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Thursday 14 August 2008

Armenia: one-sided condolences

Regardless of our attitude to Georgia’s policy towards South Ossetia (I made my opinion very clear about this in previous posts) and very tricky situation for Armenia in relation to Georgia-Russia war, it seems bizarre to me and totally unacceptable, to say the least, that Armenian head of state Serj Sargsyan offered condolences for casualties only to its Russian counterpart, whereas both Russia and Georgia were observing a day of mourning yesterday.

And here is why it is essential to keep Galust Sahakyan, deputy chief of governing Republican party of Armenia, as far away from the foreign policy of Armenia as possible (if you add here internal politics too, would be even better): link (in Armenian).

2 comments:

artmika said...

Prehaps, responding to the sharp criticism of one-sided condolences voiced from various sides in Armenia, and accepting their mistake, a press statement of the president office has just been released that on Thursday Serj Sargsyan sent a telegram of condolences to his Georgian counterpart Mikhail Saakashvili, expressing readiness to provide humanitarian assistance to Georgia.

It is very telling that while Serj directly expressed his condolences to Russian president over a “conversation took place at Armenia’s initiative”, it was only a delayed telegram of condolences to the president of our neighbouring country. Better later than never, as they say.

Meanwhile, for the first time (!) since the escalation of Georgia-Russia conflict last week, a meeting of the National Security Council of Armenia has been called for .

artmika said...

...and now telephone conversation.

Serj Sargsyan had a telephone conversation with his Georgian counterpart Mikhail Saakashvili yesterday (15 August), reports IA Regnum based on press statement of the president office.

"Sargsyan once again expressed his condolences over the numerous casualties as a result of recent events in Georgia and reiterated Armenia's readiness to provide necessary humanitarian assistance."