Unlike many of our citizens, I think that Armenia must negotiate with Turkey to normalize relations. But according to which agenda and “red lines” is a separate issue. But the debate in and outside the parliament is not so much about the content of the negotiations as it is about who the Armenian representative is. The main accusation is that he does not have diplomatic skills and thus is very different from his Turkish “interlocutor.” That, of course, is a problem, but not the most important. After all, the decision is made by the Prime Minister, and even if our envoy was Talleyrand-Périgord, Pashinyan will still do what he has already decided and what he has agreed with the Russian side.
But for the future, we should probably take into account that the person representing Armenia in such serious negotiations should not be involved in the daily, I would even say, in the current domestic political struggle, and should not be forced to take part in the daily parliamentary verbal war. In form, this language fight is about Armenian-Turkish relations, but in content it is internal: “you are a pro-Turkish traitor – no, you are a pro-Turkish traitor.”
Ruben Rubinyan, of course, can respond more restrainedly and cold-heartedly to the harsh accusations of the parliamentary opposition, but he probably can not answer at all; he is one of the active members of the political team, vice-speaker of the National Assembly, and one of the figures standing in the “revolutionary barricades.” I do not imagine how he will be able to “keep away” from mutual discrediting, the “war of compromising,” and so on, coming to the sittings of the parliament. (By the way, within the framework of that “war,” I saw a place where the deputy’s father, Karapet Rubinyan, who was then Deputy Speaker of the Armenian parliament, was blamed for events in which he could not have played a role).
Let me remind you that in 1992-1994, the President of Armenia’s special ambassador Davit Shahnazaryan also had no diplomatic education and was a member of a political team, but throughout his work, he was free of the responsibility to enter into “the ultimate fight” with the opposition and even more, he had a normal working relationship with the opposition parties.
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Of course, the ideal solution today would be to appoint a professional diplomat as Armenia’s representative in the negotiations with Turkey. But since it is from the sphere of fiction, it is possible to limit the purely political activity of the Vice Speaker of parliament during those negotiations and to discuss the issue with the opposition behind closed doors. This is how I imagine the state interest.
Aram Abrahamyan
