From 1 to 10 February, 2020, the “Media Advocate” Initiative followed online media reports on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia. 35 leading Armenian news agencies have been monitored.
In the specified period, 407 articles were declared, 73 of which were negative, 4 were positive and 330 were neutral.
Many negative articles have been declared on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia.
Prosperous Armenia MP Arman Abovyan posted an update on his Facebook page, referring to the negotiation process of Artsakh. “If we analyze the statement of the Foreign Ministry on the Geneva talks, then, with scarce information, I would pay attention to a very important point – the so called ‘humanitarian aspect’, which our MFA merely addressed. Sorry, and what does the logic of “humanitarian” steps assue, if it means reciprocal visits by some target groups, it is understandable to some extent, but if there are any options for joint programs between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, then I would reaffirm my point that it’s a very bad and dangerous idea, because these types of projects will have very serious consequences for the global philosophy of the Karabakh conflict.”
A confrontation has started between the Foreign Ministry and Vitaly Balasanyan. Balasanyan’s office issued a statement saying: “The fact that the spokesman of the RA Foreign Ministry defines the post of the President of the Republic of Artsakh with the term “elected representative of the people of Artsakh” once again confirms that the assessment given by Vitaly Balasanyan corresponds to the reality. That is, during the meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers in Geneva, “the issue of building joint settlements of Azerbaijanis and Armenians in the southern part of the Kashatagh (Lachin) region” and “the deployment of peacekeeping forces there” was discussed.
Konstantin Ter-Nakalyan, co-founder of the Adekvad oppositional movement, also referred to the phrase “the elected representative of the people of Artsakh” and criticized such formulation.
The first human rights defender Larisa Alaverdyan, referring to the abovementioned phrase, noted: “The Armenian Foreign Ministry states that the term “elected representatives of Artsakh “has been used since 1992, yes, it is right, but it was proper for 1992, we are living in an established Ipso facto state for 28 years. Ipso facto does not refer to recognition, but to fact that it exists, that it is an existing state. That is, “de facto” and “de jure” refer to recognition, and “ipso facto” refers to the existence and development of the state. The terminology of 1992 should not be used in 2020, a term which was being used when internationalization of the Artsakh issue has just begun.”
