Karine Ghazinyan, the Armenian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Great Britain, responding to a question of Aravot.am what was, at least at first sight, the difference between her diplomatic work in Great Britain and other countries (let us remind that Madam Ghazinyan was the Armenian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Romania and Germany), joked at first, “Nowhere I ride in a cart to present my credentials (laughs – M.B.). It is a custom here – on the day of an ambassador’s presenting the credentials a marshal accompanies her to the Queen’s palace in a cart, then they bring her back to the embassy in the same cart.”
In no other country did I ride in a cart to present my credentials
Seriously,Britainreally differs from the Continental Europe and these latest economic developments showed that theUnited Kingdomseems to isolate herself from the rest of the European Union. Besides, e.g. inGermany, I felt thatBerlinperceives both the Eastern Europe and ourSouth Caucasusregion very close. And here, at least it was my first impression, I don’t see the same interest. I am under the impression that we can interest them a lot more, we just have to find ways for that. It was tangible inBerlinfrom the very beginning that they were really interested in our corner of the world, let aloneFrance, butBritain…”
Karine Ghazinyan, the Armenian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, presents her credentials to the Queen of Great Britain
Is it not hard to work in a country that shows a specifically warm attitude towardAzerbaijan? The Ambassador answered this question as follows, “The reason for theUnited Kingdom’s friendliness is obvious for every one of us, the presence of gas and oil, the presence of British Petroleum inBaku. It is absolutely understandable, they do not even conceal that they have huge interests in Azerbaijan, but I always state that it is possible to find such interests, points of cooperation in Armenia too, which will prompt the two sides to develop an economic dialogue.”
In response to our question “in which fields do you see the possibility for cooperation?” the ambassador said, “E.g. pharmaceuticals, chemicals, information technologies… I have met an IT company, Future Horizons, the other day, which organizes a big forum on that field every year in the European countries and intends to organize that forum inYerevannext October. The newly appointed ambassadorial couple and I were present at the meeting with the company manager. We assured the manager of Future Horizons that we will do everything to support organizing that forum. Such a forum hasn’t taken place in any post-Soviet country yet, the first one will be inArmenia.”
To the Queen
It is no secret thatGreat Britainis a big arena forAzerbaijan’s propaganda wars. In this regard we inquired from Madam Ambassador whether she would engage in such battles or would stay away. “I think we should not react to the Azerbaijani propaganda attack, but should be proactive. I have learnt from someone recently that Azerbaijan gave books distorting the history to the famous King’s College educational institution, I met with the administration of the college and gave four splendid book-albums representing our architecture and art to the college library myself. I said to the chancellor that I was aware that he had such books fromAzerbaijanand I would like it to be balanced, I would like him to have such books also fromArmenia. He was very grateful. I also said that I gave importance to the cooperation between colleges, he said he would be pleased. Our Minister of Education and Science will come to London at the beginning of next year to take part in the Forum of European Education Ministers and I would like to organize a meeting between the minister and King’s College administration, perhaps there will be some cooperation”, answered she.
Melanya BARSEGHYAN
London
