"There can be no neutral European mission"
Aleksandr Nosovich talks to Caliber.Az

INTERVIEWS  25 January 2023 - 16:59

We present Caliber.Az’s interview with Russian political scientist, Chief-Editor of the RuBaltic.Ru analytical portal, Aleksandr Nosovich.

- Over the entire 30 years of Armenia’s occupation of Azerbaijani lands, European institutions have never made an objective assessment of what is happening in the South Caucasus. What do you think is the reason for their anti-Azerbaijani measures now?

- European countries act as NATO member countries' institutions in relation to Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. The North Atlantic Alliance, in the context of its confrontation with Russia, needs to create zones of tension throughout the post-Soviet space, in the near vicinity of Russia. This is done in order to have zones of tension, in addition to the Ukrainian front, to which Moscow will be forced to transfer its forces and resources, thus slowing the progress of the “special military operation” (quotation marks added by editor) in Ukraine. In other words, Europe is not really interested in maintaining stability and peace in the South Caucasus region. But because there is this strategic task, to create a new headache for Russia, the actions of the collective West in this direction are and will be destructive. This applies to Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. In other words, in relation to all the countries of the region, where the situation can be escalated, thus worsening the geostrategic position of the Russian Federation on its southwestern borders.

- Do European MPs view the Armenian-Azerbaijani confrontation through the prism of Christian solidarity?

- The European Parliament has a group of radical right-wing MPs who base their activities on religious motives. As a rule, these MEPs are the most active supporters of sanctions against Russia, and it is them that build relations with countries outside the EU on the basis that they are Muslim countries. They consider themselves almost heirs to the crusaders, including countries such as Azerbaijan and Turkey. They are convinced that contacts with non-Christian countries should be built on the basis of civilizational intransigence. There may well be a religious motive in their votes against Azerbaijan.

- The European Parliament also insists on replacing Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh with OSCE peacekeepers under a UN mandate. How would you comment on this?

- The West is actively fighting for the expulsion of Russian peacekeepers from all zones of frozen conflicts in the former Soviet republics. For the West, Russian peacekeepers are a symbol of the Russian geopolitical presence, which they believe should not be there. By OSCE or UN peacekeepers, they mean their geopolitical presence, disguised as neutral international peacekeeping missions.

In general, the OSCE, as an organization, is an engaged institution that performs the installations and tasks of Western countries. Therefore, OSCE peacekeepers cannot be neutral. The West seeks to replace Russian peacekeepers in frozen, smoldering or hot conflict zones with their own. Meanwhile, if it is advantageous for Russia to maintain peace and stability along the entire perimeter of its borders, the US and the EU would be advantageous for these borders to flare up, for territorial conflicts, wars, including religious and ethnic cleansing, and the collapse of states, regime change, etc. Because this will weaken Russia...

- Does the EU use the subject of human rights for this purpose?

- The topic of human rights has always been used by Europeans to raise their status vis-à-vis other actors in international relations and to find ways to reject equality in them. Through the human rights discourse, Europeans always assume that they are superior to those with whom they communicate, and thus can afford to dictate terms, and act as role models, including moral ones, telling others what they can and cannot do. So, Europeans and Americans are subjugating the region’s countries on key foreign policy issues. Domestic politics, too, because human rights is used by the West as a reason to interfere in the internal affairs of other states. And the European Parliament’s reference to the rights of the Armenian population of Karabakh is the basis for speaking to Azerbaijan not from the standpoint of equality as an equal participant in international relations, but from the standpoint of its superiority, from the standpoint of moral right, to dictate Azerbaijan what to do in its domestic and foreign policy.

- Are there forces interested in discrediting Azerbaijan on the energy track?

- In the energy sphere, Azerbaijan is trying to discredit these same forces that are doing the same against Russia. These are lobbyists in the US energy sector who want to squeeze all competitors of American liquefied natural gas (LNG) out of Europe. Accordingly, all their activities, which are hidden behind human rights rhetoric, are aimed at depriving Europeans of energy cooperation with Russia, Turkey, the UAE, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan under a plausible pretext. The goal for the US is to become the monopoly player on the European energy market and to ensure that Europeans have no other strategic sources of energy than the LNG tankers that the Americans send across the Atlantic.

Caliber.Az