Ukraine

[Artashes]

Re: Ukraine

It's a done deal. The blunder Krushchev made in giving the Crimea to Ukraine has been reversed. Russia will never let that go again.
All these sanctions the west is implemting are a hole they are digging for themselves. They know these sanctions are not going to cause Russia to give up kriem. They know, sooner or later they are going to have to undue the sanctions.
All who sanction know they had a part in this failed attempt to isolate Russia by tearing Crimea away from Russian orbit into EU sphere by their instigation.
China knows the west's instigation and intent in this matter also. So does the rest of the govt of the world.
It's not a question Putin is surrounded by oligarch buddies. Who does anyone think the other main leaders of the world are surrounded by??? Saint BP (British petroleum), holy Exxon/mobile, revered IMF???
Who is this show actually for ? The ordinary person ?
Ever wonder why the ordinary is so important ? And yet peridoxically insignificant to the "sophisticated".
The west knows their instigation failed. All that's left for the sophisticated to do is snivel like the conniving btchs they are.

[londontsi]

Re: Ukraine

[Haykakan]

Re: Ukraine

IF RUSSIA ACCEPTS CRIMEA AS SOVEREIGN STATE, IT SHOULD DO THE SAME WITH KARABAKH - ARAM SARGSYAN

17:40 / 18.03.2014

Nyut.am conducted interview with the leader of Democratic party Aram
Sargsyan about the possible impact of Crimea's case on the Karabakh
conflict settlement.

- Mr Sargsyan, the EU and US started imposing sanctions on Russia
but Vladimir Putin seems not to be worried about it. Why?

- I think Russia has calculated all these issues and understands
that its national-state interests are priority. They can undergo some
deprivations, they can allow themselves such luxury. This process is
the result of the policy conducted by the new Ukrainian authorities.

After they adopted law about Russian language and started searching
ways to enter NATO, they acquired a rival on behalf of Russia.

Besides, the West is speaking about illegality of developments in
Crimea, but they should remember what they did in Iraq, Libya, Kosovo,
etc. So, either or - either you are really democratic, and do not
allow such actions, or the opposite. But Russia should remember about
Karabakh issue: if in one case you accept that Crimea has a right to be
sovereign thus Karabakh is a bright example as it has implemented all
the processes corresponding to international norms. And if a question
rises that Armenia must recognize the results of Crimea's referendum
it first of all must remind to the world that the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic was the first.

- In such case do you consider our stance right? Shouldn't we
congratulate Crimea?

- We can congratulate only in case if they recognize our independence.

But if Nagorno-Karabakh is left out of the peace talks and the
talks are over incomprehensible Madrid principles which do not have
any relation to the processes implemented in Karabakh, how we must
congratulate Crimea and its people. In that case everyone will say -
what about you? Having unsettled issue we cannot make such step.

- Pro-western forces in Armenia forecast economic crisis for Russia
and the Customs Union which will have a negative impact on Armenia. Do
you agree with it?

- It is their dreams and I do not know their grounds. It is strange
that this people speaking about democracy are making judgments on
the level of those eating grants. Let them be unbiased. If they
accuse Russia, let them accuse the West too for what it did. If
you can bombard Serbia with NATO forces how do they justify it. The
West comes up with double standards and it is senseless to negotiate
with them. I want us to carry out objective and pr-Armenian policy
and not pro-Western or pro-Russian. In any case it is necessary to
be pro-Armenians and adopt political line stemming from our state
interests.

http://nyut.am/archives/148594?lang=en

[Haykakan]

Re: Ukraine

SARKISIAN BACKS CRIMEAN REFERENDUM IN PHONE CALL WITH PUTIN

Wednesday, March 19th, 2014

Russian and Armenian Presidents Vladimir Putin and Serzh Sarkisian
in Moscow, Sept. 3, 2013.

YEREVAN--Revealing a more solid stance on the Ukranian crisis,
Armenia's President Serzh Sarkisian, in a phone call with Russian
President Vladimir Putin, apparently recognized Crimea's referendum
to secede from Ukraine and join Russia.

The President's press office announced that Sarkisian made the phone
call on Wednesday to discuss the Ukrainian situation and "ways out
of it." In that light, the press statement said, the two presidents
agreed that the Crimean referendum was "yet another realization of
peoples' right to self-determination."

"The interlocutors also reaffirmed their belief in the importance of
commitment to the norms and principles of international law and the
UN charter," the statement added.

The Russian side released a similar statement confirming the phone
call but made no mention of Sarkisian's endorsement of the Crimean
referendum to join Russia.

Armenia has been careful not to take clear sides in the Ukrainian
crisis given the West's strong condemnation of Russia's role and
continuing actions in what is the biggest stand-off between the West
and Russia since the Cold War.

