Epress.am News from Armenia
Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev respectively, on Dec. 19 at a reception in the Grand Kremlin Palace on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), got into a brawl, reports local daily Haykakan Jamanak (“Armenian Times”), citing its sources in Moscow.
To mark the occasion, medals were to be awarded to one diplomat from each country, with the unanimous consent of all CIS leaders. Representatives of all states received their medals, but when it was Armenian representative, Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan’s turn, Ilham Aliyev objected and Kocharyan didn’t receive the medal. Only moments ago, it was Azerbaijan’s representative’s turn to receive his medal, which Serzh Sargsyan had not contested.
Then, sitting at the table, Azerbaijan’s president began to reprimand Sargsyan’s choice of candidate to receive the award. Aliyev said Kocharyan’s public criticism of Azerbaijan’s leadership is not conducive to the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Serzh Sargsyan retorted with similar charges against the head of Aliyev’s administration and Azerbaijan’s diplomats, asserting that they hinder the settlement process with their statements. The argument reached a point where the two state leaders stood up and started to push each other, assuming combat positions and preparing for a fight, reports the paper. Only the intervention of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, with his “Gentlemen, what are you doing?” cooled them off and they assumed their seats.
The newspaper reports that it was unable to get a comment from Serzh Sargsyan’s press secretary Armen Arzumanyan on the incident. It was also unable to receive details from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office.
“Our Moscow sources confirm that such an incident really took place,” Haykakan Jamanak sums up.