Foreign Minister Shuns Israeli Leaders on Jerusalem Trip

Friday, March 6th, 2015

Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian (left) with Israeli
President Reuven Rivlin

JERUSALEM (RFE/RL)–Underscoring Armenia’s uneasy relationship with
Israel, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian has not met with his
Israeli counterpart or any other member of Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu’s government during a rare visit to Jerusalem.

Nalbandian held talks instead with Israel’s largely ceremonial
President Reuven Rivlin on Thursday during what the Armenian Foreign
Ministry described as a one-day “working visit.” He also attended a
concert by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra dedicated to the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

Ministry statements on the trip did not explain why Nalbandian failed
to meet with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and other Israeli
cabinet members. The ministry spokesman, Tigran Balayan, could not be
reached for comment on Friday.

Nalbandian flew to Jerusalem one week after Yerevan condemned
Lieberman’s presence at what it considers an anti-Armenian ceremony in
the Israeli city of Acre that was organized by an Azerbaijani
government-linked group. The event was dedicated to the 23rd
anniversary of the deaths of several hundred Azerbaijani residents of
Khojaly, a small town in Nagorno-Karabakh. It was part of the group’s
efforts to have the international community recognize the 1992 deaths
as a genocide committed by the Armenians.

Lieberman was a keynote speaker at the ceremony. “We are here today to
combine the experience of Israel with that of Azerbaijan so that we
can prevent such tragedies from happening in the future,” he said,
according to Azerbaijani news agencies.

“It is inappropriate that any politician could allow himself to be
dragged into the Azerbaijani cheap manipulations,” Balayan said in
written comments on February 26.

Lieberman already raised eyebrows in Armenia during a 2010 visit to
Baku. He reportedly voiced support for Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity and accused international mediators of pro-Armenian bias in
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Lieberman’s deputy, Danny Ayalon, contradicted those claims in a 2011
phone call with his Armenian opposite number, Arman Kirakosian. Ayalon
said Israel supports the peace efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group
co-headed by the United States, Russia and France.

Armenian-Israeli relations have also been soured by Israel’s
large-scale arms sales to Azerbaijan. In 2012, Israeli defense
officials confirmed a reported deal to provide the Azerbaijani
military with more unmanned aircraft as well as anti-aircraft and
missile defense systems worth a combined $1.6 billion.

An Israeli-made Azerbaijani drone was apparently shot down by Armenian
forces while flying a reconnaissance mission over Artsakh in 2011.

According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Nalbandian and President
Rivlin stressed the need to “invigorate political dialogue” between
their countries. They also agreed that the Armenian and Jewish peoples
share “common responsibility to prevent crimes against humanity,” a
ministry statement said.

“Few nations have as many similarities as Armenians and Jews do,”
Nalbandian said in a speech that preceded the Jerusalem Symphony
Orchestra concert later in the day. “Having endured genocides and been
scattered around the world, we are proud of restoring our statehoods
in the 20th century.”

Nalbandian, who had served as Armenia’s Paris-based ambassador to
Israel from 2000-2008, went on to pay tribute to prominent Israeli and
Jewish-American scholars advocating international recognition of the
1915 Armenian genocide.

Successive Israeli governments have declined to recognize the
slaughter of some 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as
genocide for fear of antagonizing Turkey. Rivlin, who is a member of
Netanyahu’s Likud party, called for Israeli recognition of the
genocide when he served as parliament speaker in 2012.