Series of crimes without punishment: why West is reluctant to impose sanctions against Armenia?
By Akbar Hasanov
The statement of the fact of a crime does not mean the punishment of the perpetrator. Azerbaijan has repeatedly witnessed how this life rule works. For more than a quarter of a century, the entire world community, as well as the co-chairing countries of the OSCE Minsk Group, have declared respect for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. But nothing was done to put pressure on Armenia, which kept 20% of our lands under occupation.
In addition, in 1993, the UN Security Council adopted resolutions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict numbered 822, 853, 874, 884. Each of these resolutions was adopted after each successive stage of the Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan. The UN Security Council unequivocally recognized the sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of the borders of Azerbaijan, repeatedly emphasized the Azerbaijani belonging of Karabakh and put forward a detailed demand for the complete immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the occupied territories and the creation of conditions for the return of the expelled population to their homes.
Armenia ignored all these resolutions. And she got nothing for it. These were examples of how there is a generally recognized crime, but there was no punishment for it. Exactly the same thing we see now. Armenia was again found guilty, but there was no punishment for what she had done. The point, in this particular case, is that the Republic of Armenia is named among the countries helping Russia to circumvent Western sanctions.
The corresponding statement was made by the US State Department sanctions coordinator James O'Brien. By the beginning of this year, Russia was able to import certain key categories of electronics at roughly pre-war levels, according to a US official. We are talking about chips, processors and integrated circuits. Armenia helps Russia in this, essentially participating in the war against Ukraine, against its territorial integrity and sovereignty.
Moreover, in the West, they not only know about all this, but they tell the leaders of Armenia. I remember that during the visit of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to Germany in early March, he was strongly recommended to close parallel imports to Russia. According to the Armenian media, upon returning from Berlin, Nikol Pashinyan instructed the head of the Central Bank, members of the government and the head of the State Revenue Committee to close the channels for circumventing anti-Russian sanctions on the territory of the republic.
In other words, Pashinyan acknowledged the fact of Armenia's participation in operations to circumvent Western sanctions. And how can this be denied, if this fact was openly confirmed by the head of the Russian government, Mikhail Mishustin, who recently visited Yerevan.
"Today, trade, economic, investment cooperation between Russia and Armenia is developing actively, dynamically, despite the illegal economic sanctions that have been adopted by a number of unfriendly states," he said.
He added that in January-April the mutual trade increased by 96% and amounted to almost 140 billion rubles or more than 666 billion drams. According to Mishustin, it is important to maintain this positive trend and achieve new record levels in mutual trade. Which, of course, includes parallel imports, that is, the supply of the Russian Federation with everything necessary, bypassing Western sanctions.
Moreover, quite shocking speeches are heard in Armenia. They pride themselves on helping countries against which the West imposes sanctions to circumvent them. Tigran Sargsyan, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Development Bank, ex-Prime Minister of Armenia, decided to talk about this topic in his latest interview. He proudly recalled that Armenia has never cut off economic ties with Iran, despite the sanctions against it.
He did not disclose the details, but the "economic ties" between the RA and Iran always meant the notorious parallel imports, as well as other mechanisms of illegal circumvention of Western sanctions. But what then, what now, no sanctions were imposed against Armenia by the West. This is the classic crime without punishment. This is the notorious double standards.
Azerbaijan has always been and remains honest and consistent in its words and actions. He has never helped Russia bypass Western sanctions. He often and openly helped Ukraine, both through political statements and by sending humanitarian aid. Its next volume has already been delivered to Ukraine today. This is all that is needed to eliminate the consequences of the flood caused by explosions at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station. These are the realities that the West sees. But they do not want to move from words to deeds, punishing Armenia for its numerous tricks. And this behavior of the West deprived him of the moral right to any words of criticism against our country.
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