But Sarkisian's latest phone call is likely to draw negative reactions
from Europe and the United States as it places Armenia squarely on
the Russian side of the equation.

The two presidents also discussed the Karabakh conflict's ongoing
settlement process, according to the Armenian President's press
office. Sarkisian expressed his side's readiness to work with the
OSCE Minsk Group, the Co-Chairmen of which recently signaled another
possible high level meeting between Sarkisian and Azeri President
Ilham Aliyev.

http://asbarez.com/120847/sarkisian-backs-crimean-referendum-in-phone-call-with-putin/

[Haykakan]

Re: Ukraine

KIEV PREPARES FOR WAR

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
March 18 2014

18 March 2014 - 9:25am
By Vestnik Kavkaza

The interim president of Ukraine, Alexander Turchinov, thinks that
Russia's activity in Crimea won't lead to a loss of the peninsula by
Ukraine. Turchinov stated that "Russia has focused a great amount
of troops on our border, and our state is threatened by a war. The
parliament decides to increase military expenditures." Turchinov
urges the Ukrainians "to unite in the face of a possible aggression"
and "adhere to the general line against the aggressor."

Russia is defending its national interests not from Ukraine, but from
the USA, according to experts. "Washington's interests fundamentally
contradict Russian ones," the Director General of the Russian Institute
for Foreign Policy Studies and Initiatives, Veronika Krasheninnikova,
thinks. "Even though Ukraine or the Caucasus are in ten thousand
miles from the USA, these states are declared to be a territory of
strategic interests of the USA. The current events were directed
against independent Ukraine, against Russia, against integration
processes in the post-Soviet space."

According to Krasheninnikova, the USA will continue the policy: "We
will see the full spectrum from political means to terrorist attacks
to make Ukraine stay with the West. The approach is aimed at Russia,
it is being tested. Mechanisms of shifting a similar situation to
Russian territory are being discussed. The current methodology differs
from color revolutions of 2003-2005 by presence of a forceful radical
element. And some elements of Arab spring are present in Ukraine as
well. While previous overthrows were peaceful, now it is internecine.

The West, headed by the USA, supports both the liberal part and
ultra-right-wing Nazi part; each of them is playing their own roles.

Maidan began with peaceful protests of pro-Western opposition. When
it didn't work, militants were involved. The scenario was implemented
in the post-Soviet space for the first time."

Krasheninnikova reminded that "Western Ukraine is the south border
of Belarus. The West has been dreaming about changing the regime of
Lukashenko for a long time, and now there are favorable conditions
for this. As the activity will be directed against the Customs Union,
we can expect similar attempts against Kazakhstan. Moreover, Armenia
decided to sign and has already signed the agreement on accession
to the CU; however, the agreement must be ratified by the Armenian
parliament. There is big probability that some activities in Armenia
will be organized over the ratification."

"When President Putin decided to run for president for the third time
and stated that his main foreign political program is establishing of
Eurasian Union, Obama's administration stated that its final goal is
to prevent Russia's activity in all directions, prevent establishing of
the Eurasian Union," Alexei Fenenko, senior scientist of the Institute
of International Security Problems of the RAS, recalls. "The foundation
of the crisis was laid in autumn 2011. We have seen attempts to prevent
it during two years of Putin's new term, including attempts to prevent
Russian-Uzbek negotiations, attempts to influence Azerbaijan, while
Ukraine became a general scenario."

According to Fenenko, "the only salvation for Ukraine was a neutral
status of nonalignment policy and rejection of any sharp swing
to this or that side. Too different nations, too different ethnic
groups, too different cultures are united in Ukraine... As Crimea
becomes a constituent of the Russian Federation, there is only one
theoretical salvation for Ukraine - quick federalization. Ukraine
will unlikely exist as a unitary state. All ethnic minorities, all
ethnic borderlands want the only thing - guarantees from Kiev. Thus,
theoretically Ukraine could move toward an enlarged federation which
includes: southeast regions (the Kharkov, Lugansk, Donetsk regions and
probably Kherson region), Central Ukraine, and the Transcarpathian
region. Such Ukraine could be more balanced and more guaranteed by
international agreements. If it doesn't happen, a scenario of an
uncontrollable dissolution of Ukraine will begin."

http://vestnikkavkaza.net/analysis/politics/52748.html

[Haykakan]

Re: Ukraine

CRIMEAN TATARS ASK AZERBAIJAN'S ILHAM ALIYEV FOR HELP

EurasiaNet.org
March 10 2014

March 10, 2014 - 10:47am, by Giorgi Lomsadze

Four days after Crimean Tatars sent an SOS to Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev, nothing has been heard from Baku but silence. For all its
grievances with Moscow, chances are slim that Azerbaijan, the Tatars'
rich South-Caucasus cousin, will stick its neck out over Crimea.

