Share :

Download PDF :

Trend, 12 October 2016     

By Elmira Tariverdiyeva

The visit of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev to the South Caucasus region has been postponed because of his cold-related disease.

The press-service of the Kazakh president issued a message about his illness to warn that Nazarbayev’s visits planned a week ahead have been canceled (although it is considered a state secret according to the law of the country).

The case is that the visit to Azerbaijan, which was simply delayed, can be carried out later, there will be no diplomatic problems on this issue between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, the good neighbors and partners.

However, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit in Yerevan is quite another thing, no one will postpone it and it means that Nursultan Nazarbayev has avoided participation in the event in Armenia, as the fate willed.

By the way, this is not the first time prominent political figures catch cold before visiting Armenia. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has recently had the same symptoms of this illness.

At that time, the UN secretary general postponed his visit to the South Caucasus, which had to take place April 23-27, literally the day before it started. Ban Ki-moon planned to visit Azerbaijan and Armenia within the framework of his trip.

Trend obtained information from diplomatic sources that the UN secretary general originally planned to arrive in Armenia on April 25 and to Azerbaijan on April 26. However, it was vital for Yerevan that Ban Ki-moon arrive in Yerevan namely on April 24, the day of the so-called Armenian genocide.

However, the UN Secretary General refused to take part in an Armenian show called "genocide" and tried to schedule Yerevan visit for Apr. 25 in order not to forcibly visit on Apr. 24 the memorial, to which the Armenian leadership leads all people arrived in Armenia.

Regarding the situation with the cancellation of the Kazakh president’s visit it is important to recall that the relations between Yerevan and Astana worsened, when after the April escalation on the contact line of the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, Nazarbayev insisted on the cancellation of the EEU (the Eurasian Economic Union) summit in Yerevan. It was then an indicative fact that how Kazakhstan, chairing the EEU, initiated the cancellation of the Yerevan session, which was to be held just on the days of the “Armenian genocide.”

Kazakhstan then said that due to the war, the EEU meeting of prime ministers in Armenia is undesirable, and it would be better to hold the meeting in Moscow, where it won’t be seen as support for one of the parties. Astana then made it clear for Yerevan that the Kazakh prime minister won’t visit Armenia while hostilities continue with Azerbaijan, with which Kazakhstan has friendly relations.

In general, the deterioration of the situation in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in April 2016 revealed the dissatisfaction with Yerevan of almost all its "partners" on integration projects, namely at the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the EEU. Nobody wanted then to support the country, which occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories.

Everybody knows that Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus have friendly, partnership relations with Azerbaijan, which is right in the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The reaction of Astana and Minsk is not surprising. They made statements to support the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan immediately after the aggression of Armenia in early April 2016.

On the night of April 2, 2016, all the frontier positions of Azerbaijan were subjected to heavy fire from the Armenian side, which used large-caliber weapons, mortars and grenade launchers.

Yerevan always knew that neither Belarus nor Kazakhstan have been pleased with Armenia's joining the Eurasian Economic Union. President Nazarbayev and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko reiterated that Armenia was admitted to the organization as part of the UN recognized borders.

Thus, the latest developments in connection with the cancellation of President Nazarbayev's visit once again revealed the serious problems, which were caused by the continuation of the occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia and the unwillingness of other countries to turn a blind eye to its crimes.

Of course, Yerevan will unlikely to dare to leave the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Eurasian Economic Union today, as it had no way to go.

However, taking into account the recent diplomatic messages, it is time for Yerevan to think what to do not to remain a political pariah in the modern world.

Elmira Tariverdiyeva is the head of Trend Agency’s Russian news service