168 Zham: Reasons behind European Council chief’s ‘last-moment decision’ to cancel trip to Armenia
After his scheduled trip to Georgia earlier this month, President of the European Council Charles Michelles departed for Ukraine on a two-day vist in what apparenetly seemed to be just a “diplomatic report”. Yet the circumstances revealed an absolutely different reality.
The paper notes that Georgian President Salome Zurabisvili was the first to make a public statement about the trip, which was initially expected to be regional, i.e. - implying that the European official would later arrive also in Yerevan.
To all appearances, however, Brussels had to revise the visit agenda, replacing Armenia with Ukraine.
Meanwhile the Armenian authorities hoped to overcome the international diplomatic blockade they had been facing since the capitulation (i.e. - the signing of the November 10 ceasefire on Karabakh), says the paper, highlighting the absence of any foreign policy activity over the period (apart from the trilateral meetings imposed on PM Nikol Pashinyan in either Eurasian partnership format or as part of the Collective Security Treaty Organization).
In the context of such state of affairs, Michelle’s possible visit to Armenia could have been internally represented as a “diplomatic legitimization” of the war outcoems - coupled with the strengthening of his reputation. This, according to the paper, could have been a good reason for European partners to revise the visit format given their unwillingness to plunge "too deep" into the domestic politics (to avoid backing Pashinyan amid the opposition’s political campaign against his government).
Citing its sources, the paper claims that Pashinyan felt extremely oppressed by the decision, acusing the Foreign Ministry of a failure to properly make the necessary arrangements. At the peak of his anger, he reportedly ordered the agency to even replace the Armenian ambassador in Brussels but eventually calmed down and changed his mind.
The cancelled trip, however, provked yet another tension in Pashinyan’s relations with the Ministry, says the paper.
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