Arman Navasardyan: Before and during the war, Armenian diplomacy  demonstrated a complete failure on all fronts

ArmInfo.In the pre-war and wartime periods, Armenian diplomacy suffered a complete fiasco. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, former Deputy Foreign  Minister of the Republic of Armenia Arman Navasardyan said this in an  interview with ArmInfo correspondent.

He noted that the head of the current Armenian Foreign Minister did  not state this defeat, on the contrary, from his words one gets the  impression that we even had some victories. "But during the war, our  diplomacy demonstrated a complete failure. We have lost such a  partner as Iran. Iran has faced a difficult situation, since now  there are Azerbaijanis and jihadists on its borders.

Secondly, we have lost such a partner as China. Despite the fact that  we said that our relations are actively developing, China's position  was not very favorable for us.

But most importantly, we have spoiled our relationship with Russia.  And now we have to work for a long time to restore this relationship.  It will be rather painstaking and long work, but the result is worth  it, "the ambassador noted.

Navasardyan stressed that various diplomatic services also behaved  very badly. "In all normal countries, after such cataclysms, at least  key ambassadors are recalled, or even demoted. And our ambassadors,  who completely lost or acted poorly, did not bear any responsibility.  Nepotism and family ties were of particular importance in our  diplomacy, "Navasardyan noted.  "There is talk about flaws in the  personnel policy of the third President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan,  but the new personnel behaved much worse. We need first-class  specialists, otherwise our diplomacy will continue to remain in an  inconsolable state, "Navasardyan concluded.  Speaking about the  mistakes that exist in Armenian diplomacy, Navasardyan noted that  over the past 30 years, the country's foreign ministry has failed to  create a strong diplomatic school, even taking into account the fact  that we did not have our own diplomatic history and practice before.   "Diplomacy plays a huge role, because in fact it implements the  foreign policy of the state. As the saying goes, if the Minister of  Foreign Affairs is not engaged in vigorous activity, but performs  mechanical work, then he is rather an honorary postman. We have a  similar situation now. Decisions are made on Baghramyan 26, and the  Foreign Ministry is simply trying to fulfill them, "the ambassador  said.  Navasardyan noted that nepotism and family ties occupy a  special place in Armenian diplomacy. "Our main embassies are located  in important areas of diplomatic work - in Moscow, Washington, Tehran  and Tbilisi, but the diplomats who work there, to put it mildly, are  not professionals. The situation is really dire, and unfortunately,  this practice was typical for all three presidents. Often, people who  were not in any way connected with this area before came to the  diplomatic department, "he stressed.  The ambassador noted that the  example of American diplomacy is interesting, where ambassadors are  in office for no more than 3 years, then they are replaced, since  being in the same country for a long time, in the same position, they  are covered with "lazy fat" and change for the worse.  Navasardyan  also noted that Armenia has a very strange geography of embassies.  That is, there are a number of countries that are nearby, but there  are several embassies, while they could be combined into one. "This  happens because sometimes in our country the embassy is opened for a  specific person, which is an extremely wrong decision," he said.   Navasardyan also noted that during the war, our embassies were almost  inactive, however, the Diaspora showed itself in the best possible  way. People organized protest actions, collected money, tried to draw  public attention to what was happening in Artsakh, while the special  work of the embassies was not visible.  According to the ambassador,  this is simply an unprecedented situation.

Navasardyan also paid special attention to the fact that Armenia is a  parliamentary republic, but parliamentary diplomacy is at a moderate  level and, by and large, is not developing.

While in modern Armenia, ambassadors do not report to the parliament.  "That is, the parliament was an additional control mechanism, another  question is, to what extent do our parliamentarians understand this?   Often we see how international treaties and agreements are being  signed, but there are no those who would follow how the points of  this agreement are being implemented, "the ambassador noted.

Navasardyan noted that after the "velvet revolution" he proposed a  number of options on how to develop diplomacy and presented a number  of ideas related to parliamentary diplomacy. "However, the then head  of the Armenian Foreign Ministry Zohrab Mnatsakanyan refused to  accept them, as there would be additional control over his  activities. And now the activities of the Foreign Ministry are hidden  behind a heavy curtain of secrecy. And, first of all, the diplomatic  inconsistency of the foreign policy department hides behind this  curtain, "Navasardyan concluded.