Thrown ketchup at Russia

Since the Azeri murderer Ramil Safarov was extradited to Azerbaijan the main estimation about the authorities of Armenia was a positive estimation saying that the authorities gave an adequate and good reply in terms of Armenia’s foreign relations issues.

Acting fast the government solved the problems of the international part on the extradition and also its image in terms of decisive and adequate policy. However, the more experts are involved in the process and the more discussions are organized, the more evident it becomes that Armenia’s response was not adequate in terms of the domestic processes and foreign relations as well.

This is first of all about the relations with Russia, which attains new colors in the context of the murderer Safarov. The contribution of the Azeri businessman, who is also the classmate of Russia’s Putin, Armenia’s harsh response to the case, as well as the messages to the West and Russia’s silence, show that this country is again involved in an anti-Armenian activity. On Friday, the same day of murderer Safarov’s extradition, the Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan held an extraordinary meeting with ambassadors of other countries in Armenia, including Russia as well.

Four days have passed since that meeting. The presidents of the US and France, as well as other countries have made announcements, and the only one that keeps silence is Russia. The critics addressed to this case are so strong that Azerbaijan and Hungary have appeared in one side of the barricades, and the international community in the other side. Russia’s silence means they are with Hungary and Azerbaijan, and in this situation Armenia has to do something. If not officially, at least something could be done with the help of experts and non-governmental organizations. However, those expectations did not come true and even Armenia started to justify Russia’s position. The Armenian Ambassador to Russia Oleg Yesayan made an announcement, which humiliated Armenia even more.

Yesayan held a press-conference for only announcing that he thought that the reason of Russia’s silence was connected with the day of the city and related celebrations. “We must take into consideration the fact that the processes happened on the weekend, when Moscow was celebrating the day of the city and the victory of 1812. I think that is the reason of this silence, but on Monday I am going to have a meeting in the Russian foreign ministry and I hope we will get an answer from them,” said Oleg Yesayan.

It is hardly possible that he might make such announcement without having agreed it with Yerevan. This means that the authorities of Armenia did not take the risk to criticize the Russian government as elections are coming up.

It is very interesting that none of the nationalistic organizations that were expressing their honest protest against that crime dared to organize a demonstration near the Embassy of Russia. If they were using tons of tomatoes at the building of Hungarian Embassy, they could at least throw a couple of ketchup pitches at the Russian Embassy building. However, that is out of the logic of directed patriotism. So far it is.