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WHY SARGSYAN DIDN'T LEAVE FOR TEHRAN
HAKOB BADALYAN
Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/comments27221.html
Published: 16:08:14 - 29/08/2012
Why did Armenia decide to attend the Non-Aligned Movement Summit in
Tehran at the level of the foreign minister and not the president?
On July 10, 2012, the Iranian Fars news agency released information
that the president of Armenia had accepted the invitation of the
Iranian president to attend the Non-Aligned Movement Summit. The
invitation was handed to Serzh Sargsyan by the foreign minister of
Iran during his visit in Armenia.
The official Yerevan has never rejected this information by the
Iranian agency.
On August 29, we learn that not Serzh Sargsyan but Edward Nalbandyan
is leaving for Tehran. Has Armenia changed its mind? Had it not
decided who would leave for Iran so it decided to ignore the Iranian
information on Serzh Sargsyan's attendance in order to be able to
decide at the very last moment given the uncertainty whether or not
the summit would take place?
In the meantime interesting things happened including some relating to
Armenia. In general, the interaction between Armenian delegations with
the Russian and Iranian delegations has recently been quite often. A
number of Iranian high-ranking officials arrived in Armenia and the
Armenian foreign minister left for Tehran.
Yerevan was the place of visit of Russian officials. Speakers of two
parliamentary chambers of Russia, the minister of internal affairs
and the representative of the president of Russia visited Armenia.
The peak of all these visits was perhaps Serzh Sargsyan's visit to
Moscow on August 8 and his meeting with Vladimir Putin.
Later, Reuter published an article saying that Iran uses the Armenian
banks for financial operations to fund its nuclear program.
Actually, Armenia was accused to supporting the Iranian Nuclear
Program despite international sanctions.
The official Yerevan rejected Reuter's article at the level of the
Central Bank but the authoritative media didn't react to the CB
statement and didn't reject the information it has reported. And the
Armenian power didn't wish to follow up with it. While, the reaction
by Armenia should be at least in the form of a demand to publish a
rejection since the prestigious media put Armenia on a very dangerous
plain in terms of its relations with the developed world.
Apparently, the official Yerevan preferred not to generate the issue
with unnecessary demands, but to make the right conclusion and to
"miss" the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran. Moreover, it would
be very strange if the president participated in the abovementioned
summit, since he had missed the two NATO summits.
For the official Yerevan the priority of which is to develop relations
with the West, it would be an excessive deflection which could end
in a break with irreparable consequences.
In other words, here the issue is not the Armenian-Iranian relations,
but Armenia's role and position in the world and its mission in the
region. Here the point is not that Armenia should try not to make
angry the powerful ones, but to understand its own role and mission
and show responsibility for it.
As to the Armenian-Iranian relations, the situation is very delicate
here and the Western warnings and hints are directed to a more global
circumstance.
It is clear for the West that Armenia's relations with Iran of any
scale can't ensure breakthrough of the international sanctions for
Iran or tangible change of the economic situation.
But the situation would be different if Russia-Iran relations were
built under the name of Armenia-Iran relations, and if Armenia was
just a facilitator, but not a mediator circle but a mediator platform.
The best proof to this is the Armenia-Iran gas pipe which before being
built and exploited was handed to Russia and it is still unclear what
the interest of Armenia from this strategic project.
So, the West has no problem with the Armenian-Iranian relations, but
the Russia-Iran relations under the veil of relations between Armenia
and Iran. Otherwise, the Armenian-Iranian relation, containing no
dangerous resource given its scales, could be even commendable for
the West if it allowed Armenia diversify its economic, resource and
infrastructure unilateral dependence on Russia.
HAKOB BADALYAN
Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/comments27221.html
Published: 16:08:14 - 29/08/2012
Why did Armenia decide to attend the Non-Aligned Movement Summit in
Tehran at the level of the foreign minister and not the president?
On July 10, 2012, the Iranian Fars news agency released information
that the president of Armenia had accepted the invitation of the
Iranian president to attend the Non-Aligned Movement Summit. The
invitation was handed to Serzh Sargsyan by the foreign minister of
Iran during his visit in Armenia.
The official Yerevan has never rejected this information by the
Iranian agency.
On August 29, we learn that not Serzh Sargsyan but Edward Nalbandyan
is leaving for Tehran. Has Armenia changed its mind? Had it not
decided who would leave for Iran so it decided to ignore the Iranian
information on Serzh Sargsyan's attendance in order to be able to
decide at the very last moment given the uncertainty whether or not
the summit would take place?
In the meantime interesting things happened including some relating to
Armenia. In general, the interaction between Armenian delegations with
the Russian and Iranian delegations has recently been quite often. A
number of Iranian high-ranking officials arrived in Armenia and the
Armenian foreign minister left for Tehran.
Yerevan was the place of visit of Russian officials. Speakers of two
parliamentary chambers of Russia, the minister of internal affairs
and the representative of the president of Russia visited Armenia.
The peak of all these visits was perhaps Serzh Sargsyan's visit to
Moscow on August 8 and his meeting with Vladimir Putin.
Later, Reuter published an article saying that Iran uses the Armenian
banks for financial operations to fund its nuclear program.
Actually, Armenia was accused to supporting the Iranian Nuclear
Program despite international sanctions.
The official Yerevan rejected Reuter's article at the level of the
Central Bank but the authoritative media didn't react to the CB
statement and didn't reject the information it has reported. And the
Armenian power didn't wish to follow up with it. While, the reaction
by Armenia should be at least in the form of a demand to publish a
rejection since the prestigious media put Armenia on a very dangerous
plain in terms of its relations with the developed world.
Apparently, the official Yerevan preferred not to generate the issue
with unnecessary demands, but to make the right conclusion and to
"miss" the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran. Moreover, it would
be very strange if the president participated in the abovementioned
summit, since he had missed the two NATO summits.
For the official Yerevan the priority of which is to develop relations
with the West, it would be an excessive deflection which could end
in a break with irreparable consequences.
In other words, here the issue is not the Armenian-Iranian relations,
but Armenia's role and position in the world and its mission in the
region. Here the point is not that Armenia should try not to make
angry the powerful ones, but to understand its own role and mission
and show responsibility for it.
As to the Armenian-Iranian relations, the situation is very delicate
here and the Western warnings and hints are directed to a more global
circumstance.
It is clear for the West that Armenia's relations with Iran of any
scale can't ensure breakthrough of the international sanctions for
Iran or tangible change of the economic situation.
But the situation would be different if Russia-Iran relations were
built under the name of Armenia-Iran relations, and if Armenia was
just a facilitator, but not a mediator circle but a mediator platform.
The best proof to this is the Armenia-Iran gas pipe which before being
built and exploited was handed to Russia and it is still unclear what
the interest of Armenia from this strategic project.
So, the West has no problem with the Armenian-Iranian relations, but
the Russia-Iran relations under the veil of relations between Armenia
and Iran. Otherwise, the Armenian-Iranian relation, containing no
dangerous resource given its scales, could be even commendable for
the West if it allowed Armenia diversify its economic, resource and
infrastructure unilateral dependence on Russia.