Why doesn’t the Ambassador criticize the government?
Support A1+!Today, member of the Armenian National Congress central office David Shahnazaryan read the statement of the Congress's foreign relations office, which reflected upon several statements that German Ambassador to Armenia Hans-Jochen Schmidt made in Armenia recently.
In the statement it is mentioned that the Ambassador violated the rules of diplomacy at the forum organized by Civilitas Foundation and announced that a number of issues facing Armenia were radicalized during Levon Ter-Petrosyan's term as president.
"The ANC and Levon Ter-Petrosyan have refrained from giving an evaluation of that statement because they consider it too much attention. However, yesterday Schmidt claimed his view. The Ambassador's persistence goes to show that he didn't make this statement by chance," as stated in the ANC statement.
It is also mentioned that no ambassador has ever interfered in Armenia's domestic affairs so rudely as the German Ambassador in the past 20 years of Armenia's independence. In addition, according to the ANC statement, the Ambassador's criticism is unilateral. He has never criticized the Armenian authorities, has never touched upon the uproar of frequent violations of human rights and fundamental liberties.
"We view the unusual behavior of the German Ambassador as the rudest interference in Armenia's domestic affairs and call the German government's attention to this. We are sure that this behavior doesn't express the German government's position," David Shahnazaryan read.
He also recalled that the EU Eastern Partnership Summit was held in Warsaw last week with the participation of the heads of EU Eastern Partnership-member states.
"As a result, the heads of member states adopted a document according to which the leaders of six countries, including Serzh Sargsyan, take responsibility for continuing to advance the principles of respecting liberty, democracy and human rights and the rule of law. The ink on the document had not begun to dry before Serzh Sargsyan arrived in Armenia and followed the example of Turkey and Azerbaijan by blockading Yerevan. In fact, that blockade was much stricter and impassable than the blockade in Baku and Ankara," David Shahnazaryan announced.
Then, he declared that if the EU didn't give a proper response to the government's steps, it would prove that it wasn't in favor of seeing Armenia as a legitimate, democratic country.
"If so, be kind enough to not teach us what democracy is. Whereas the Europeans inherited democracy from their ancestors, Armenians are inheriting that through suffering, and we know the price of that very well," David Shahnazaryan said in closing.
