U.K. Ambassador At Covered Market

U.K. AMBASSADOR AT COVERED MARKET

News.am has published a snapshot of the UK ambassador Jonathan Aves
who shopped at the Covered Market on October 9, put the bags in his
car, watched the building and left.

Every person, including foreign diplomats, have the right to shop
wherever they want. The Covered Market, however, is a sensitive issue.

Does the ambassador know about it or not?

Of course, the Covered Market is the problem of the Armenian society
which goes for fight against unlawfulness. However, an ambassador is
concerned, which is important because the Armenian society continues
to think of ambassadors of developed countries, including the United
Kingdom, as partners in democratization and development of Armenia.

It is understood that the Constitution and legislation of Armenia limit
considerably the participation of these partners in the process of
democratization and civil society building in Armenia. It is also
understood that these partners provide essential support within
these limits.

However, it is highly important to be consistent and principled,
including at the moral and psychological level.

What would the honorable ambassador do if a tycoon built a mall in the
United Kingdom despite legislative limitations and infringing state
order? And what would they do to this tycoon in the United Kingdom?

What do they usually do with offenders there?

No doubt the British, and generally the Western civilization is strong
thanks to the uncompromising attitude to law which is binding for
everyone independent from one’s position and social status. Therefore,
an offender cannot be encouraged either legally or morally.

Meanwhile, buying things from the Covered Market is equal to moral
support to unlawfulness. Not only the citizens but also public
administration bodies have stated that the Covered Market was built
with violations of state order and legislation.

So, what’s the point of encouraging illegality? After all, the
ambassadors, including those of the United Kingdom, have called
the Armenian government to fight monopoly and oligopoly, ensure
a competitive and lawful environment to encourage flow of foreign
investments to Armenia. The Covered Market is a vivid example of
trespassing by monopolies and oligopolies.

The civil activists of Armenia have called to boycott the Covered
Market as shopping there means supporting unlawfulness. Ambassadors
to Armenia who call for rule of law every now and then should also
be mindful of the call of the civil society.

They are free to shop anywhere unless their freedom is not limited by
some specific features of the seller that jeopardize public confidence
in diplomats acting as partners in democratization, rule of law and
civil society building.

This episode may be a small detail to support to Armenians in
democratization but the devil is in the details, as the British say.

Hakob Badalyan 13:30 10/10/2013 Story from Lragir.am News:

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress