Katherine Leach: “Nobody wants war”
Armenian government clarified its position on Crimea issue when the Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan expressed his opinion about Crimea referendum in the telephone conversation with the Russian president Vladimir Putin on March 19. According to the official press release, while discussing the situation in Crimea the two incumbents agreed that the referendum in Crimea was “another example of realization of the right of the people to self-determination through the free will”.
Katherine Leach, the UK Ambassador to Armenia, says that she regrets that Armenia made its statement about Crimea referendum. She told this during an international conference «NATO’s cooperation and the South Caucasus: Strategic approach to the regional security» taken in Yerevan. The question is that the UK and the European Union don’t recognize the results of that referendum. We had a little conversation with Katherine Leach on this topic.
-«News.am»: What is the position of the United Kingdom on the Crimea issue?
-Well, our prime-minister and the foreign minister have repeated many times over the last few days, that we don’t recognize the results of the referendum in Crimea and we don’t recognize the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. We don’t believe that it was a free expression of people’s will. And a referendum can not be free and fair if it’s organized in two weeks notice with Russian troops on the ground, without a free media and free campaign and against the Constitution of Ukraine and against the norms of international law. We very much regret, that Russia has taken this step. And our prime-minister has said that there will be consequences for our relationship with Russia and further relations of the EU and other international organizations with Russia. So our hope now, that although things has reached this point, we very much hope, that Russia will sit to the negogiating table with Ukraine, will start to talk about what has happened in Ukraine and about how can they resolve some of the remaining issues in Crimea. There are also some very important humanitarian issues to discuss. And we very much regret, that Russia hasn’t till this point agreed to meet with Ukrainian auhthorities to discuss this issues.
– «168 Zham»: Can the position Armenian government on Crimea damage Armenia’s relations with the EU and, in generall, with the West? And what will be the future of that relations after this crisis?
-The UK, as a EU member state, and the EU, as an institution, is commited to its relationship with Armenia. And despite the decision on the september 3 of the Armenian president that Armenia will join the Customs Union, we still think that we can support Armenia, as it faces its economic and other challenges, and what we want for Armenia to be very clear about how we can help and what we can do to help Armenia face these challenges. That’s all we focus on.
We would not agree with the characterization of the referendum as a free demonstration of people’s will for the reasons that I’ve given. But we also know, that president Sargsyan refered to the UN charter on the importance of the crisis being solved through the putting of international law. So I welcome that part of the Armenian position.
-«168 Zham»: In your opionion, can Armenia’s position be linked with the solution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict?
– What I’ve said before is that everyone of these cases is uniqe and the only solution to everyone of these cases is to negotiate peacefully. And the referendum in Crimea isn’t free and fair and isn’t a free expression of people’s will. So I don’t think it’s something that should be seen as a good example.
-«168 Zham»: So the Karabakh conflict and the Crimean issue are quite different?
– I think everyone of these conflicts are different. For example, people try to make links between the referendum in Scotland and what happened in Crimea. They are tottaly different. In Scotland we set up a Scottish administration under British law in 1998. And when a government of Scottish nationalists has elected they had a manifest to press for a referendum and under the British law. We negotiated with the Scottish government and agreed peacefully that we’ll have a referendum. So how you can compare Crimea and Scotland? I find it tottaly ridiculous.
– «168 Zham»: And how would you asses the statement of Russian president Putin on Crimea. He said that it’s very good, that the West hasn’t forgotten about the international law, after Kosovo, Iraq and Libia.
– Well, in a case of Kosovo it came independent after a process of 8 or 9 years under UN administration, where the negotiations have been continuing under the UN umbrella to resolve the final status. So I can’t compare Kosovo with Crimea. It’s tottaly ridiculous. And the issue of Kosovo also came up after the Republic of Yugoslavia had suffered years and years of violent conflict and many thousands of people had died or displaced. So how can you compare Kosovo and Crimea? And similiarly Iraq and Libya. You can argue about the interpretation of the UN Security Council resolution if you want to, but the point is that all of these issues Iraq and Libya were discussed in the UN Security Council. So you can’t compare this with Crimea where there is no UN Security Council resolution, indeed where all the members of Security Council were against the position of Russia. And even China abstained.
– News.am: From this point do you think there will be further and tougher sanctions on Russia?
-I know that the European Council meeting yesterday (on March 20) further measures were discussed and some further names of Russian official have been added to sanctions list. I think there will be other measure. And it remains to be seen what those will be.
– News.am: And don’t you think that the sanctions of the West are somehow soft?
– I think nobody wants war so we have to look at all measures that we can take. We want to send a clear message that we believe that Russia’s actions aren’t acceptable and are out of the bounds of the international law.
By Aram Sargsyan
