Regarding the war in Israel, a big part of the Armenian society is openly delighted, considering Israel is being punished for supplying weapons to our enemy. Public figures have unwittingly become advocates and admirers of Palestinian interests. Why are we so happy, and what will we gain from these clashes?
Arabologist Hayk Kocharyan answered in a conversation with Aravot.am. “Honestly, I have not met any expressions of joy on social networks, but one thing must be understood that this is in our neighborhood, right in our region, and if it goes beyond the Palestinian-Israeli confrontations and begins to expand in the region, it will have serious consequences and there will be no more occasions to rejoice. It will destroy the general security system in the region, and what we have to do here is to follow and understand what is the position of the main players in the region. We have to analyze it and build our security interest in the context of the new emerging paradigm.”
There are Facebook users who put the flag of Palestine on their main picture and excitedly claim that the enemy of our enemy is our friend, and Israel gave weapons to our enemy, Azerbaijan, and congratulated them on their victory. To the question: Hamas congratulated Azerbaijan on the win and noted that this was the end of any occupation. Don’t we want to notice this against the background of Hamas’ success, and why do we think our interests coincide with Palestine? – Hayk Kocharyan answered.
“People are free in their actions; they can be excited about such things, but from the state’s point of view, the interests are different. Israel sold weapons to Azerbaijan, but Azerbaijan also bought weapons from other countries; we cannot proceed with that logic. Relations between countries are built based on their interests. These interests shape the security expectations of countries and their security guarantors. There is no need to blame someone else for what we did not do. The presence of the Armenian community in Arab countries has played its role in our position on the Palestinian conflict. Our task should have been to deal with Armenian issues, consider who has what position in which part of the world, and build our interests accordingly. We have always looked at that conflict from the side; it is not our conflict.
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We will not take active actions, but it is essential at this stage to analyze the emerging security systems of the changing region, what the players in the region say, and how they act so that we can build our security system. This confrontation shows that many regional security relations have changed, and we have work to do regarding the consequences. Any conflict in this and the region close to us cannot be in our interest. By and large, this results from a broken security system in the region. We must understand our interests to find our place in the emerging paradigm.”
To the question: those who positively assess the war in Israel have a point of view that this will allow us to gain time, Israel will no longer be able to supply weapons to Azerbaijan, the Arab world is “in trouble,” we can take advantage of this, is this a new opportunity for us? He answered. “No, time depends on how long all this will last. And we have lost time; the actions are moving so fast that we must do what we must, regardless of Israel’s arms sales. The fact that Israel will supposedly not sell weapons to Azerbaijan does not mean it will give us an advantage. We have many daily problems to solve.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
