Democracy, human rights and the rule of law are the three key pillars of today’s European civilization, which implies that the latter’s existence is impossible without them or even one of them. These values were not easily obtained, there were bloody wars in Europe to achieve them, and millions of people died during the wars. After World War II these principles became the foundation of European civilization in the legal system, in the structure of states and value system, and they seemed to be firm, inviolable and unequivocally recognized values.
However, we had doubts about their overestimation during the 44-day war in Artsakh. NATO member Turkey directly and explicitly participated in the war in favor of Azerbaijan, transporting Islamic terrorists to the war zone where prohibited weapons were used against Armenians. All that time Europe kept mysterious silence, no country condemned the blatant violations of the foundations of civilization. In fact, national interests took precedence over proclaimed universal values.
Moreover, the Ukrainian leadership, which had taken the path of democracy, congratulated Azerbaijan, stating that they also tended to solve the problems of Lugansk and Donbas in a similar way. As they confessed, their hope was the Turkish Bayraktar drones.
Well, let's leave Ukraine aside and go back to the European civilization, the fundamental value document of which is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Council of Europe, the European Union, the OSCE and the constitutions of the EU member countries are based on it. They condemn racism, nationalism, xenophobia and religious discrimination. But what really happened?
When the Ukrainian refugees began to come to Europe, a number of high-ranking EU officials publicly stated that the Ukrainians, unlike Iraqis, Syrians and Afghans, were white, Christian people, representatives of a civilized nation, and therefore the borders could be opened for them. At the same time, Russians and Russian culture, the property of ethnic Russians, are, in fact, declared outside the law and discriminated against. What should we call it, if not a gross violation of the basic provisions of the European value system?
We are convinced that the Russian-Ukrainian crisis will somehow be resolved, any war will eventually end in negotiations and a peace treaty, at least with the signing of an interim compromise document, and the passions will calm down. But this is not the main thing. The main problem, which goes deeper, is the crisis of European civilization, when the declared universal values and legal norms are subject to the political expediency and interests of the countries at the moment.