Tuesday, March 18 2014

 Crimea and Nagorno Karabakh are inherently different.  At least, Crimea is not so mono-ethnic, Vladimir Kupriy, the Head of the Working Group, Eastern Partnership Ukrainian National Platform, said in an online interview with ArmInfo.

"The ethnic group of Russians prevails in Crimea. It is not a native-born population comparing to the Crimean Tatars. It is paradoxical that the native-born population sees its future in the territorial unity with Ukraine. Furthermore, one should take into account that Nagorno Karabakh is a dispute of two former Soviet republics and not a dispute with Russia as a former monopoly. This means that the problem is inherently different," the expert said.

According to Kupriy, what is happening now in Crimea can be characterized with Mikhail Khodorkovsky's words "Crimea is a sacral place for Russia."  It is impossible to give any rational assessment to Russia's actions in Crimea, as irrationality prevails there. In this light, Russia does not need Crimea as a subject of the Russian Federation either for economic or for military reasons. 
"The fact that Crimea is a Russian land, even in utter desertion, will satisfy Russia's imperial ambitions and increase the feeling of Russianness as power," Kuypriy said.

Joint online press conference of experts from various countries for Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian mass media on the relevant problems are organized within the project "Expansion of knowledge of Armenians and Azerbaijanis about each other and confidence building through first-hand information". The project of the "Region" Research Center (Armenia) and Peace and Democracy Institute (Azerbaijan) is supported by the British Embassies in Armenia and Azerbaijan.