In the foreign and internal fields of Armenia a shocking situation is created after the interview of the world famous French-Armenian singer Charles Aznavour to “Les Nouvelles d’Armenie” magazine.
During his interview the renowned singer alluded to the situation created in Armenia – the emigration and the rest of the negative phenomena. He had given quite rigid assessment to that situation. “Yes. This is how it is. We are doing nothing to help the people living there. Just the opposite. I know awful stories about the Mafiosi who are literally devouring the villagers on their lands. Those Mafia members must be executed. Things cannot continue like this. Those who want to become the Mafia should go live in other countries, not in Armenia. For the love of God, don’t fight against your own people,” said Aznavour. In fact, this opinion of Aznavour is addressed to the government of Armenia. Of course, he didn’t concretize who he meant by saying “mafia” but it’s no secret that the emigration, injustice and economic failures are stimulated by the top level government officials. And hardly the singer, who comes to Armenia for years and several times a year wouldn’t know about that. But the problem is that Aznavour is also a representative of the diplomatic corps of Armenia. It means that he is also an official of Armenia. Our officials normally do not criticize the rest of the government members for the social-economic situation in the country. But in this case, it would be naïve to think that Aznavour had forgotten about his status as a diplomat or hadn’t thought that his interview would be released on the eve of the visit of the French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Armenia. It’s hard to believe that the delicate singer and diplomat hadn’t realized what he responded during the interview by blaming the mafia for the abstruse social situation in the country and migration. Most probably the renowned singer said all that deliberately to highlight the difficult political and economic situation in Armenia. Let us also add that Aznavour also adverted to the Armenian Genocide and he has urged the Turks if they don’t want to recognize the Armenian Genocide, they could at least accept that in 1915 Armenian massacres happened. “So I’ve a question for the Turks, if it’s not Genocide, if it’s not annihilation of a nation, then what is it? How have you called that phenomenon?” said Aznavour. “So this is what I say – before using the term Genocide, how do you call it – massacre, massacre of Armenians? If you don’t want to use the term Genocide, accept it is a massacre. I think we’ll have a long road passed if we achieve it,” said Charles Aznavour. According to him having stopped on the term of Genocide Armenia won’t move on. “Our adversaries are waiting for the deaths of the last Genocide survivors. Which country will sacrifice its interests to protect Armenians? There’s no such country. France had recognized the Genocide, but that’s its only step. No country will ever support us,” he said, regretfully. At any rate, all these statements by him, on the one hand created surprise and on the other hand a feeling of expectation on part of the political field of Armenia. The thing is that his thoughts of the Genocide can be considered not only a diplomatic scandal but also can be construed incorrectly. Such statements can be made by average citizens or a famous singer but never a diplomat. These statements contradict the official standpoint of Armenia, which has an objective and priority to have the Genocide recognized worldwide. And regardless of whether Aznavour’s statement was true or not, what he said is a diplomatic mistake. Let us recall that because of a similar diplomatic mistake Raffi Hovhannisian was dismissed. Let us also remember that after the presidential elections 2008 the government recalled 12 of its diplomats for making statements condemning the tragic events of March 1. This number included one ambassador and one deputy-minister of foreign affairs. But there has been no response to the rigid statements of Aznavour. And it’s been several days now. Yesterday Aznavour was in Armenia and didn’t give any interpretation till late night. Moreover, he was kind of isolated from the public and journalists. Yesterday morning, during the opening of his museum almost no media agency was invited. The government thought that maybe one of the journalists would be interested in asking the interpretation of Aznavour’s rigid statements from the singer. At any rate, it is expected that there will be interpretation. It will be done either by Aznavour or the ministry of foreign affairs. But it will happen by all means. The government cannot leave this scandalous interview unanswered. Yesterday we asked the press service of the ministry of foreign affairs and the President’s office to construe on Aznavour’s statement but we didn’t receive any answers. At least we tried to find out the response of the Republican party. The RPA deputy-chair Galust Sahakyan refused to give us concrete interpretation by saying that they don’t “analyze talented people’s statements.” But he didn’t agree with the harsh statements of Aznavour about the situation in Armenia. “I find this opinion very vague. I don’t think that is the actual situation. He may be receiving incorrect impulses from far away. It is not possible to build a story by listening to stories. In order to make a statement the person should deeply examine the situation here and live in Armenia for awhile,” said Sahakyan. The latter finds the statement of Aznavour about the Genocide dangerous for Armenia but he doesn’t think that the government should demand that the singer interpret on his statement. “I don’t think he made this statement as an ambassador. If he made a statement like that as an ambassador then he shouldn’t have worked as an ambassador because these statements contradict the national political line of Armenia. Aznavour is not an ambassador. He is an Armenian. We wouldn’t like to respond in that aspect or give political analysis,” wrapped up Sahakyan. The opposition, however, agreed with the rigid statements of Aznavour and his opinions about the migration and other internal issues. “I think that 90% of our society would agree with the famous singer. By that Aznavour showed his greatness. Having realized that he is a statesman appointed by Serzh Sargsyan he decided to tell the truth,” says an ANC member Vladimir Karapetyan. “As of his statements about the Genocide, I don’t agree with them. But I am more surprised by the silence of the foreign affairs ministry because the fact is that an Armenian statesman speaks of something, which contradicts the national foreign policy course of Armenia. The Turks and Azeris will swiftly use this against us in the international arena. They will refer to Aznavour not as a singer but as a diplomat. Turkey will immediately do so by saying that Armenians don’t wish the resignation of the Genocide. If the RA foreign affairs ministry remains silent Aznavour’s statement will remain official. I think that our ministry should respond immediately,” said Karapetyan.