Armenia Emerges from Political Isolation

During his visit to Germany, Pashinyan met with Secretary General of the Council of Europe (CoE) Marija Pejcinovic Buric, who said to him, “We have already started intensive cooperation between Armenia and the Council of Europe after the visit of the CoE high-level working group last May. I know that you asked the CoE to engage in this process. And the CoE started closely following what is taking place.”

One factor which has contributed to Armenia’s rapprochement with Europe has been the cooling off of relations between Turkey and Europe, and more generally with the entire West.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavusoglu, however, announced recently that Turkey will explore new avenues to enhance its chances of joining the European Union.

By the same token, Syria’s standoff with Turkey moved Damascus to recognize the Armenian Genocide. It is worth mentioning that President Bashar al-Assad was one of the few heads of state (alongside President Ahmadinejad of Iran) in the past who avoided visiting the Armenian Genocide Martyr’s Memorial in Armenia for fear of alienating Ankara.

During his recent visit to Germany, Pashinyan announced that he had invited President Hassan Rouhani of Iran to visit Armenia. This seems to be a counterbalance to the recent productive visit of King Abdullah II of Jordan, who is an ally of NATO and the US.

King Abdullah’s visit was significant for renewing old ties with that friendly Arab country that has played a historic role in sheltering Armenians post-Genocide and now seeks a new conduit towards the West.

Armenia has also been credited with enticing Iran to cooperate with the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union.

With these multi-directional relations, Armenia is gradually shedding the label of simply being Russia’s outpost in the region, without alienating Moscow to the point of irritation.

Before moving to another dimension of Armenia’s foreign policy, it is worth mentioning that Armenia’s prime minister met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on the sidelines of the Munich World Peace and Security Conference last week.

Hopefully, something positive was achieved during their one-on-one meeting. But their public debate was an embarrassment. Pashinyan was ill-prepared and what made matters worse was his use of the English language of which he has poor command. Anyone who tries to convince the prime minister that he had a stellar performance is no friend to him nor Armenia.

The only saving grace was that Aliyev performed no better.

In October, Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan’s interview on the BBC’s “HardTalk” was also heavily criticized.

These two performances pale in comparison to former foreign ministers Vartan Oskanian’s and Eduard Nalbandyan’s public appearances. Their linguistic proficiency matched the excellence of their diplomatic skills. This new administration sorely needs cadres who can represent Armenia in a better light on the world stage.

In line with Armenia’s developing foreign relations is the forthcoming summit with Greece and Cyprus. Again, this is a factor of Turkey’s bullying. The latter occupies a large chunk of Cyprus and has been challenging Greece over the Aegean Sea. But the recent discovery of oil and gas deposits in the eastern Mediterranean has galvanized the situation even more. Based on its occupation of Cyprus, Ankara is trying to make good on non-existent mining rights of the so-called Turkish Republic of Cyprus. While initiating its own explorations in the region, Turkey has threatened other parties which have legal rights to the underwater wealth.

Greece and Cyprus have reached out to Israel and Egypt to form consortiums. When Israel’s interests are threatened, the world knows where Washington stands. Despite the US’s implied threats, Turkey is continuing making mischief in the region.

It is a foregone conclusion that those parties facing Turkish bullying need to cooperate with other regional powers. Greece and Cyprus are no match for Turkey. But an international consensus may curb Turkey’s actions. This is how Armenia has been finding its niche in this configuration.

Foreign Minister Mnatsakanyan just met with Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides. Earlier, he called his Greek counterpart, Nikos Dendias. All these contacts are in preparation for a trilateral summit to be convened this spring in Yerevan. The summit intends to expand the scope of cooperation between these three countries and it will help Armenia to consolidate its firm foothold in the European Union.

Bringing the countries even closer, a contingent of Armenian cadets are already being trained in Greek military schools.

Despite the inexperience of the new revolutionary government, its policy is moving in the right direction, to bring the country out of its political isolation.

It is ironic that Turkey is also contributing to that development, albeit inadvertently.