Negative articles on Zohrab Mnatsakanyan continue to prevail

From 1 to 10 May, 2020, the “Media Advocate” initiative followed online media reports on the RA Minister of Foreign Affairs, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan’s personality and activities.

35 leading Armenian news agencies have been monitored.

In the specified period, 413 articles were declared, 55 of which were negative, 11 were positive and 347 were neutral.

The negative articles on RA Minister of Foreign Affairs Zohrab Mnatsakanyan continue to prevail. The main critical remarks are related to the ongoing talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and Sergey Lavrov’s recent statement.

Referring to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, ARF (Armenian Revolutionary Federation) representative Kiro Manoyan noted that the current Armenian authorities do not have a clear strategy for the settlement of the Karabakh conflict. He also referred to the so called “red lines” drawn by Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan last year within the framework of the 26th OSCE Ministerial Conference in Bratislava. “The main omission here is the fact that the people of Artsakh have expressed their will, starting from 1991 general elections to the 2006-2007 referendum; that’s what is actually ignored. There is talk of a settlement to the issue in the future due to expression of will, but the reality is that the will of the people of Artsakh has already been expressed on different occasions,” noted Kiro Manoyan.

Referring to the ongoing negotiations over Artsakh, political scientist Hrant Melik Shahnazaryan noted: “Nikol Pashinyan and Zohrab Mnatsakanyan can not deny Lavrov’s statement, because the talks have actually taken place. It is another thing that they were guided by the presumption of vetoing or not signing documents at the last minute, so as they can refuse at the last minute and thus consider the problem solved. I had no doubt that they would not sign, they could not sign such a document, and no one can do it, in general, but losing in negotiations and handing over territories, does not mean just signing a paper, it means to face a situation where the whole world demands something from you and if you don’t do it, they will try to implement it by means of military methods, and you will not have any diplomatic mechanism to prevent the war. Today Armenia faces nothing but such a situation.”