August 30, 2011 - 21:44 AMT
ARTICLE
Elections in breakaway republics are held for their own self and not for EU or NATO
Now the international community needs both Mikheil Saakashvili and Ilham Aliyev; EU, NATO and even the U.S. believe that without them stability in the South Caucasus will be broken.
The new president of Abkhazia is Alexander Ankvab, who was immediately renounced by NATO, EU and a number of other international structures. A surprising regularity can be observed in the elections of the former USSR breakaway republics: Nagorno-Karabakh, Transnistria, Abkhazia and South Ossetia – the West practices self-denial in values proclaimed by her own self and does not legitimate the elections that are obviously more democratic than those in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova.

The same West, which at one time needed partition of Yugoslavia, or rather that of Serbia, recognized both the independence of Kosovo and the election held there. Double standards have so much been spoken and written about since the 90s of the past century that it’s of no use to reiterate them. Recognized is only what fits into the framework of realpolitik carried out today and right now. If the situation changes, there will happen quite the opposite. Most interesting is the wording that has remained unchanged for 20 years now, and it sometimes seems that it was adopted still at the time of the USSR collapse and has remained unaltered since then.

“The European Union does not recognize the constitutional and legal framework within which the presidential elections in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia have taken place,” said EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton.

And NATO believes that the Abkhaz elections might have an unfavorable effect on the stability in the region. “Holding such elections does not contribute to a peaceful and lasting settlement of the situation in Georgia. The alliance reiterates its full support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia within its internationally recognized borders,” says the statement issued by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. At the time of partition of Kosovo the same EU “for some reason” did not at all think of Serbia’s territorial integrity and accused her of mass killings of Muslims. Flirting with the Muslim world is not a new phenomenon either in European or in world politics and dates back to the times of the Ottoman Empire, when European states proved unable to unite and resist the Ottoman invasion. Now they are trying to restrain the invasion of Islam in the worst possible way – by turning a blind eye to the growing number of immigrants and mosques. It is clear that Georgia is a Christian country, but recently it has been increasingly following the lead of Turkish policy and therefore may also rely on the benevolence of the West. Another argument in favor of Georgia is its openly anti-Russian stance. However, the Europeans and Americans as well had better further explore the history of Georgia, which never stood out for its loyalty and constancy. Nevertheless, now the international community needs both Mikheil Saakashvili and Ilham Aliyev; EU, NATO and even the U.S. believe that without them stability in the South Caucasus will be broken. But, in fact, it is them who create tension by their provocative statements and actions, though, admittedly, at present the President of Azerbaijan is less prone to impulsive moves than his Georgian counterpart. Reverting to the main topic, let us note that Abkhazia, as well as all of the other self-proclaimed republics of the CIS, hold elections not to be recognized by the EU or NATO. Elections are held for the countries themselves and are intended to show their own people the (earned, acquired, proclaimed, or any other) independence, just as it is done all over the world. Simply in the rest of the world the presidents of newly proclaimed states have no imperial Soviet syndrome and are more adequate to assess the changing world.

Meanwhile, not to sound unsubstantiated with regard to Kosovo, let us say that the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (Eulex) appointed a special rapporteur to investigate allegations of organ-trafficking against the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), BBC reports.

In 2010 the report of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, prepared by its representative Dick Marty, presented evidence of KLA removing organs of Serb prisoners captured in the war in the late 1990s and then killing them. According to the report, the clinic in which it was all carried out was located at the Kosovo-Albania border. Marty accused the KLA unit led by current prime minister of Kosovo Hashim Thaci of involvement in an organized crime, including drug-trafficking and trafficking of human organs. Thaci himself categorically denies his involvement in these crimes.

Dick Marty says he never claimed that Hashim Thaci was directly linked to these crimes, but adds that it is hard to believe he heard nothing about them. U.S. attorney John Clint Williamson is named lead prosecutor to investigate the allegations.

Karine Ter-Sahakyan