Do not pretend to be saints: Armenia’s FM to Azerbaijani deputy (video)

On November 6 Foreign MInister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan alongside with the Foreign Minister of Ukraine Vadym Prystaiko participated in a lecture at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, entitled “A talk with the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Ukraine”, dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the Eastern Partnership.

In his remarks Minister Mnatsakanyan presented in detail Armenia’s cooperation with the European Union within the framework of Eastern Partnership, the ongoing democratic reforms in Armenia, the country’s foreign policy priorities.

Touching upon the Velvet Revolution, Minister Mnatsakanyan, particularly, noted that the wide public mandate, received during the elections, held last year, is also a trust in the government and a big responsibility to address the immediate priorities under that mandate:  

“Throughout the first months the government has been absolutely focused on delivering on those most immediate demands, reflected in the mandate: the questions of corruption, the questions of equal space, equal opportunities in economic and social life, the question of justice, the question of elections, and the political will has demonstrated its power, that you can address corruption ahead on, if you have a political will, that you can organize elections which are accepted by the public and political forces and that is when you have shown the political will. But that is not enough. That’s only the beginning. It’s only the first step, because consolidating these institutions is the most important challenge and the most important objective. To make sure that irrespective of political will political institutions, the public institutions do gain strength to sustain the model which is based on respect and strength of democracy, human rights, rule of law. And this is what we live through and live with today in Armenia.”

Within the context of Armenia’s foreign policy priorities and cooperation with different partners, the Minister noted:

“Our foreign policy is built in a very careful way to consolidate, to sustain consolidation of our national security architecture. To demonstrate the point, we have two fundamental challenges to our security. One challenge is the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh challenge, the other challenge is Turkey threat. The non existence of relations with Turkey, the consistent denial of justice in case of Turkey, the failure to build on what we have invested in, what many of you may know, the Zurich protocols, they, in combination with some other factors, they represent a serious security threat to Armenia. ”

During the Q&A session, after the opening remarks by Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Ukraine, in a response to an Azerbaijani deputy’s question on Nagorno-Karabakh, on whether Armenia is ready to apply to international tribunal alongside with Azerbaijan to investigate alleged war crimes, ethnic cleansings committed by Armenia, which are mentioned in the resolutions of the UN, EU, CoE, Minister Mnatsakanyan pointed to crimes, committed by Azerbaijan.