Azerbaijan's former permanent representative to UN on what Russia will do in event of resumed hostilities in Karabakh

In your opinion, will Russia side with Armenia as a CSTO ally in event of resumed hostilities in Karabakh?

The Charter of the Collective Security Treaty Organization has no paragraph which would tell how to fight against any country outside the Union and to do so on its territory. The Charter clearly stipulates that the CSTO member states can help each other in repelling attacks from third countries. Thus, the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which Azerbaijan intends to return under its control as its historical land in event of renewed hostilities, do not fall under the organization's charter. Azerbaijan is not going to attack Armenia. This means that Russia and other members of the CSTO will never enter into a possible war on the side of Armenia.

And what are your comments on the protocol signed a couple of days ago to extend presence of Russian military base in Gyumri?

With regard to the protocols extending deployment of Russian military base in Gyumri, we know perfectly that the base has remained in Armenia since the Soviet times and there is nothing new there. Armenians could only prolong the stay of the Russian armed forces, nothing more. This should be taken calmly. Armenia uses it solely for propaganda purposes, pretending that something will change after term of deployment expires.

In fact, nothing has changed. The parties originally signed the treaty for 25 years, and extended it for another 25 years after it expired. And does this change essence of stationing Russian forces in Armenia? Not, of course.

You just have to take account traditional Armenian-Russian relations. And returning to miliyary base, I must say that it is somewhat isolated and unlikely to be a striking force.

If you look at the issue more broadly, the development of Azerbaijani-Russian and Turkish-Russian relations do not allow consider extending the deployment of a military base in Armenia as some kind of danger. Today, the economic interests of Russia, Turkey and Azerbaijan simply do not allow to change the balance of forces in the region in favor of Armenia.

And I very much hope that Dmitry Medvedev's upcoming visit to Baku will clarify some issues, and everything will eventually fall into place. And everything that Azerbaijani leadership does towards peaceful settlement of the conflict are most correct steps. This policy brings some fruit albeit slowly, due to the fault of the Armenian side. And nervousness of Armenia, which is trying to create myths about the Russian military bases in the country out of nothing, once again confirms the course taken by the leadership of Azerbaijan is correct.

During his visit to Armenia, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev discussed settlement of the Karabakh conflict with his Armenian counterpart. So, can we expect some progress in the settlement process in the near future?

Given the rumors ahead of his visit that Russian president will bring a plan to Armenia to resolve the conflict and put pressure the Armenian leadership to make it begin to take positive steps towards Baku, we can expect some changes. However, we should not think that everything will be solved in coming months. Obviously, the negotiations are slow and difficult. And the fact that Russia has his own game along with advice from the U.S. can eventually lead to some progress.

And can Dmitry Medvedev's autumn visit to Baku become a landmark in this regard?

Once in Yerevan he signed the protocol to extend the deployment of military bases in Armenia, Medvedev cannot come to Baku empty-handed. For sure, he wil bring something interesting to us. And, in the first place, we are interested in what is connected with the settlement of the Karabakh conflict.


/Day.Az/