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ARMENIAN PUNDIT SAYS NATO PRESENCE IN SOUTH CAUCASUS MAY HAVE ADVERSE EFFECT
Mediamax news agency
25 May 07
Yerevan, 25 May: "NATO's presence in the South Caucasus can aggravate
the already acute problems between the countries of the region,"
the professor of Michigan University and former chief adviser to the
first Armenian president, Zhirayr Liparityan, said in Yerevan today.
Speaking at the workshop entitled "Opportunities and Challenges of
the Euro-Atlantic Integration of the South Caucasus Countries", he
said that "there will be more side effects of the NATO involvement
in the regional processes than benefit".
Zhirayr Liparityan recalled that there were unresolved problems
between the countries of the South Caucasus. He said he doubted that
NATO is capable of assisting the settlement of the conflict between
Armenia and Azerbaijan, noting the "weakness of the alliance" in
the settlement of the confrontation between the members of the bloc,
Turkey and Greece, in the Cyprus war in the early 1970s.
Zhirayr Liparityan said that in the "impetuously changing world,
there are increasingly more manifestations of uncertainties, related
to the non-adequate steps of the US administration". According to him,
NATO de facto is the tool of the USA and "in the present conditions the
expansion of cooperation with the alliance may bring about dangerous
consequences both for Armenia and the whole region".
US political expert Richard Giragosyan stated that "NATO actively
participated in the geopolitical processes in the South Caucasus
region and has an increasing influence here".
According to him, in the South Caucasus the bloc is to a greater
extent busy with the issues of provision of trans-national security,
at that assisting the countries of the region in improving the military
and military-political systems, as well as their participation in
international peacekeeping operations.
The head of the Armenian Concord Research Centre, Ambassador David
Shahnazaryan, said that "the provision of regional stability and
security in the South Caucasus is possible in case there is a single
system of security, just as it was in times of the USSR or the
Russian Empire".
"The North-Atlantic Alliance remains the most effective institution
for security provision," he said. David Shahnazaryan welcomed the
expansion of cooperation between Armenia and NATO, at the same
time expressing concern over the intensification of the political
polarization in the South Caucasus.
Mediamax news agency
25 May 07
Yerevan, 25 May: "NATO's presence in the South Caucasus can aggravate
the already acute problems between the countries of the region,"
the professor of Michigan University and former chief adviser to the
first Armenian president, Zhirayr Liparityan, said in Yerevan today.
Speaking at the workshop entitled "Opportunities and Challenges of
the Euro-Atlantic Integration of the South Caucasus Countries", he
said that "there will be more side effects of the NATO involvement
in the regional processes than benefit".
Zhirayr Liparityan recalled that there were unresolved problems
between the countries of the South Caucasus. He said he doubted that
NATO is capable of assisting the settlement of the conflict between
Armenia and Azerbaijan, noting the "weakness of the alliance" in
the settlement of the confrontation between the members of the bloc,
Turkey and Greece, in the Cyprus war in the early 1970s.
Zhirayr Liparityan said that in the "impetuously changing world,
there are increasingly more manifestations of uncertainties, related
to the non-adequate steps of the US administration". According to him,
NATO de facto is the tool of the USA and "in the present conditions the
expansion of cooperation with the alliance may bring about dangerous
consequences both for Armenia and the whole region".
US political expert Richard Giragosyan stated that "NATO actively
participated in the geopolitical processes in the South Caucasus
region and has an increasing influence here".
According to him, in the South Caucasus the bloc is to a greater
extent busy with the issues of provision of trans-national security,
at that assisting the countries of the region in improving the military
and military-political systems, as well as their participation in
international peacekeeping operations.
The head of the Armenian Concord Research Centre, Ambassador David
Shahnazaryan, said that "the provision of regional stability and
security in the South Caucasus is possible in case there is a single
system of security, just as it was in times of the USSR or the
Russian Empire".
"The North-Atlantic Alliance remains the most effective institution
for security provision," he said. David Shahnazaryan welcomed the
expansion of cooperation between Armenia and NATO, at the same
time expressing concern over the intensification of the political
polarization in the South Caucasus.