But Crimean Tatar community leader Mustafa Dzhemilyev, a Ukrainian
parliamentarian, gave it his best shot in a March 6 interview with
the news site Haqqin. "Do not leave your Crimean brothers and sisters
at this difficult time," Dzhemilyev implored Aliyev.

Recalling repressions by Tsarist and Soviet Russia, he underlined
that the Tatars will never put up with a Russian takeover of the
Crimean peninsula, and asked Aliyev to use his influence with Russian
President Vladimir Putin to prevent such an event.

The request was cc-ed to Turkish President Abdullah Gul and another
Turkic leader, Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Turkey has so far weighed in the strongest on the issue, while
Aliyev and Nazarbayev have been slow to provide even a non-binding,
thinking-of-you response.

Azerbaijani officials routinely emphasize Azerbaijan's emergence as a
regional power, but don't expect Aliyev to snap his fingers in Putin's
face over Crimea. Through its economic and political involvement in
the region and its many conflicts, Nagorno-Karabakh included, Russia
could hurt Azerbaijan.

But not everyone in Azerbaijan is willing to sit back. On March
9, two senior members of Azerbaijan's opposition Musavat Party,
Arif Gadjily and Gulaga Aslanly, were detained in Makhachkala, in
Russia's North Caucasus, while traveling by train to Ukraine. The
party has been outspokenly critical of Russia's Ukraine policy, and,
apparently, somebody had an eye out for any whistle-stop tours to
Kyiv. Local police on March 10 claimed that the two were sent back
home, APA reported.

But Baku is not alone in its reticence about Crimea.

Armenia, also slated to join Russia's Customs Union, is in a
straitjacket of economic dependence on Moscow, tightened by Russia's
49-year lease on a military base in Gyumri.

In Georgia, the most pro-West of the three, partisan screaming matches
continue about formulating a unanimous position on Ukraine, with the
government trying to say just enough not to spark a backlash by Moscow.

For now, looks like the South Caucasus is choosing to let the big
guys -- be it Russia, the US or EU -- handle this one.

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/68121

[Haykakan]

Re: Ukraine

Ex Ukraine Ambassador to Armenia

It does not get any more one sided then this. Besides stating the obvious (not so obvious to many people including ones here) that power trumps laws this guy makes it seem like Russia is the only one doing what it does. I wonder what this guy would say about USA in Iraq, or Afganistan , or Libya or Ukraine... or about the fact that the EU does not want to pressure Russia but is doing it because the USA is forcing it to. He brushes off the fact that NATO is encircling Russia. He says Russia is taking unilateral action as if the USA had popular support when invading other countries. Thus far Russia has done nothing wrong-it has taken what belongs to it and i would argue it has rights all the way to Kiev. These are Russian lands payed for with Russian blood spilled by Turks and Germans. If you are Armenia would you want Russia to come and get your ok before going into Ukraine? Would you want Russia to ask you to help it by donating troops? This guy takes the good things (the fact that Russia has not asked its allies for help) and makes them seem bad. It was the West that started the theme of self determination and Russia says ok i can play that game to but nooo USA and the west does not want to play a fair game it just wants to play a game called i win and like anyone with any measure of self respect Russia says FU.

[londontsi]

Re: Ukraine

Ex Ukraine Ambassador to Armenia

[Artashes]

Re: Ukraine

.

One cannot help but draw parallels with Ukraine regards Armenia state security and EU integration.

From the record, the WORLD COMMUNITY gave security guarantees to Ukraine for its territorial integrity
in exchange for the hand over of its nuclear arsenal ( remnant from the Soviet times).

Russia was also a guarantor through this treaty.

Facts on the table show the value of these guarantees.

It also highlights the risks involved to chopping and changing traditional and committed ( all be it driven by self interest ) security guarantors.

I've seen this repetedly. The ordinary citizen when in a contractual agreement is held to the letter of the law. However, corporate or govt is given wide latitude to disregard the contract if it doesn't favor them.
As I have said many times --- the ordinary person is held to a much higher standard than the privileged.
Artashes

[Mher]

Re: Ukraine

.

One cannot help but draw parallels with Ukraine regards Armenia state security and EU integration.

From the record, the WORLD COMMUNITY gave security guarantees to Ukraine for its territorial integrity
in exchange for the hand over of its nuclear arsenal ( remnant from the Soviet times).

Russia was also a guarantor through this treaty.

Facts on the table show the value of these guarantees.

It also highlights the risks involved to chopping and changing traditional and committed ( all be it driven by self interest ) security guarantors.

very true
one big difference though: Ukraine can afford a few more mistakes like this and still be fine as a nation. Armenia on the other hand could cease to exist as a nation with a single mistake of this level.