Ararat Mirzoyan and Ruben Rubinyan May Find Themselves in a More Dangerous Trap, Gegham Manukyan

Opposition MP Gegham Manukyan writes: “Barefoot travelers who have never seen water or a diplomatic trip to Yerevan-Antalya. Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan has unofficially confirmed that he will travel to Antalya with Ruben Rubinyan. This Turkish tourist city will host what can be conditionally termed an international conference for the second year in a row. It’s a conditional international event, as the overwhelming majority of participants are representatives from Turkic-speaking countries. Last year, diplomats and politicians from Latin America and Africa participated, as well as one or two retired officials from Europe, and the highest-ranking was the Iranian foreign minister. However, Erdoğan’s grand international conference never took place in 2021. Europeans ignored it, and Russia sharply boycotted it, as representatives of the Crimean Tatars, who are known anti-Russian pan-Turkists, participated. For example, Mustafa Jemilev.

Where are Ararat Mirzoyan and Ruben Rubinyan going? Who advised them to participate in this Turkish project? It remains unknown. Perhaps it’s Zhirayr Liparityan, whom one could meet in Antalya last year in ‘proud solitude’. What should Ararat Mirzoyan do? Nothing, except become a tool for Turkish external propaganda. Armenian delegates will not create an atmosphere but will become a good toy for Turkish external propaganda, suggesting that ‘look, Armenians have come; everything is in order’. Were there any sides supplying terrorists during the 2020 war against Artsakh? Never. If there had been, if they had played an active role in the war, a country with dignity would certainly not participate in the Antalya forum. But Ararat Mirzoyan and Ruben Rubinyan may find themselves in a more dangerous trap. What if at some point they are approached by Tural Ganjaliyev, a member of the Azerbaijani parliament who participated in last year’s forum, claiming to be the representative of the Azerbaijani community in Artsakh and supposedly elected from Stepanakert? Who will resist that propaganda blow? Who will explain to the Greeks that they are sitting at the same table with the foreign minister of the self-proclaimed Northern Cyprus? These officials, who have never seen water, certainly do not have any answers for those questions. But they are no longer full parties in Armenian-Turkish relations; they are mere performers.”