“The UN is not for Confessions” says Opposition MP about Serzh Sargsyan’s Speech

Heritage Party MP and former-Armenian Foreign Minister, Alexander Arzumanyan, has a generally positive view of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s speech at the UN General Assembly’s 69-th session. Arzumanyan considers it important that the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide was discussed from the UN podium, because such opportunities are not always provided.

In regards to Sargsyan’s speech, the MP pointed out that for 19 years Heydar and Ilham Aliyev have raised the issue of Armenia not fulfilling the UN’s Security Council resolutions. 

“In Armenia, they were using those resolutions and creating the impression that Armenia is against them. Though, this time Serzh Sargsyan put an end to those discussions and stated that Armenia is not against the resolutions,” said Arzumanyan.

The MP considered it positive that Serzh Sargsyan's speech was before Azerbaijan, leaving the latter on the defense. Arzumanyan also gave importance to the part regarding Armenian-Turkish protocols, noting that he himself is also in favor of Armenia-Turkey relations settlement, but is against certain points in the Protocols. 

In regards to the “damn your ratification” expression, Azrumanyan does not consider it a curse, instead an idiomatic expression, which, according to him, was translated quite well into English; “go to hell.”

“I don’t see a curse there. Some may have liked it, while others may have not. I’ve heard many curse words from the UN stage. This (UN) hall has seen so many things, that this is not a shocker,” said Arzumanyan reminding the journalists of Khrushchev’s, Chavez’s, and Gaddafi’s speeches. He considered it natural, that Serzh Sargsyan did not speak about political prisoners on the UN stage.

“The UN is not for confessions, so you to go and confess your sins. The UN is where you try to improve your state’s interests,” concluded Arzumanyan.