NATO should abandon double standards, says MP
By Mushvig Mehdiyev
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly should impose sanctions on aggressor Armenia and avoid double standards, an Azerbaijani MP said.
Attending the NATO PA Rouz-Rout workshop in Belgrade, Serbia, Siyavush Novruzov said it was unacceptable for NATO PA to apply double standards in view of certain countries.
As an example he showed Russia's exclusion from the NATO PA associative membership following its reported interference in the events in Ukraine.
"Non-use of similar sanctions against Armenia is yet another good example of double standards," Novruzov said.
He believes that finding solutions to ongoing conflicts in the region can also take place through the abandonment by NATO and other international organizations of double standards. "If NATO and other influential structures continue to show contradictory attitudes toward belligerent powers, it will be impossible to resolve any conflicts," he added.
Referring to the OSCE Minsk Group's mediation activity in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution, Novruzov said the mediator group had failed so far to achieve any breakthrough towards peace.
When a proposal has come up to hold the next NATO PA Rouz-Rout workshop in the Armenian capital city Yerevan, Novruzov expressed his severe protest against it, saying it would be not in line with NATO's credibility.
"Holding such an event in an occupant country's territory could be a blow on the credibility of NATO," he said.
Azerbaijan remains locked with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which is under Armenia's occupation for over two decades. The twenty-year-long conflict has drawn different attitudes from various international organizations so far, including NATO.
Since NATO is a military alliance rather than a specific political and economic structure, it excludes any direct involvement in settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
NATO Secretary General's Special Representative for the South Caucasus and Central Asia, James Appathurai said earlier in January that NATO did not have a role in the peace process for the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
"I do not think a distinct NATO role would help the process ahead, rather to the contrary. NATO supports the Minsk process,” Appathurai said.
Major NATO members, the U.S. and France are co-chairing countries at the OSCE Minsk Group. Despite their regular negotiations with officials in Yerevan and Baku no tangible result is seen on the horizon.
Baku's diligence in view of settling the conflict receives no relevant feedback from Yerevan since the latter favors maintaining a dangerous military standoff. Escalations along the line of contact are a crystal clear manifestation of Armenia's all-out attempts to prolong the painful conflict even at the cost of the lives of its own people.
Azerbaijan's internationally recognized Nagorno-Karabakh territory was turned into a battlefield and zone of aggravated tensions after Armenia sent its troops to occupy Azerbaijan's lands. As a result, 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory stands under military occupation. For the past two decades, and despite calls from the international community, Armenia has refused to withdraw its troops and retreat within its national borders.
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