VARTAN OSKANIAN: I HAVE SERVED NOT A MAN BUT A PEOPLE AND A COUNTRY

Noyan Tapan
April 11, 2008

YEREVAN, APRIL 11, NOYAN TAPAN. Following Serge Sargsian’s inauguration
ceremony on April 9, the Armenian foreign minister said during a
talk with reporters that it would be correct if a foreign minister
chosen by the new president would be beside him so that they can work
quietly together.

Although he is not tired of his post of foreign minister in 10 years,
he believes that a change would be correct.

In his farewell speech to MFA Staff, Vartan Oskanian summarized the
MFA work in the past 10 years and briefly presented his future plans.

"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," he said.

Reminding that he served as Foreign Minister since the beginning of
President Kocharian’s term and had served as Deputy Minister and First
Deputy Minister under President Ter Petrossian, V. Oskanian stated:
"In other words, I have served not a man, but a people and a country".

"During these 10 years, I believe much has changed in the nature of
our work… 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," the foreign minister said.

But each of the successes, according to him, have brought with it a
set of new challenges and new problem, and the MFA staff’s job is 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," V. Oskanian stated.

The minister confessed that the weeks after March 1 were the most
difficult of his 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".

Speaking about his future plans, V. Oskanian said: "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".