“The Foreign Affairs Ministry’s reaction was as such that the Americans say, too little and too late, that is, it is very little and too late. First, I think, the accents there were not correct, excessively unprofessional wording, sober and so on. You cannot use such vocabulary,” so estimated former Ambassador of Armenia to Canada, President of “Modus Vivendi” Center and diplomat, Ara Papyan, today, in the conversation with Aravot.am, referring to the response by RA Foreign Affairs Ministry to the border situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Contact line. According to him, “The emphasis should be put on international commitments, let’s say, violation of ceasefire, OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs commitment and the commitment of the Russian Federation, which has been the main sponsor of the ceasefire. In other words, similar accents were required, which I did not see in that statement, not to speak about that it was pretty late in terms of timing.
In this situation, the Foreign Affairs Ministry, if not daily, then at least every other day should make an announcement. In addition to the official statement, also, the Foreign Ministry should be active in identifying fraud. In these days, constantly different frauds are heard, false interpretations are spread out, the same Azerbaijani comment related to the decisions, and the number of victims. It’s true, the RA Ministry of Defense responds to these statements, but first it should be done by the Foreign Affairs Ministry. On the other hand, there are legal moments here regarding the international relations. We need to understand that psychologically the West is perceiving easier and believes the Foreign Ministry’s statements.
Prior to this statement, the Foreign Ministry should have repeated the statement made by the Defense Ministry. It was supposed to be done, because the Ministry of Defense has a different understanding of the West. People there are not trained to such activities of military department. It was to be done by the Foreign Affairs Ministry.” To our question whether he can say that the MFA is inactive in this heated situation, Ara Papyan responded, “I do not know whether it is an inactivity or not, but the absurd that we see in this conflict, I can definitely say that it was insufficient. We should take into account that, unfortunately, such situations will be repeated, therefore, the Foreign Affairs Ministry should learn lessons. Generally, affecting the public opinion in overseas and forming an opinion is one of the main functions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and here, we have a complete failure. The situation in the West has never been interpreted so one-sided, as now. Even in the Russian press, everything was one-sided. You know that the journalist should receive some materials to present a point of view. When the one side view is available, naturally, only the one side view is presented. And they are not obligated, nor are reluctant to connect on their own initiative and ask for viewpoint; the parties should make it available by themselves.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
