PITFALLS IN ARMENIA-SYRIA RELATIONS
By Armen Manvelian
AZG Armenian Daily
30/08/2007
On August 23 president of Armenia Robert Kocharian appointed Arshak
Poladian the Armenian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
to the Arabic Republic of Syria. This fact seems common, but still
there are concealed a number of problems.
It is well known that Armenia and Syria are allies and have no
contradiction, which cannot be easily solved.
Official Damascus was among the first to recognize the independence
of the Republic of Armenia and to open an Embassy here. In the worst
days of the blockade of the 90’s by the order of President of Syria
Hafez Asad Armenia received a great stock of wheat and flour.
Nevertheless certain shifts in regional politics hamper the dynamic
development of the alliance between Armenia and Syria. Probably,
that is why there was no Syrian Ambassador in Armenia for long years
and that is why, in return, Yerevan called back its Ambassador Levon
Sarkisian in 2004. After that Armenia had been represented only by
Charge D’Affaires Yura Baboukhanian and Artiom Aznavourian.
Syria had appointed Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary Ambassador to
Armenia for the term of 2000-2002 in the person of Dr. Hamid Hasan,
who, by the way, had been in Armenia since 1997, in the office of
the Syrian Charge D’Affaires. All the rest of Syrian representatives
to Armenia had only the status of Charge D’Affaires. Ghasan Rslan,
representing Syria through 2003-2005 was given the status of
Ambassador, although he took the functions of only Charge D’Affaires.
Official Damascus says that such kind of situation is caused by lack
of professional diplomats in Syria, though Armenian experts think that
it is rather connected with obvious progress in Syria-Turkey relations
since 2000. It seems like Syria made decision to improve its relations
with Turkey at the cost of diplomatic dialogue with Armenia.
In private Syrian diplomats say that establishment of visa regime
between Armenia and Syria was a serious blow to the relations between
the states. This circumstance negatively affects the interests of the
citizens of both the states, but on the other hand Armenia, being a
member of CSTO, has a number of international obligations connected
with national security issues. In any case those obligations are by
no means in immediate touch with Armenia-Syria relations.
Therefore, it is time to put aside the small problems and go on with
improvement of bilateral partnership, necessity of which needs no
proof. Allegedly, Syria has intention to abolish the visa regime for
Armenian citizens. This is always welcome, the citizens of both the
countries will have more opportunity of contact and cooperation, as
well as Armenians from Syria will be able to get into closer contact
with their homeland.
So, it’s obvious that all the pitfalls in Armenian-Syrian relations are
can be easily overcome, and the appointment of Armenian Ambassador
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Syria may become the first
step. Time will tell.