Ignored Armenia
When after September 3 the opposition and experts express opinions that after agreeing to join the CU, Armenia has appeared in a political isolation. It has stopped being perceived as a sovereign and independent country.
The government would claim the opposite and they’d assure that the complementary politics continues and that Armenia was wise in that regard. But the recent processes in the international arena come to prove the opposite. One of the best indexes was the recent session of the European People’s Party in Dublin, where the Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan made a speech. And in his speech he emphasized that even though Armenia is moving towards the CU it also wises to move in the direction of the EU.
But not the speech is so interesting but the mildly-said modest list of Serzh Sargsyan’s meetings in Dublin. “Yesterday evening, in Dublin, in the framework of the working visit to Ireland, President Serzh Sargsyan held a meeting with Eleni Theocharous, a leader of the European Parliament’s European Union-Armenia Friendship Group and Averof Neophytou, a leader of one of the leading political forces in Cyprus the Democratic Rally of Cyprus. The interlocutors discussed the possibilities of developing mutually beneficial cooperation in the framework of the European Parliament and also touched upon a broad range of issues regarding the reinforcement and advancement of the Armenian-Cypriot bilateral relations,” reads the statement on the President’s official website. But we should note that the whole political elite of Europe was in Dublin on those days, EU member states’ Presidents and Prime Ministers. Why hasn’t any of them met with Sargsyan when only months ago the Europeans would show a remarkable reception to the visits of the President of Armenia. Perhaps it would be too simple to say that after December 3 Europe has lost all of its interest to Armenia. Vice versa, especially after the Ukrainian events the interest of Europe to Armenia has increased drastically. Why didn’t they use the right occasion and meet Sargsyan?
Probably the reason is the fact that since September 3 important issues concerning Armenia are discussed with Russia. However, the most important issues on Russia’s foreign affairs agenda is Ukraine.
Raffi Hovhannisyan, chairman of Heritage Party and member of EDP, participated in the same event as well. There is no information about his meetings in Dublin. The Heritage party has published a statement about Raffi Hovhannisyan’s visit to Dublin, which does not specify meetings and only provides a list of people Raffi Hovhannisyan has “talked to” or “exchanged opinions.” “During the congress Raffi Hovhannisyan talked to delegates from different European countries, including… ” reads the statement off Heritage Party and writes names of high ranking European officials such as Chancellor Angela Merkel, EU President Herman Van Rompuy, Irish PM Edna Kenny and others.
Maybe Raffi Hovhannisyan said hi to these officials in the congress area as he always does when he sees people, and these officials responded politely. Who can say that saying hi is not exchanging opinions or talking? The president’s office should take an example from Raffi Hovhannisyan’s press release and publish representative lists after Serzh Sargsyan’s visits.
