Euronews: Why was a former NATO secretary general paid for visiting Armenia?

Former NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen was paid by the Armenian government for visiting Armenia to express what, for political reasons, they themselves have found it difficult to say publicly, reported from an article in Euronews.

"It is easy to forget in this time of war in Ukraine that NATO is an organisation supposed to enable peace," says the article.

"So, why would anyone raise questions when a past NATO secretary general goes to a country not in the NATO alliance...?" the article asks.

It is noted that in mid-March when former Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen visited Armenia 'trying to negotiate a peace treaty with its neighbour Azerbaijan.'

In the most significant media interview of his visit, he raised the prospects for peace, and extolled the undeniable economic benefits for the people of Armenia if a peace treaty is signed with their neighbour. 

The author of the article notes that while ignoring four UN resolutions — supported by every single NATO country in successive votes — upholding the legal status of the region as a sovereign territory of Azerbaijan, the Armenian diaspora has long lobbied for recognition of Armenian-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state.

"Peace and economic cooperation with neighbouring Azerbaijan is, ultimately, the only viable route to a better life for the poor and undeniably long-suffering citizens of Armenia when the alternative remains continued Russian-dependent isolation," the article reads.

"It is not hard to read between the lines and conclude Rasmussen is merely voicing the conclusion of his own Armenian government client on the direction of travel, perhaps expressing what, for political reasons, they themselves have found it difficult to say publicly," the author of the article adds.

According to the article, the social media army that descended on Rasmussen were perhaps revealing their frustration that their version of Nagorno-Karabakh’s future may be slipping away.

Since he departed, Rasmussen has slightly changed his tune. Perhaps those Lord of the Rings trolls are having their effect. 

In an op-ed for Project Syndicate, he proposed the EU armed Armenia to prevent another conflict with Azerbaijan.

"Still, Rasmussen has certainly shone a light on the surprising reality that Armenia’s real long-term ally, like it or not, has to be its neighbour and sworn enemy, Azerbaijan," the article concludes.





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