In parallel with the active development of political processes the former minister of foreign affairs Vardan Oskanyan is demonstrating rather socio-publicist activity. Recently he gave a large interview to the “Law de facto” newspaper and expressed his thoughts concerning the inner and foreign policy of Armenia.
The most interesting point is that Oskanyan starts his interview with a hint relating to his opinion concerning Levon Ter-Petrosyan. When he expressed a positive, even an indirect opinion concerning the first president after harsh critics addressed at the opposition power and Ter-Petrosyan, it reminded about kissing Judas. By the way, Ter-Petrosyan was the one who made him deputy minister thus giving an opportunity to become minister, which was one of the mistakes of the president in appointing the team. It was not by chance that Oskanyan was appointed minister in 1998, after the palace revolution in Armenia.
The interview shows that if the tragic events of March 1 did not happen, the nation would not know about Oskanyan’s brave image for the sake of the Armenian nation. It turns out that during that crucial period he was actively making efforts to prevent the tragedy, “in order to escape from such developments”. He is everywhere; sometimes he calls on the opposition and government to enter into a dialogue, and sometimes he develops a precondition to Kocharyan to sit and talk to the opposition. It is a bright and great mission, which Oskanyan dared to take on, but people did not know anything about it. Mr. Minister thinks that the people are animals with long ears and announces that “he even did not think about discussing the issue of using or not using power”. In addition, he says whatever he wants and alleges that no one, even the authorities, did not foresee it, i.e. the bloody clashes resulting in the death of people. Now do you see that the former boss and his band, including Oskanyan, are innocent? It is pretty surprising that Oskanyan is expressing such a great moral and sentimental conclusion and says that “this must have not happened (the murders – A.N.), our people, state and the political life don’t deserve this”. Prophetical words! Certainly it is true that our people did not deserve this, but the political system, where the former PM was in the front line, deserved this.
Vardan Oskanyan’s altruism is pretty like unlimited humanism. It turns out that his way of thinking is very liberal. Definitely this philosophical vision is the reason why he dares to make the following statement: “And generally there is no person in Armenia who I hate. There is no person that I could wish him bad. I am judging people with other categories.” When one reads these words written in black on the white paper, he/she gets surprised why does not the former minister feel shy and have a red face. Of course Oskanyan does not hate people, he judges with other categories when he breaks his professional staff, when he fires professional men and women and throws to streets because his boss has told him to do that, when Ambassadors are deprived of their diplomatic status through breaking the laws. By the way, the ones he fired are not less professional than him and have better diplomatic skills and civic consciousness. Also, I wander what are the criteria enabling him judge so independently when ex-minister of foreign affairs Alexander Arzumanyan was arrested in kept in cells for endorsing the opposition, which will be a black line in the new history of the country. What a heroism Oskanyan did when he made a pathetic announcement concerning Arzumanyan: “Concerning this issue my opinion is the following: he and the other arrested people had to be free long ago”. This statement makes me cry, especially the word “long ago”, and I want to ask a question. What do you mean by saying “long ago”? Do you mean the time when Alexander was persecuted by a manipulated fake case or last year? I would like to see the expression of your face when you were with your boss and when he was ordering you to arrest the former FM who was Ambassador and also the MPs who had been heroes of the war? Definitely you have established an indulgence for you to forgive your sins for all political situations. Maybe you think that you should have been loyal to the head of the state. From the classic point of view you are right but in the given case it is conformism and, I am sorry to say this, egoism and fright, which is condemned in all times and by all peoples, for all diplomatic schools. Such diplomacy has another name (remember Machiavelli and Taleiran). They killed people, threw to jails, but you kept silence. However you could resign and make a noise in the international arena. This is when people would really think that you have a liberal thinking and don’t want anyone to be bad. It is very easy and safe to come up with announcements concerning the past and blow the minds of people.
However it would be naive to think that the purpose of his announcements is to alienate himself from the events of March 1 and even become a hero. The former minister has a goal to return to politics. There is an opinion that he still works for Kocharyan and is implementing his projects. It is not excluded. However definitely there is another target too. When he says the peaceful words of a Russian cartoon cat Leopold “folks, let’s make peace” it enables him to maneuver between the triangle of Kocharyan- Ter-Petrosyan –Sargsyan. In a word, Oskanyan is still loyal to his complementary policy and through such stance is waiting to see who the winner is in order to join him. In other words, it would not be good to say that he is Kocharyan’s loyalist for sure. Let’s not forget that besides the medical panacea there is a political one, which says that “if the king is dead let’s applaud him”.
Again, I am sorry to say this, but Oskanyan is lied when he answered to the question of journalists how he could explain the cold relations between him and the incumbent foreign minister Nalbandyan. In answer to this question he said, “There is nothing serious”. There is, Vardan, there is a problem. Even the watchman of the ministry knows that while being the Ambassador of Armenia in Egypt and later in France he was not accountable to you directly and did not accept you as his minister. Due to his relations and contacts with the president’s office he worked directly with the president’s office, which in fact had put its leg on the ministry of foreign affairs. But this was not your fault but your tragedy. This was one of the reasons why you were not able to organize the diplomatic service of the Republic of Armenia in a duly manner, which still cannot stand on two legs.