HOW LONG ARE WE GOING TO SUFFER DEFEATS IN EUROPE?
Vardan Grigoryan
Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on June 26, 2008
Armenia
As we know, in the report on the "Activity of the Democratic
Institutions in Azerbaijan", the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe touched upon the ill-famed Resolution of the
UN General Assembly concerning the March 1 developments, along
with holding discussions on human rights and freedoms. Thus, the
unilateral pro-Azerbaijani document viewing the NKR people’s fight for
self-determination as the occupation of the Azerbaijani territories
was considered by PACE, another international tribunal.
The amendment proposed by British MP Edward O’Hara was not approved.
According to him, Azerbaijan impeded the activities of the commission
studying the situation of the Armenian monuments in the territory
Nakhijevan.
The ridicule went so far that the foul language of the well-prepared
Azeri delegates drove French Parliamentarian Francoise Rochebloine
out of his temper.
In response to the false statement saying "the Armenians are settlers",
F. Rochebloine announced, "If we deny the existence of the Armenian
people in that territory since pre-historic times, there will hardly
be any hope for progress. We must be able to face the truth."
A question arises as to how long the delegates representing Armenia
in different international tribunals are going to demonstrate weakness
to the increasing political and propaganda pressures of our aggressive
neighbors.
Accounting for their own weakness by Turkey’s powerful support to
Azerbaijan in the debates held periodically in different international
tribunals, our delegates not only conceal the truth but also consider
society ignorant.
It is well-known that both Turkey and the Turkish lobbying do
not, mildly speaking, stand out in terms of their success in the
international and especially European tribunals. On the contrary, the
European political circles and the public at large have a somewhat
cool and partially hostile attitude to any initiative undertaken
by Turkey. Besides, there is a kind of sympathy for Armenia and the
Armenian people in the same circles.
So, what’s the matter? Why, for instance, do our singers (who are not
more skilled in comparison with the Turkish or Azerbaijani singers)
win more sympathy among the Europeans while representing Armenia during
the Eurovision contest? Whereas the situation with the politicians
is just the contrary; they are incapable of holding debates with the
Turks and Azeris and protecting the interests of their own people
even in the most elementary matters.
The first reason is that our country has no active state institutions
or public opinion mechanisms enabling the state and society to replace
the Armenian representatives who, for many years, have suffered
failures in the PACE, the Parliamentary Assemblies of NATO or OSCE
and other international tribunals.
The second reason is that the responsibility of elaborating the
country’s foreign policy first of all lies upon the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. However, our Foreign Ministry was not consistent enough
during the recent years to elaborate certain concepts substantiating
the pro-Armenian viewpoints. On the contrary, Armenia spared no effort
to be more constructive on the international arena, i.e. occupy more
yielding positions in comparison with its neighbors.
The third reason is that the analytical centers, which operated under
the President, the Government and the Ministry of Defense and received
serious sums from the state, have not done anything for bringing the
above-mentioned task to life. Besides, there were no ties between
the state government bodies and the academic institutions of Armenia
which, instead of elaborating those tasks were engaged in researching
some scientific themes inherited from the Soviet times.
In such conditions, the practice of returning from Europe and
accounting for one’s own defeat by the efforts of the pro-Azerbaijani
"oil lobbying" or "Turkish lobbying" has become a usual custom.
The truth is that the delegates representing Armenia in international
tribunals do not demonstrate sufficient consistency while working
with their European partners. As to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
it doesn’t have any serious centre elaborating the principles and
priorities of foreign policy.
It turns out that the defeat of our delegates is 100 percent
predictable, and it’s absolutely no use accusing our rivals because,
as the proverb says, "the wolf may change its coat but not its
disposition".