If you go to the hospital and see me with the surgical tools in my hands trying to perform surgery on someone, you, I suppose, would be terrified and would ask me with astonishment, “What are you doing here?” At least you would be surprised that the journalist with a musical education is trusted a human life. But if you read a message that I am appointed an ambassador to a country, your surprise would definitely be much less because it is assumed that being a diplomat does not require separate knowledge. Whereas it is as much special sphere as the medicine and as much responsible. I would compare it with the military service because the diplomat, in my opinion, does the same job without arms defending his country’s security.
Theoretically, it is possible that a musician or a weightlifter is appointed an Ambassador of Armenia to the Seychelles or Vanuatu. If our government has extra money, then we can do a favor to famous people by opening embassies in these areas, and let the ambassadors sit down in their bungalows and eat oranges. In the case of the neighboring Georgia, where the relationship is complicated, but, for known reasons, they must be possibly friendly, a team of diplomats with the highest professional qualification is required.
The incident happened to the South Ossetia parliamentary speaker has no direct connection with the Ambassador of Armenia to Georgia, Yuri Vardanyan. But I think that this direction in our foreign policy leaves much to be desired, and every day or several times a day, the Ambassador should provide comprehensive information about how the neighboring country should perceive this-or-that move by Armenia. I do not think that this information is provided in the given case.
As for the “unofficial” meeting between the NA Speaker Galust Sahakyan and South Ossetia representative, there are three options here: 1/ in terms of its foreign relations, the National Assembly does not consider the opinion of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, which has warned about the undesirability of this meeting. To say the least, this would be sad and would mean that there is no proper coordination among the government agencies. 2/ The Foreign Affairs Ministry does not provide information to the NA official about whom to meet and do not meet with. This would mean that some people there receive wages in vain. 3/ The Foreign Affairs Ministry knew about this meeting, which had received its approval. This is already a matter of political choice, but, in that case, there was no need to express pain about the meeting publicly.
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One thing is clear: in such matters, Galust Sahakyan cannot be left on the state of “autopilot”.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
