From Aris Ghazinyan, ArmeniaNow:  President Serzh Sargsyan did not take part in the two-day NATO summit held in Lisbon on November 19-20. The president’s trip was cancelled upon learning that the text of the Lisbon summit declaration related to regulating South-Caucasian conflicts used only one principle declared by the OSCE – the principle of territorial integrity of states. The principle of a nation’s right to self-determination was not included in the document.

Sargsyan’s boycott was demonstrative, expressing official Yerevan’s disagreement with the one-sided approaches in settling regional conflicts, and the Karabakh issue, in particular.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan and Defense Minister Seiran Ohanyan were delegated to represent Armenia in the Portuguese capital. Presidential press secretary Armen Arzumanyan said that “the Armenian side has repeatedly stressed that it is unacceptable to apply general formulations of conflict settlement”.

Armenia perceives NATO as something generally negative, while some former Soviet republics, such as Ukraine and Georgia, have positive attitudes to NATO., and Baltic countries are even members of the alliance.  (photo: AP)

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