Consequences of needle diplomacy
“Tomorrow I am leaving for Paris, where I will meet with co-chairmen, and the next day I will meet with the Azeri foreign minister Mamediarov,” said Armenian foreign minister Edward Nalbandyan in yesterday’s press conference. In fact this announcement is no news because we knew that the foreign ministers were going to meet on January 24. Other statements the Armenian foreign minister made were no news either.
However, several days before this announcement there were tragic events that killed Armenian soldier who bravely fought Azeri attacks on January 20th; Armen Hovhannisyan’s body was buried at Yerablur pantheon. However, this incident did not change anything in Nalbandyan’s announcements, except for some critics that usually they address to the Azeri government. After all this, the Armenian foreign minister is going to meet the Azeri foreign minister to plan an upcoming meeting between the two presidents.
The history shows that such unexpected attacks at the frontline are organized before every meeting of the foreign affairs ministers of the two countries, thus nobody can stay assured that similar things will not happen in the future. In fact Edward Nalbandyan is going to meet the Azeri foreign minister to set up time for the next soldier’s murder. Even though this sounds very strange, but one may ask whether it would be the right thing to send Mamediarov to a place where he should be and tell him to go… A good alternative would be not boycotting negotiations but working with the international community in a manner that instead of unclear statements by OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen the international community would condemn such acts clearly and directly so that they do not repeat again. However, to be able to do this, Armenia must be a country that is respected by the international community.
The fact is that in the recent years Armenia is losing not only its sovereignty but also the ability to play an independent role in the international community, due to which we could prevent such incidents in the future. In answer to journalists’ questions why the Armenian foreign minister is travelling in Latin American countries Edward Nalbandyan said that he would recommend them not to look at the world through a needle hole. Maybe the Armenian foreign minister was too tired after the travelling that he even did not notice that as a result of their official policy the world is looking at us through a needle hole. That is the needle hole through which bullets are killing our soldiers.
