Yesterday Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan received Philippe Lefort, the EU Special Representative for South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia. During the meeting, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia stressed along with a set of concrete and strong statements, “Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev prepares his people for war and pursues a fascist policy. That he has pardoned a criminal who killed a man only because he was an Armenian is a clear proof of it. The European community mustn’t be silent.”
As for what consequences this statement of the Prime Minister may have and what it will benefit Armenia, www.aravot.am tried to find out by getting comments from Armen Badalyan, an expert in political and election technologies, “It doesn’t mean anything. The EU countries have responded already equally reprimanding both Armenia and Azerbaijan. Armenia has gotten a response in accordance with its political weight. Azerbaijan is much weightier. Let us not forget that it supplies alternative natural gas and oil to Europe, it is a member of the Security Council, it is one of the pro-Western countries in the region and its budget is a few times bigger than the budget of the Republic of Armenia. Therefore, the EU members treated Armenia as they would have treated a Caucasian beggar. Let us not forget that whatever country Armenia visits it begs for money. They don’t give more to such begging countries.”
In response to our question whether that was it, end of story, Mr. Badalyan said, “Yes, that is it, end of story, if certainly the Safarov case is not a part of a big political, geopolitical scenario. If it is not a part of a geopolitical game, but an individual case, as an individual case, it is closed.”
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Mr. Badalyan is concerned, “If the government of the Republic of Armenia continues to bother the EU member states with the Safarov case, it is not ruled out that the EU member states will raise the issue of the unconcluded investigation into the events of March 1, 2008, at the forthcoming meetings of the PACE in response.”
A. Badalyan also noted there was a lot of speculation that this incident would not prevent thousands of Armenians from going and living in Hungary with great pleasure even today, if they were offered an opportunity.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
