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Embassies Are Often Perceived As Protocol Services, Says Armenian Di

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  • Embassies Are Often Perceived As Protocol Services, Says Armenian Di

    EMBASSIES ARE OFTEN PERCEIVED AS PROTOCOL SERVICES, SAYS ARMENIAN DIPLOMAT

    10:44 * 30.05.14

    In an interview with Tert.am, Ara Papyan, a former Armenian ambassador
    to Canada (2000-2006) and the director of the Yerevan-basedModus
    Vivendi center, commented on the activities of Armenian in foreign
    states, noting that the public perception of embassies' role is often
    wrongly reduced to that of protocol services.

    Addressing the reported plans for organizing a special assembly of
    ambassadors in Yerevan to discuss the Genocide centennial commemoration
    agenda, Papyan said he thinks that its success depends on the strategic
    instructions to be given to the diplomats.

    "The practice of ambassadorial assemblies has always existed. We used
    to hold annual assemblies of ambassadors to sum up the past year and
    outline the plans for the coming year. We can now assume that the
    assembly will be a special one, as the question focuses the 100th
    anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, and [the meeting] is being
    held after the session of the Government Commission [responsible for
    coordinating the centennial commemoration events]. As to what can
    be done, everything depends on the instructions that the ambassadors
    may receive. If they are limited to instructions, ambassadors do that
    some way or another. The problem is that we need resources to carry
    them out. If our goal is to tell the world that a crime of genocide
    was committed and we were massacred, that's a different matter,
    which I don't think makes any sense at all. If [we want to prove]
    that the genocide committed caused the Armenian statehood suffer
    territorial and material losses, and that the Republic of Armenia
    has to receive redress, that's absolutely a different question which
    requires considerably serious work. The strategic task set to the
    ambassadors is of importance too," he said.

    Asked whether special resources are necessary, Papyan agreed that they
    really need appropriate means to ensure the ambassadors' effective
    work. "It is necessary, for example, to provide them with the new
    studies, collections of documents or books on Genocide, as well as
    money, because if an exhibition or any other event is held somewhere,
    most of them are paid. If that's to be done with the community's
    efforts, then that's what is being carried out some way or another,"
    he answered.

    Considering the Genocide recognition a moral rather than a political
    issue, Papyan said further that it is more important to demand
    reparation, focusing on the legal aspect of the question. "No legal
    consequences stem from recognition per se. And the [Foreign] Ministry
    is a political body tasked with protecting the interests of the
    Republic of Armenia. If the Foreign Ministry sets itself a task to
    protect Armenia's territorial integrity which was violated, that's
    a different question. But if it is necessary to open exhibitions,
    that's something which has always been done. Didn't we do it in the
    past when there were not centennial [commemoration] commissions? I
    am sure different exhibitions have been held, and I myself am the
    witness of that. It is important to introduce this topic as a legal
    and political issue. The Genocide recognition doesn't make any sense
    without reparation; this is the problem. When you, as an aggrieved
    side, speak on your losses, it will make sense if you also make the
    next step - demand reparation," he added.

    Armenian News - Tert.am

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