At the end of May - when and. about. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced his plan to de-escalate the situation on the border with Azerbaijan - Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazyan, four of his deputies and Foreign Ministry press secretary Anna Naghdalyan resigned. Armenia has returned to a time when foreign ministers held office for one to two years.
The professional ethics of diplomats does not allow them to make loud scenes before leaving. This is exactly what Ara Ayvazyan did, modestly resigning from himself. His predecessor Zohrab Mnatsakanyan left the post of foreign minister on November 16, a week after the end of the Second Karabakh war, thereby admitting that Armenia suffered a fiasco not only on the battlefield, but in the foreign policy arena, failing to legitimize the occupation.
However, the resignation of Ayvazyan, who was called upon to smooth over the most acute corners in the post-war settlement process, seems to be a reaction to the vector of political development chosen by the government. Clergymen and generals have long turned away from Pashinyan. Now it was the turn of the diplomats.
Pashinyan's plans are at odds with the professional activities of the Foreign Ministry. Pashinyan tried to back up almost all his political initiatives with the words of diplomats in the hope that they would be as widespread as possible abroad. Since his election, Pashinyan has turned the Foreign Ministry into a branch of his image agency, which largely duplicated the words of the prime minister. For example, since the beginning of the anti-government rally in January, the ministry supported Pashinyan, expressing the opinion that it was inexpedient to hold early parliamentary elections, but as soon as the prime minister called for an extraordinary vote, the position of the Foreign Ministry was hastily adjusted. Two years earlier, Armenian diplomacy supported Pashinyan's "pan-Armenian idea" and even tried to give this slogan elements of the prime minister's corporate identity.
The resignation of Ara Ayvazyan indirectly confirms the reorientation of the Foreign Ministry's work to meet Pashinyan's political needs. Diplomats are forced to keep up with the ever-changing interests of the acting president. prime minister, coming up with more and more diplomatic interpretations, making sure that they do not contradict each other. Pashinyan was never eager to take responsibility and trusted few people, negotiating behind the backs of diplomats.
It is noteworthy that Ayvazyan resigned on the eve of the visit of the acting premiered in Paris and Brussels. Pashinyan preferred to personally discuss the possible implementation of his plan to delimit the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, in the implementation of which the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs from the United States and France could play a role.
The current position of the head of the Cabinet of Ministers creates unbearable conditions for the work of the Foreign Ministry. Pashinyan sets before the diplomats the task of preparing the necessary basis for the restoration of the presence of the Minsk Group in the space of Armenia with the possibility of the republic entering the western political vector. In realizing this task, the diplomatic department must ensure the security of the Armenian-Russian relations, so that Moscow does not consider it necessary to react in a harsh form to Pashinyan's political research. Rapprochement between Armenia and the EU Pashinyan expects to carry out at the expense of Russia, while the republic is under its protection through the CSTO.
In such a situation, Pashinyan's hypocrisy worries not only his opponents, but also the military. Following Ayvazyan, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Stepan Galstyan intends to leave his post. Back in early March, it was his Pashinyan who tried to keep with various promises.
Political orientation of the acting the premiere brings confusion. It is unclear how Pashinyan is going to cooperate with Moscow and participate in a trilateral peacekeeping mission if his political agenda is aimed at turning Armenia into a bargaining chip. Now the work of the Foreign Ministry is paralyzed, since diplomats are unable to work with the conditions of the vague policy of the head of state.
