Former Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazyan and other retired senior diplomats on Monday strongly criticized the Armenian government’s foreign policy, saying that it has only added to grave national security threats facing the country.
They said that their newly established Pan-Armenian Council of Diplomats will present in the coming days a detailed alternative to that policy praised by the United States and the European Union.
“A very serious situation indeed has been created for Armenia, with our decision making primarily influenced by external factors and external actors,” said Ayvazyan. “In order to stop these ruinous developments, a correct diplomatic strategy needs to be developed and presented.”
The council will propose a concrete “way out of this situation on the diplomatic front,” he added without elaborating.
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The government has been moving away from Russia, Armenia’s longtime ally, and deepening ties with the West in what Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian calls a “diversification” of the country’s traditional foreign and security policies. The policy change has triggered unprecedented tensions between Yerevan and Moscow. Armenian opposition groups say it is reckless given the absence of Western security guarantees or significant military aid.
The former career diplomats, who served during and before Pashinian’s rule, added their voice to opposition criticism of Pashinian’s latest territorial concessions to Azerbaijan portrayed by the government as a delimitation of the first section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
“Opting for unilateral concessions and trying, through those concessions, to bring peace … cannot work,” said Avet Adonts, a former deputy foreign minister.
“Even a fully delineated border will not ensure security or stability,” agreed Ayvazyan.
Ayvazyan was appointed by Pashinian as foreign minister in the wake of the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh. He resigned in May 2021, objecting to Pashinian’s cautious response to Azerbaijan’s seizure of several Armenian border areas. Ayvazyan’s four deputies, including Adonts, also tendered their resignations at the time.
A year later, Ayvazyan signaled support for the Armenian opposition’s efforts to oust Pashinian. He and Adonts stressed on Monday that the diplomatic association set up by them is not connected to any political group.