ARMENIA BETWEEN RUSSIA AND NATO
Support A1+!Security was today’s topic for seminar of National Citizens’ Initiative. Under the report introduced by Kiro Manoyan, Political Executive of National Committee /Hay Dat/ Armenia’s Office, Armenia has a significant role in keeping the balance of the security systems in the Southern Caucasus.
He thinks, Georgia has the problem of maintaining the territorial integrity, Azerbaijan’s one is to return Karabakh and to export oil and gas wealth, and the problems of Armenia are to keep Karabakh and not to estrange.
These 2 countries left the Organization of Collective Security Pact /CSP/ long ago and openly declare their intention to quickly enroll in NATO programs.
In fact, in CSP Armenia is the only one in the region, and according to Manoyan, creation of dividing lines in the Southern Caucasus becomes inevitable. “If Russia doesn’t publicly renounce Transcaucasia, and if we abruptly turn to NATO having 25-year-old contract obligations with CSP, conflicts will occur. It is necessary to find one common security system for the states in our region or another way to settle the problem”, Manoyan thinks.
The terror act in Beslan, Northern Ossetia was referred to at the discussion on security. Some participants of the seminar think citizens in our country have problems connected with the personal safety. The facts of violence many people had suffered by power, law-enforcement or court representatives at the time of Opposition actions and the recent presidential elections were cited.
Under the data produced by Stepan Safaryan, expert of Armenian Center for National and International Studies, the surveys conducted found that almost the half of our citizens consider the economic development as the guarantee for security, and the little part thinks establishment of democracy is assurance for security provision.
