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LET'S NOT BECOME A "BESIEGED FORTRESS"
by Ara Tadevosyan
Mediamax
Sept 4 2012
Armenia
Director of Mediamax
Over the last days our diplomats have been working to make so that the
European Union issued a favorable statement on Ramil Safarov's case.
The statement was made yesterday but it was like a cold shower
for many.
Although the European Union expressed concern by the decision of the
Azerbaijani President but, actually, did not condemn it. Moreover,
the EU has in fact "covered" Hungary's decision to transfer Safarov
to Azerbaijan. It was also quite cynical that the EU had included
traditional words about "reconciliation" into the statement about
granting pardon to a killer.
The work of our Foreign Ministry is another topic. It's obvious that if
the ministry had worked better the EU wouldn't make such a statement:
If they hadn't prevented Safarov's extradition to Azerbaijan, at
least they could get ready for it having informed the world about
the possible deal beforehand. I think, at the press conference with
his Argentinean counterpart, Foreign Minister Nalbandyan must come
up with an assessment about the activity of the Ministry.
After yesterday's statement by the European Union, a lot of
opinions were voiced like: "Europe has finally discredited itself",
"No rapprochement with such Europe", etc. Let the advocates of such
approaches pardon me, but they are either hopeless romantics or they
simply understand nothing in international relations and politics.
Politics is based only on interests. It's a waste of time trying to
fight it or making soulful statements.
This way or another, the EU should have naturally defended its member
state - Hungary. When on August 31 the President of Armenia spoke
about the suspension of relations with Hungary, many people did not
understand what had happened indeed. This is what happened: for the
first time in its history, Armenia has made a demarche against EU
and NATO member state. Let's put aside the motives and the propriety
of the demarche and let's consider only the fact. In this case it's
not that significant that Hungary is a "new" or "second-grade" member
of the EU and NATO and its Prime Minister Victor Orban has been long
annoying the EU leadership. It is significant that such super-powerful
"clubs" do not betray their members so easily. The brightest example
is Greece. Whole Europe understands that it's almost impossible to
save the Greek economy from collapse but they keep on taking efforts.
Armenia is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization
(CSTO). Can you remember any cases when Yerevan criticized Belarus
or Tajikistan? There haven't been such cases. Every union is based
on a dominant interest (in our case it is the provision of physical
security) which governs all other interests. Of course, there are
tremendous differences in the system of values of EU, NATO and CSTO,
but there is one principle common to all of them - the member state
is always allowed more then a partner.
When the President announced about the suspension of relations with
Hungary, a few remembered that Armenia conducts negotiations with EU on
Association Agreement and Armenia is close to signing the Visa Regime
Facilitation Agreement. The following scenario is also quite possible:
Hungary, a member of the European Union, may hamper the negotiations
just like Cyprus does in case of Turkey. The latter swells with rage
but can't do anything: Cyprus is a member of the European Union.
The suspension of relations with Hungary was, most likely, the only
possible option. In fact, the Foreign Ministry has left no other choice
to the Armenian President. However, today they have to build a policy
of balanced steps and resist the temptation to acquire the psychology
of "besieged fortress". All the besieged fortresses eventually fall,
or their defenders become so exhausted that the end of the siege
slightly differs from defeat.
Not disregarding our own interests we have to continue relations
with the European Union and NATO, denying slogans like "we don't need
them, we can do without them". We have to remember that it's we who
want rapprochement with Brussels, not vice versa. We ask the EU to
organize a Donors Conference or provide funds for the modernization
of our border check points, etc.
Yes, we do have serious problems, but they are not unsolvable. We
simply need new, devoted and freely thinking people who can build
this policy of sober steps, not only in foreign but also in domestic
politics. The latter is the root of all our foreign political
complications.
by Ara Tadevosyan
Mediamax
Sept 4 2012
Armenia
Director of Mediamax
Over the last days our diplomats have been working to make so that the
European Union issued a favorable statement on Ramil Safarov's case.
The statement was made yesterday but it was like a cold shower
for many.
Although the European Union expressed concern by the decision of the
Azerbaijani President but, actually, did not condemn it. Moreover,
the EU has in fact "covered" Hungary's decision to transfer Safarov
to Azerbaijan. It was also quite cynical that the EU had included
traditional words about "reconciliation" into the statement about
granting pardon to a killer.
The work of our Foreign Ministry is another topic. It's obvious that if
the ministry had worked better the EU wouldn't make such a statement:
If they hadn't prevented Safarov's extradition to Azerbaijan, at
least they could get ready for it having informed the world about
the possible deal beforehand. I think, at the press conference with
his Argentinean counterpart, Foreign Minister Nalbandyan must come
up with an assessment about the activity of the Ministry.
After yesterday's statement by the European Union, a lot of
opinions were voiced like: "Europe has finally discredited itself",
"No rapprochement with such Europe", etc. Let the advocates of such
approaches pardon me, but they are either hopeless romantics or they
simply understand nothing in international relations and politics.
Politics is based only on interests. It's a waste of time trying to
fight it or making soulful statements.
This way or another, the EU should have naturally defended its member
state - Hungary. When on August 31 the President of Armenia spoke
about the suspension of relations with Hungary, many people did not
understand what had happened indeed. This is what happened: for the
first time in its history, Armenia has made a demarche against EU
and NATO member state. Let's put aside the motives and the propriety
of the demarche and let's consider only the fact. In this case it's
not that significant that Hungary is a "new" or "second-grade" member
of the EU and NATO and its Prime Minister Victor Orban has been long
annoying the EU leadership. It is significant that such super-powerful
"clubs" do not betray their members so easily. The brightest example
is Greece. Whole Europe understands that it's almost impossible to
save the Greek economy from collapse but they keep on taking efforts.
Armenia is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization
(CSTO). Can you remember any cases when Yerevan criticized Belarus
or Tajikistan? There haven't been such cases. Every union is based
on a dominant interest (in our case it is the provision of physical
security) which governs all other interests. Of course, there are
tremendous differences in the system of values of EU, NATO and CSTO,
but there is one principle common to all of them - the member state
is always allowed more then a partner.
When the President announced about the suspension of relations with
Hungary, a few remembered that Armenia conducts negotiations with EU on
Association Agreement and Armenia is close to signing the Visa Regime
Facilitation Agreement. The following scenario is also quite possible:
Hungary, a member of the European Union, may hamper the negotiations
just like Cyprus does in case of Turkey. The latter swells with rage
but can't do anything: Cyprus is a member of the European Union.
The suspension of relations with Hungary was, most likely, the only
possible option. In fact, the Foreign Ministry has left no other choice
to the Armenian President. However, today they have to build a policy
of balanced steps and resist the temptation to acquire the psychology
of "besieged fortress". All the besieged fortresses eventually fall,
or their defenders become so exhausted that the end of the siege
slightly differs from defeat.
Not disregarding our own interests we have to continue relations
with the European Union and NATO, denying slogans like "we don't need
them, we can do without them". We have to remember that it's we who
want rapprochement with Brussels, not vice versa. We ask the EU to
organize a Donors Conference or provide funds for the modernization
of our border check points, etc.
Yes, we do have serious problems, but they are not unsolvable. We
simply need new, devoted and freely thinking people who can build
this policy of sober steps, not only in foreign but also in domestic
politics. The latter is the root of all our foreign political
complications.