DISCRIMINATIONS BY THE RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER

PanArmenian News Analysis
Feb 18 2005

Sergey Lavrov refused to honor the memory of soldiers who protected
the integrity of Georgia, but honored those who killed Baku Armenians
and Russian soldiers.

The official visit of Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov to
Armenia finished. As a foreign minister, this was his first visit to
his mother’s homeland. Lavrov never concealed his Armenian origin.
This is why certain points of his south-Caucasian tour look
particularly strange.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ From Yerevan the Russian minister left for Tbilisi,
but not on an official visit as planned, but just on a working one.
It should be reminded that Georgian authorities reviewed the status
of the visit in reply to Sergey Lavrov’s refusal to lay a wreath
on the memorial to soldiers fallen in battle for the territorial
integrity of Georgia. According to political analysts that diplomatic
demarche will not strengthen the atmosphere of trust between Moscow
and Tbilisi. By the way Russian officials never avoided laying a
wreath on the memorial since it is required by unwritten norms of the
protocol. It should be noted that virtually all foreign guests of high
rank visiting to Yerevan laid wreaths to the monument of the victims
of Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey. This was done even by the
representatives of countries not accepting that the events taken place
in 1915 were genocide. Particularly the president of Kyrgyzstan Askar
Akayev did not doubt the necessity to visit Tsitsernakaberd although
he realized that he would have certain troubles with Azerbaijan and
Turkey – partner countries from “Islamic conference”. The president
was not mistaken. Ankara and Baku sent notes of protest to Bishkek,
but protocol is a protocol…

No one doubts that the actions of Sergey Lavrov were a demarche.
Noteworthy for us is the argumentation brought by the Russian
minister. Explaining the inadmissibility of his presence at the
memorial in Georgia, he said that it would be incorrect to lay a
wreath on the memorial of those who fought against Abkhazia and Osetia
since Russia is a mediator in the settlement of Abkhazian – Osetian
conflict. “As a country that supports the settlement of the conflict,
Russia has to take into account its status. An action like that can
hardly be conductive to creating a proper atmosphere for productive
negotiations between conflict parties”, Sergey Lavrov stated.

This argumentation looks very strange since only two weeks ago, on
February 2, Sergey Lavrov laid a wreath on the “alley of shehids”
in Baku. Here are the graves of those who died in the war forced on
Karabakh by Azerbaijan. If the memorial in Tbilisi is built in memory
of the victims of military actions then in the “alley of shehids”
besides soldiers lie those who slaughtered peaceful Armenians in
Baku yet long before the war. Moreover in the “alley of shehids”
there are also bandits who killed Russian soldiers who came to Baku
in 1990 for protecting Armenians and establishing order. Thus, laying
a wreath in the “alley of shehids”, Lavrov not only desecrated the
memory of hundreds of slaughtered Armenians, but also the memory of
Russian soldiers who fell doing their duty.

For some reason the minister forgets that Russia is a mediator in the
settlement of Karabakh conflict. The Russian diplomat with Armenian
roots did not think that “an action like that will not contribute
to creating a proper atmosphere for productive negotiations between
conflict parties”. Most unpleasant is that such a step is made by a
representative of the country that is considered to be the strategic
partner of Armenia.

Artyom Yerkanyan

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