit to Armenia in September, when
    the CSTO exercises will take place in the republic, and that, if
    everything is good in Moscow-Yerevan relations, then why did Sargsyan
    need to cut short his vacation and go to Belokamennaya? Zhamanak hints
    that Russian high-level leaders are supposedly interested in a return
    of Armenian ex-President Robert Kocharyan to politics, and are not
    very happy that their plans on this question run counter to the
    opinion of the Armenian authorities.

    A source in Yerevan suggested that "conspiracy theories" should not be
    taken seriously, if only because the Armenian president's schedule
    -and it was publicized by his staff not on the eve of the visit, but
    much earlier - pointed out that "Sargsyan would cut short his vacation
    to visit Moscow." There is nothing urgent about the visit. It was
    planned long ago, our Nezavisimaya Gazeta source assured us.

    However, Sargsyan's talks with Putin will not be easy. Of course, the
    leaders of the strategic partner countries will discuss questions of
    bilateral cooperation. They will also probably not overlook Armenia's
    request to allocate a loan (according to certain information, 1
    billion dollars -Nezavisimaya Gazeta), which, we might say, was
    overlooked some time ago during the work of the intergovernmental
    commission. But the main topics of the negotiations will evidently be
    regional. These are the events in Syria, which have caused an exodus
    of Armenians, Abkhazians, Cherkess, and representatives of the Turkic
    peoples to their historic homelands, but mainly - the scenario that is
    forming around Iran and into which Azerbaijan is being drawn.

    Baku's attempts to be in the front ranks of the anti-Iranian coalition
    have begun to bear fruit. In recent days, there have been several
    indicative statements in the US by leading representatives of the
    American political establishment, directly concerning Azerbaijan.

    Former Congressman Michael McMahon called upon the White House to take
    measures to protect Azerbaijan against the Iran's threats. The
    politician sees the reason for the threat - which still does not go
    beyond the bounds of propaganda for the purpose of destabilizing the
    situation within Azerbaijan - in the fact that Baku is a partner of
    Washington and Tel-Aviv, who are enemies of Tehran. Meanwhile, Tehran
    itself is friendly with Yerevan, which is at odds with Baku. The
    logic, whose roots go back somewhere to the system of hierarchical
    relations of feudal Europe, is unconvincing, especially if we recall
    the relations within the triangle of Baku-Ankara-Tel-Aviv, in which
    the last two cannot be said to have warm feelings towards each other.
    However, American politicians have managed to teach them to take a
    "non-standard" view of various situations and proposals which are
    usually followed by actions. In the context of Azerbaijan, we would
    like to hope that the matter will not go so far as the final stage -
    that is, the country will not be drawn into the "heavyweight
    proceedings."

    Not long before McMahon, incumbent Congressman Dana Rohrabacher called
    upon the White House to focus attention on the sad fate of the
    Azerbaijani people, who are living divided, and called for support of
    the struggle of South Azerbaijan - a region in Iran - for
    self-determination. We may recall that, in February of this year,
    there were appeals in the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan to rename the
    country by means of adding the word, "Northern," to its current name.
    At that time, representatives of Baku had proposed to view the idea of
    several deputies as an individual initiative, which did not presuppose
    any global plans for annexation of the territories. But now we may say
    that a trial balloon was launched in the Azerbaijani parliament in the
    winter - such coincidences do not happen "just like that."

    Washington's scenario is clear. The more countries there are that are
    unhappy with Iran, the easier it is to depict it as the centre of
    evil, whose "healing" is possible by means of a surgical operation.
    Azerbaijan's goal in the possible commotion is to be closer to the
    leaders of the future coalition and, by providing services to them to
    the extent of its capacities, to get a place under the sum. This is
    evidenced by the exposed plots, and by the suppression of activity of
    the Iranian secret agent network, and by the reciprocal propaganda,
    which is no less fierce than that of Tehran, and by the decision to
    exclude the Naftiran Intertrade Co (NICO) from the project for
    building the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAR), and by the
    transparent hints that it would also be excluded from the Shakh Deniz
    consortium, in which NICO owns a 10 per cent share, and also by a
    series of diplomatic scandals. In positioning itself as an enemy of
    Iran and an ally of the US and Company, it is unlikely that Baku's
    first priority goal is to "reunite" North and South Azerbaijan in a
    convenient arrangement. Its present-day task is evidently more modest:
    To get assistance from the West in regulating the Karabakh problem
    according to its own scenario. It is no accident that a number of Baku
    officials responded to the statements heard in the US about
    Azerbaijani-Iranian relations with a reminder of Baku's readiness to
    ensure "the high autonomous status of Karabakh within the complement
    of Azerbaijan."

    Yerevan is "interested" in what is going on, because it touches upon
    its national interests. Moscow too is "interested," as it considers
    the South Caucasus to be not only a zone of its geopolitical
    interests, but also its responsibility. Armenia - which borders
    Western Iran (on which sights have been set), Azerbaijan and Turkey,
    as well as Georgia, whose relations with Russia are generally known -
    cannot help but be concerned about the question and mechanism of
    receiving aid from its strategic partner and from the CSTO, if it
    should suddenly be needed. It is natural that Russia also has
    something to think about in case of extraordinary events. For example,
    at the very least, about supplying a military base located in the
    Armenian city of Gyumri.

    [translated from Russian]

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