NATO Warns Azerbaijan from Yerevan

According to the newspaper "Zhamanak," during the NATO week that began in Armenia, James Appathurai, the representative of the organization's Secretary General, stated at a press conference in Yerevan that the North Atlantic Alliance is interested in peace in the Caucasus region and that NATO informs all parties that there is no military solution to the issue of Artsakh.

The statement by the NATO Special Representative in Yerevan is effectively a warning to Azerbaijan, which is conducting large-scale military exercises parallel to NATO week in Yerevan, without proper international notification. NATO's interest in the prospects for peace and stability in the Caucasus is undoubtedly driven not only by humanitarian and pacifist ideals but also by purely rational circumstances of pragmatic politics.

Threatening peace in the Caucasus would disrupt the entire international security system, as the Caucasus is not only not the Middle East but is also geographically adjacent to the Euro-Atlantic realm and, de facto, is part of that realm in its political composition and structure, even though it is geographically outside the Caucasus.

A war in the Caucasus means war in Europe, a conflict where Turkey and Russia have direct involvement. Furthermore, this war could result in either endless new chaos at the borders of the European Union or, ultimately, a victory for Turkey.

While Ankara is a NATO member, such a victory would also represent a triumph over NATO itself, considering its membership. The war in the Caucasus would, in this sense, pose a trap for NATO, with the Euro-Atlantic community facing a Turkey that has defeated Russia, effectively managing geopolitical territory all the way to the Far East and China.

Essentially, it is to prevent such scenarios in an "institutional" manner that NATO cooperates with Armenia, a member of the CSTO, on one hand, while also forming its infrastructural bases in Georgia, Armenia’s northern neighbor.

In this respect, through NATO, Armenia has a reliable ally for peace in the Caucasus, which certainly cannot be an unequivocal guarantor of peace at least until it establishes institutional representation in Georgia; however, it is a crucial partner from the perspective of political prevention.

For more details, refer to today’s issue of the newspaper.