OSKANIAN: WE CAN ALL BE PROUD OF OUR WORK

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.04.2008 12:46 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia’s acting foreign minister Vartan Oskanian
held a farewell meeting with the MFA staff.

"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," Mr Oskanian said.

"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 administration 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 consensus 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," he said.