Wikileaks’“Ambassador Boomerang” returns to diplomatic service: Newly appointed Armenian ambassador to Uzbekistan mentioned in U.S. secret documents

With the offer of Armenia’s Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and decree of Armenia’s President Armen Sarkissian on June 20 Aram Grigoryan has been appointed Armenia’s Ambassador to Uzbekistan, residence in Yerevan.

According to official biography, from 1994-2007 he was Armenia’s charge d'affairesin Turkmenistan and later ambassador.

In 2000-2007 he was Armenia’s ambassador to Tajikistan in collaboration. After the recall he passed to work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs till today’s appointment.

Information about him has found place in U.S. secret government materials published by Julian Assange's Wikileaks.

According to one of them, "while hosting a dinner marking the anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War, otherwise known as World War II Grigoryan told German Ambassador Hans Mondorf he was not allowed to sit with the "winners" because "losers have to sit alone."

"Rather than admit this was a tasteless joke, he enforced his seating plan. Mondorf walked out and reported the incident to his foreign ministry. Berlin formally protested to Yerevan, and Yerevan supposedly recalled Grigoryan. He hosted his own farewell and flew to Armenia. However, he returned to Ashgabat several weeks later, earning the sobriquet Ambassador Boomerang. He bragged he had convinced his foreign ministry to give him time to wind up his business affairs in Ashgabat. Exactly what business affairs he had to wind up is unclear, but it was widely rumored among the ambassadors, whether accurate or not, that Grigoryan owned a string of kebab shops and possibly several brothels," the confidential material read.

This secret document was signed by that time U.S. deputy ambassador to Turkmenistan Richard Hoagland who ten years after that, in 2017, was appointed U.S. acting co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group.