U.S. and EU more impartial about Karabakh than other unrecognized republics

PanARMENIAN.Net - "The presidential elections in Nagorno Karabakh have completed successfully. Members of the European Parliament, RF State Duma, representatives of NGOs and political parties arrived in Karabakh as observers and gave a positive estimation to the vote. It would be too silly to state that the uncommon unity of opinions among representatives from Russia, U.S., EU, Macedonia, Serbia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transdnistria was "bought" by Armenians. Versions of the kind may be used as propaganda in Azerbaijan, but they explain nothing, as they are false," Russian political scientist Alexander Krylov writes in an article titled "Will the United States exchange Karabakh for South Azerbaijan?" and published on Novaya Politika website.



"As a matter of fact, there are plenty of reasons why the major international players' attitude towards Nagorno Karabakh differs greatly from the attitude towards the other unrecognized republics (from Kosovo to South Ossetia). The point is not that the elections in NKR were held at the highest level. The factor of the Armenian Diaspora, which makes an essential part of electorate in the U.S. and many European states, plays an important role. That is why the western diplomacy (despite interest in Caspian energy sources) demonstrates rare cautiousness and objectivity about the Karabakh problem as compared to the other unrecognized republics in the post-soviet space. Consequently, U.S. and EU recurrent statements on illegality of the NKR elections are ritual but not practical.



Russia's position is determined by the fact that Armenia is our only ally in the Transcaucasus. The value of Armenia is immeasurably more important for Moscow than benefits it can derive from cooperation with Azerbaijan.



By the way, unlike the previous years when Moscow stated illegality of the NKR elections, the RF MFA did not make any statement of the kind this year," Alexander Krylov writes.