WHAT WAS AHMADINEJAD DOING IN ARMENIA?
Hakob Badalyan

Lragir
Oct 24 2007
Armenia

Why did Ahmadinejad leave Armenia early? Perhaps this issue will
not take the place of the question "who killed Kennedy?" in the world
history. And perhaps not because Ahmadinejad is a less important person
for the world history than Kennedy. Simply the Armenian and Iranian
relation means nothing to the world history now. It is another issue
that the relation of Armenia and Iran should be viewed in the context
of the Russian and Iranian relation. In fact, our partnership with
Iran takes place in the context of Russian’s okay.

What Moscow allows, takes place, what it does not allow we have to
postpone for a sunny day. For instance, Moscow okayed the construction
of the gas pipeline, but ruled out transit. Then it got the ownership
of the Armenian section of the gas pipeline which transports no gas
to Armenia yet, although Armenia says we do not need the Iranian gas
now, and it is not that Russia prohibits.

Hence, if Ahmadinejad had left Russia early, we could seek for
mystical, geopolitical, even galactic reasons and wait for the
consequences. Meanwhile, in this case the Iranian president has simply
left a country where he had arrived to discuss one or two economic
projects: water power plants, roads, cooperation between banks, wind
power. For Armenia, they are highly important, but for Iran they have
a current importance, and it is already a major achievement that the
Iranian president agreed to stay in Yerevan overnight. Meanwhile,
important geopolitical processes are underway in the region,
Turks threaten to attack the north of Iraq, Iraq endorses them,
the U.S. okays Turkey’s decision, the Caspian countries are signing
a new agreement on economic cooperation, which contains political
and military elements. In this context, the question occurs "what
was Ahmadinejad doing in Armenia?" rather than "why did Ahmadinejad
leave early?"

Nevertheless, it could be important, at least for us, why the Iranian
president did not visit the memorial and did not address the Armenian
parliament. The reasons might be different. For instance, it is highly
probable that in the night before the address to the parliament someone
briefly described the Armenian parliament to Ahmadinejad. Not the
building but the intellect, literacy, cognition, childhood, boyhood
and youth of the members of parliament. Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad is an
educated person. Perhaps he thought on the content of his address to
the Armenia parliament all night to sound clear to the majority of
the members of parliament. Apparently, the Iranian president could not
find the answer to this question and decided to leave Armenia for some
excuse. It is also possible, of course, especially that rumors came,
that the Iranian president simply avoided visiting the memorial to the
victims of the Genocide. It is also a logical explanation. The point
is that if Iran shows in some way to recognize the Armenian genocide
in Ottoman Turkey, it is not ruled out that in case of the triumphant
outcome of the process of international recognition the Armenians will
suddenly get down to the recognition of other massacres. Meanwhile,
in that case the issue of the battle of Avarair will be brought
up. For in reality there was no battle. In a battle a person fights
another person, while in Avarair elephants fought people. In other
words, it smells planned extermination, consequently, it is a matter
of international recognition. And considering that this is the only
option for Armenia to be found on the map of world politics, after the
triumphant outcome of the international recognition of the genocide
in Ottoman Turkey we need to find another issue for international
recognition, and Avarair provides excellent moral and legal bases.

Mahmud Ahmadinejad, who is a historian, did not have the right to
even have such a vision of developments, no matter how realistic it is.