VARTAN OSKANIAN’S FAREWELL SPEECH TO MFA STAFF
Azat Artsakh Daily
Published on April 11, 2008
NKR Republic
I asked that you all gather here today so I can say thank you – to
all of you: To the diplomats who have worked with me for these 10
years, and longer. To the technical staff who have made our work here
and abroad possible. To our ambassadors who have worked hard, against
great odds, to maximally promote our interests. We can all be proud of
our work, and we can all feel satisfied that we are performing a civic
duty. We are all citizens of armenia – you by birth, I by choice. For
me, the decision to pack up and return to Armenia after independence
was a default decision, a non-decision, an obvious choice. Having come,
I’m not now preparing to go. I’ve been here since almost the beginning,
working with you, to create something out of nothing, to build a new
institution and a new kind of institution. I have served as Foreign
Minister since the beginning of President Kocharian’s term. I had
served as Deputy Minister and First Deputy Minister under President Ter
Petrossian. In other words, I have served not a man, but a people and
a country. Together, that’s what we have done since independence —
we have served the state, the Republic of Armenia. I am proud of the
work we have done together. During these 10 years, I believe much has
changed in the nature of our work. Of course the Republic of Armenia
has changed and progressed such that many objective conditions have
changed – we don’t wait 2, 3, sometimes 5 months to get paid. We have
paper on which to print treaties, conventions and documents. We are
not hostage to irregular flights into and out of Armenia.
There are other differences, too. Diplomats, and all staff, are
accepted solely on merit and not for any other reason. Diplomats
are assigned postings solely based on professional circumstances
and not for any other reason. This ministry has a reputation now for
being the cleanest, the most professional, the best regulated, and
not corrupt. And that’s no small reason to be proud. This ministry
is a place where people are treated with dignity, with respect and
with tolerance. I’m proud of that and I believe that that tradition,
once begun, cannot be easily undone. On the contrary, it becomes
contagious. I believe that to build a democratic society, we must
begin, and we have begun, by building a transparent, accountable
ministry, and by treating each other with dignity. The world has
changed too in these 10 years. Russia is no longer in retreat. Europe
is much closer than it used to be. The US is more insistent on
having partners who are democratic. Azerbaijan is looking to oil for
solutions to all problems. Turkey is living both in the past and
in the future. Georgia is walking a fine line between beleaguered
and bold. Iran is caught between the world’s perceptions and its own
self-image. And Armenia? Armenia has demonstrated that we understand
that diplomacy and defense do not replace each other, but work in
tandem to secure a nation’s future. Armenia has proven that economic
growth is possible, even with the absence of natural resources and
open transportation corridors. Armenia is living proof that one can
be a respected member of the international community and at the same
time swim against the global tide to assure self-determination and
security for Nagorno Karabakh. Armenia has become a trustworthy and I
can say, full partner in international organizations with a full agenda
of reforms, insights and action items. Armenia has established good
relations with all major world centers – Russia, the Americas, Europe,
Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. But each of the successes I
just mentioned have brought with it a set of new challenges and new
problems. And that’s our job – to make the best of each opportunity
and minimize all threats.
Now, we must perform our job in the changed environment of the last
several months. When we allowed the political tensions and emotions
of the election and post-election period to reign, they demonstrated
that we sometimes imagine that revolution can be an alternative to
reforms, and that revenge can take precedence over reconciliation. No
one knows better than we in this building that that is false. No one
knows better than we that our domestic strength, integrity, stability,
morality and perseverance are our best – actually our only – calling
cards in the international arena. If those were our assets, today we
work with a deficit. The capital we had accumulated internationally has
been squandered. That means my successor, each of you, and all of us
who live in Armenia, must work even harder to regain our respectability
and our confidence in ourselves and our future.
I will continue to work with you. I don’t intend to terminate my
public engagement, but to enter a new phase. I don’t intend to be
foreign minister but I intend to work domestically to help the next
minister to succeed internationally. The weeks after March 1 were
the most difficult of my entire career. On the one hand, I am part of
an admininstration which, at the end of the day, is responsible for
what happens in this country. On the other hand, from the beginning of
their campaign, I disagreed, publicly and privately, with the tactics,
methods and goals of the opposition.
Just as it is not in my nature to follow blindly, it is also not in
my nature to be in bitter opposition. I believe in carrying out the
responsibilities I have undertaken. I believe I have done so these
10 years, sometimes before the TV cameras but more often behind the
scenes. My commitment to Armenia and its future did not begin when
I became foreign minister. It will not cease now that I am no longer
foreign minister.
Instead, it will change. I will undertake a new set of responsibilities
that will focus on fashioning a relevant, inclusive civic and
political forum and that will work with the public and with the
existing political forces on mending the torn fabric of our society,
on finding genuine paths to political concensus by reconciling
our differences, not suppressing them. I will partner with those
who wish to create the mechanisms that replicate the experience of
other developed countries and offer serious, convincing political
alternatives that are not destructive, extreme and self-serving.
Most of all, or first of all, I will work to strengthen the
institutions which will decrease our people’s cynicism and readiness
to believe the worst about ourselves, that will empower people to say
what they believe and believe in what they say. The work that you and
I will do will be complementary. I feel a part of this family. And
that’s not going to change. I would like it to remain that way, and
I know it will be hard to pass by this building, or through Republic
Square in general. Thank you.